Using sonic branding in the retail environment An easy and effective way to create consumer brand loyalty while

e enhancing the in-store experience

Paul Fulberg
is a founding partner of Sonicbrand Ltd. He has recently completed editing The Introduction to Sonic Branding, by Daniel M. Jackson (ISBN 1403905193), Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, Hampshire.

Keywords:
Music, sonic branding, brand experience, retail

Abstract Retail is no longer simply a point of purchase, it has now become part of a brands communications strategy. As brands begin to explore the benets of the retail environment they are mostly failing to utilise fully its ability to communicate with all the senses. Sonic branding has yet to make a signicant impact on the retail environment and yet it is a powerful tool in the development of brand loyalty. As brands search for new ways of communicating with consumers both locally and globally, sonic branding will become a key tool in the creation of fully immersive brand experiences.
When the author was a young boy there was a rule when out shopping You can look but you cant touch. His parents, like most, wanted him to respect the property of the retailers and of course not break it. How things have changed. Today parents would struggle to enforce such a rule. Some observers of society would suggest that this is due to the lack of discipline in todays children, but this is not really the case. The real reason is that retail has changed. The retail of the new millennium is no longer about items put on shelves in order to be admired until they are bought. Retail today is all about touching. In fact it is all about touching, seeing, hearing and smelling. Retail is no longer just about providing a point of sale, it is now part of a brands communications strategy. THE RISE OF RETAIL It was not long ago in the world of brands that the idea was to sell the product to the consumer through advertising and then provide a place of purchase. For a long time this worked. The combination of a tight control of information and a limited number of available media meant that consumers only knew what they were told. Therefore belief in advertising messages was high. Then things started to change. Increasingly more sources of information became available to everyone. Television and radio expanded impressively while new forms of media started to lter through to the masses. The internet and mobile telephony have revolutionised the way in which people communicate and gather information. All this progress allowed, but also forced, brands to express themselves more clearly than ever before. While traditional forms of advertising were weakened during the 1990s, the new and more experiential forms of marketing and brand communications

Paul Fulberg Sonicbrand, 56 Crogsland Road, London, NW1 8AU, UK Tel: 020 7284 3991 e-mail: paul@sonicbrand.com

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have gone from strength to strength. Retail is one of these new forms. Many of the worlds largest brands and their agencies have changed their opinion of retail in recent years. It is no longer simply viewed as a point of purchase, instead the likes of WPP now consider it to be a medium in its own right, with an almost unique ability to collect information as well as deliver it. Retail now has a key role in the creation of brand experience. WHAT IS BRAND EXPERIENCE? To dene this term is extremely difcult as its meaning is determined by the individual characteristics of the product and the media it chooses to communicate through. In the retail environment the author denes brand experience as a concept built around the idea of partnerships. It is the idea that by giving the consumer the opportunity to interact with a product or brand they will be able to form their own ideas and emotions about it, albeit informed ones. It provides an opportunity for a brand to communicate with a consumer on a one-to-one basis and try to connect in such a way that loyalty to one another is built. It is the idea of creating partnerships between consumers and brands through shared experiences. The strengths of traditional media, such as television and press advertising, to communicate the values of a brand are undeniable but they do not have this same ability to share experiences with consumers. This in part is due to the size of their audiences. They are forced to nd common denominators in their audience and try to appeal to them as best they can. They do not yet have the ability to absorb the wants and needs of an individual before providing them with exactly the information they desire in the way in which they would like to be told. Retail offers completely different types of communication and experience; it allows the brand to engage the audience in a dialogue. In the retail

environment it is possible to surround the consumer in a space that communicates the very essence of a brand while at the same time listening and responding to individual wants and needs. As an arena of two-way communication it is a perfect place in which to build partnerships. THE ROLE OF THE SENSES One of the key strengths for the retail environment as a medium for brand communication is its access to every sense. Customers are able to see, hear, taste, smell and touch products and brands at their leisure. The ability to sense products and brands has become a crucial part of developing strong customer loyalty. Over recent years consumers have grown cautious about the messages they are told by companies through traditional media and now they want to know as much information as they can before they will commit to making a purchase. Part of this information is the physicality of a product. The best way to achieve this is to put customer and product together in the same room and allow the human senses to make their own interpretations. An illustrative example, is the mobile telephone retailer. Today there is a constant bombardment of information about the latest features available on mobile handsets suggesting that the actual physicality of the product is not what counts; however, mobile telephone retailers continue to put the products out on display and available for touching. The author was not quite sure why this was necessary in an age of GPRS, Bluetooth, 3G and so on, until he had to purchase a new telephone himself. Having decided what features were wanted before entering the store the importance of the handsets physical attributes were quickly discovered. All demands for technology became secondary to the desire to have something that looked and felt right. Mobile telephone retailers understand

