How do you market the invisible?
The hardest services to market are the ones consumers don't actively perceive. Sound, scents or any kind of user and customer experience that people only notice in a negative context are much harder to spread the word about compared to the obvious products and services one can touch and see. At the same time, utilising sounds, scents and well-executed user experiences in your brand’s marketing mix leave a lasting impression when done well. I believe that today, it’s much harder to stand out and make your brand be remembered because of visual incentives. You might agree with me that the market is oversaturated and customers are much more likely to remember how they felt while experiencing your product instead of seeing an ad in a magazine or on the street.
Nevertheless, the people in charge of marketing budgets often spend their marketing allocates on the obvious. It’s very likely that they’ll invest in classic visual advertising because they aren't aware of how alternative mediums can benefit their brand.
The team behind Raven and Finch, a Vienna-based sound branding agency, doesn't just know the advantages of branded sound identities, they are also familiar with the challenges that come with communicating what marketing managers could book the agency for. Let me give you an example to make the case more specific: one of the best examples of the power of sound is the use of music in James Bond movies. I guess now that I’ve mentioned the famous spy, you immediately have the famous melody in your mind. You’ve probably never realised that what has shaped the power of the Bond brand is the strategic use of melodies and sound sequences.
Strong brands have already learned their lesson and use sound to market their products. Then again, have you ever thought about how your brand sounds and what impression people have when dealing with your company? Given the statistics of SMBs paying attention to the sound of their brands, I guess not. On the other hand, looking at what companies, such as Coca Cola, have achieved through their audiophile approach, it might be about time to have a closer look at the sound experience of your brand. But let’s get back to the question of how to market the invisible; in this case, the services of Raven and Finch.
Together with Raven and Finch, we’ve discussed what benefits the agency delivers to their clients, which then enabled us to develop an umbrella communications strategy to market their services to marketing managers who are not yet aware of what one can achieve with sound. It became clear to us that the way to go was by addressing the sort of clients the sound branding agency wished to work with. Given how progressive the use of sound in the marketing mix is, the communication strategy to showcase the benefits of working with Raven and Finch had to start at an educational level. In our meeting, we conceptualised an online magazine that will showcase different user cases of successfully executed sound identities. To launch the Pursuit of Sonic Value, we chose a more traditional approach and decided to mail the first issue of POSW to existing clients, press and people Raven and Finch admire for their work in paper form. The future issues of POSW for you to learn more about the benefits of sound branding will be available online and you can receive them to your mailbox. Just signup here.
If you’re wondering about how to best market your business, just give me a heads up. Let’s start the conversation.