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this human desire to touch and hold products and that is why retail stores remain so important for their business. This simple approach to retail is effective at creating a bond with the product and therefore a demand for it, but this does not necessarily encourage loyalty to a brand. In order to do this it is necessary to create an environment that is an extension of the brand and its products. It is necessary to create brand theatres. BRAND THEATRES In the development of the retail space there has been the rise of the brand theatre. This is the creation of a space within which the brand is able to entertain the consumer through the dramatisation of its values. A key thing to note at this stage is that if this dramatisation is based on false messages about what the brand stands for and the quality of the products it puts its name to, the consumer will eventually pick up on this. When they do identify the false nature of their partnership with the brand, their loyalty will be severely damaged. So what role is there for sound in this theatre? Try to imagine going to a theatre to watch a play and the actors do not say anything. Or imagine going to see a lm where every happy scene is accompanied by a sad song. It just would not work and that is why in the world of theatre and cinema sound is treated with a great deal of respect. Most brands have not taken on board this learning. Up until now the focus of brand communications has always been on the visual sense. Decades of work on visual identities and how they can be transferred to the retail environment has led to the other senses being ignored or down-weighted in the communications mix. It is now time to awake those dormant senses and utilise their unique properties in the search for brand loyalty. As with the development of the cinema, sound offers the next level of

communication for a brand. Brands like lms need to learn about sound, understand what it can do for them and how they should use it and then turn their visually focused environment into a multi-sensory experience. CONSUMER DANCING The role sound has to play in the retail environment is a much studied area and yet few brands have taken on board the ndings. Academics, such as Dr Adrian North of Leicester Universitys Department of Psychology, have long been exploring the effects of sound, particularly music, in the retail environment. Their ndings have highlighted the effects music can have on customers both consciously and subconsciously but their focus has been on the immediate effects that it has on consumer behaviour. One study in the USA demonstrated how the pace of the music played in a national chain of supermarkets had a quite considerable impact on the amount of money spent by customers. Slow music encouraged customers to stay longer in the store and therefore spend more money. The increase in spending was considerable compared with periods when fast music was played, on average the gain was 39.2 per cent (Milliman, 1982). Another study, this time in the UK, showed how customers could be encouraged to buy certain products simply through the use of the right music. Dr Adrian C. North of Leicester Universitys Department of Psychology and his colleagues, David J. Hargreaves and Jennifer McKendrick, published the ndings of their now famous wine-aisle experiment in 1999 (North et al., 1999). Over a period of two weeks the music played in the wine section of a supermarket was alternated on a daily basis between French and German styles. The study discovered that when French music was played the French wine would outsell its German counterpart and vice versa. Possibly one

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of the key ndings of the study was that the customers did not seem to be consciously aware of the music being played. Both these studies and the many others that have been completed demonstrate the immediate impact music can have in the retail environment. They show how it is possible to create a short-term brand experience very easily. What has never been fully investigated, however, is the potential for music to become a trigger for an emotion-based reaction, the kind of response that will hopefully lead to increased brand loyalty. The use of music to create brand loyalty in the retail environment has been limited until now, mainly due to a lack of understanding, on the part of brand owners, of how it can affect a person. This shortfall, combined with almost no consumer research on the long-term emotional effects of music on consumers, has led to there being little development of retail sonic branding. This is surprising considering that sound, particularly music, is an extremely powerful communicator on both the conscious and subconscious levels. A LITTLE BIT OF UNDERSTANDING GOES A LONG WAY Before it is possible to appreciate fully what the strategic use of audio branding could achieve in the retail environment it is well worth reviewing a couple of pieces of research into how people are able to interpret music and what impact this can have upon them. The ability of music to create a wide range of emotional responses is unquestionable. Again many studies have been completed and published on this very subject. In 1994 Professors Robazza, Macaluso and DUrso from the University of Padua researched whether age, sex or musical training had an effect on a persons interpretation of the emotion of a piece of music (Robazza et al., 1994). The professors discovered

that none of the variables had a signicant impact on the emotive power of music. They were able to demonstrate that listeners were able to understand the emotional meaning of music without the need for training, whether they were male or female, young or old. The innate understanding of music was also explored by Bouhuys, Bloem and Groothius of the University of Groeningen in Holland. Their study involved the selection of two pieces of classical music, one that was considered to be happy and the other sad. Subjects were shown pictures of happy, sad and neutral faces while the music was played to them. When the sad music was played, neutral faces were interpreted by the subjects to be sad (Bouhuys et al., 1995). Finally, and very importantly for the world of retail, there is the idea of context-dependent memory. This has been studied by a number of people in a wide variety of situations and often music has been used as a stimulant for recall. A study by Steven M. Smith of Texas A&M University looked at the effects of background instrumental music on memory recall. He discovered that when the same music was played during the learning and examination processes recall was at its highest. When different pieces of music were played, recall was at its lowest (Weinberger, 1995). Although this is just a fraction of the information available it is already possible to see how easy it would be to communicate with customers on an emotional level and embed those communications in the memory when music provides the context. This does not mean that as long as the same music is played constantly in all the retail outlets of a brand, sales and brand loyalty will increase, but it does demonstrate the power music has on the mind. In order for music to become an effective communications tool in the retail environment it is vital that it is

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used carefully if it is to create more than immediate emotional reactions. It is therefore crucial to take into account all the factors of the brand that must go into a communications mix in order for it to be effective. TRIGGER-HAPPY BRANDING One of the key aims for a brands communications mix is to establish a set of brand triggers in the minds of the consumers. Brand triggers are the consistent and effective elements of brand communications that stimulate memories of any associated brand experiences. Companies have long understood the power of positive brand triggers and have long searched for the most effective means of creating them. Entertainment companies such as Disney fully understand the role that music can play in triggering a positive response but few of the traditional retail brands have taken up this lesson; one example of a company that has is Nike. Nike has invested heavily in a global chain of showcase retail stores which will struggle to make the prots one would expect from them. For money through the tills is not the main issue for the Niketown chain as the company believes it will be able to earn through the stores ability to create brand loyalty. The Niketown stores are places in which to see and try the latest products while, at the same time, being places to be seen. They have been able to do this by creating complete sensory experiences that are not just about the Nike Swoosh being visible on every available space. Instead the design of the interiors, the uniforms and training of the staff, the exhibitions about Nikes involvement in sport and the sounds for the space, whether music or ambient, all work together to create a truly immersive and appealing experience that eventually leads to customer loyalty. There is another side to the importance of the Niketown concept. Through creating experiences that lodge

in the minds of the consumers, Nike is able to recreate the emotions felt by the consumers through the creation of brand triggers. These triggers can be found in every inch of a Niketown store and some if not all of them will be memorised by customers. Once established Nike are then able to use these brand triggers in almost any combination in order to remind the customers of their brand loyalty when in a less focused environment such as a department store. One of the key triggers Nike has used has been music. In recent years it has invested heavily in bespoke music for all elements of its brand communications and this has paid off in the form of an extremely powerful set of brand triggers. By playing this music wherever it can, Nike has been able to exploit fully the benets of a consistent approach to sonic branding, and this is evident in the various types of retail environment it has created. But this is not to say that Nike has fully understood the power of sound as a badge of identity. The Nike global approach may have been effective in building its brand but, as society progresses, it may have failed to understand the cultural role of music. THE GLOBAL SOUND In recent years there has been a backlash against the concept of global standardisation which has led corporations and their brands to appreciate the importance of national and regional identities. One of the key identiers of a community is its music. Therefore the need to respect this history could be a key tool in winning the hearts and minds of consumers. As with branding as a whole, rather than take the globalisation view, preferred by multinational corporations during the 1990s, it is now considered important to embrace cultural diversity and music can be a simple and effective way of achieving this. The variety of music available in each

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culture is huge. Through the careful creation and selection of music it should be possible not only to communicate the essence of the brand, which would be where the consistency would be maintained, but also to appreciate the local culture. The partnerships created between brand and community are often overtly achieved and communicated through PR-friendly acts. Although such acts are admirable they are short term and once they are gone it is important to demonstrate an ongoing desire to t into a culture. Although music is only one part of this search for culture integrity it can play a very important role. WHAT TUNE NEXT? The role of audio branding, particularly in the form of music, in the retail environment is currently greatly undervalued. For decades the visual identity, whether in the form of a logo or a colour scheme, has been the focus of both brand owners and their agencies. It has long been considered the key to consistency across all touchpoints and therefore the key to building trust and loyalty. Times have changed, however; the visual logo is under attack from all sides and the need to nd a new way of building a consistent approach to brand communications has become

increasingly urgent. The concept of brand experience has grown from this search but its lack of denition has meant the consistent elements within it are yet to be decided upon. Sound must play a role in the development of brand experience and it must be a key one. The ability of music not only to create consistency but also diversity means that it is well positioned to provide brand owners with a means of communication that is remarkably exible. Through the careful selection and strategic implementation of music it is possible to create the holy grail of branding invisible communications. # Paul Fulberg 2003 REFERENCES
Bouhuys, A. L., Bloem, G. M. and Groothius, T. G. G. (1995) Induction of depressed and elated mood by music inuences the perception of facial expressions in healthy subject, Journal of Affective Disorders, 33, 215226. Milliman, R. E. (1982) Using background music to affect behaviour of supermarket shoppers, Journal of Marketing, 46, 8691. North, A. C., Hargreaves, D. J. and McKendrick, J. (1999) The inuence of in-store music on wine selections, Journal of Applied Psychology, 84, 271276. Robazza, C., Macaluso, C. and DUrso, V. (1994) Emotional reactions to music by gender, age and expertise, Perception & Motor Skills, 79, 939944. Weinberger, N. M. (1995) Elevator Music: More Than it Seems, Musica, The Music and Science Information Computer Archive, University of California, CA.

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