Every average consumer who has any contact with the card world can roughly imagine what the Mastercard logo looks like. The red and yellow circles have been present, in some form, since the hippie era of the 1960s, and by 2019, they were accompanied by the brand name Mastercard. The brand management decided that the symbol was recognizable enough to stand alone, and the customer does not need to ‘read’ which brand it is, so they simply dropped it. However, that same year, the marketing chief and one of the most powerful CMOs in the world (according to Forbes), Raja Rajamannar, decided to take it a step further and introduced the sonic logo, or the concept of sonic branding.
The idea, as reported by Marketing Brew, is to build such a strong audio brand that it does not need any visuals; consumers will recognize who it is by sound or, in this case, that it is Mastercard. This year, Rajamannar presented four steps for implementing the sonic branding strategy, which includes ‘ten layers’. The strategy started with a single melody and continued with a whole album of original melodies, representing a completely new dimension of communication and connection with consumers.
Stimulating Emotions
Mastercard is one of the biggest promoters of sonic branding, but it is not the only brand that has introduced its sound logos. Tostitos and Panera, for example, are just some of the examples that have presented their variants this year, confirming Rajamannar’s thesis that sound is becoming an increasingly important element in brand building.
Mark Pappas from CMI Media Group agrees, who recently wrote for AdWeek about the power of sound in the context of branding and, of course, communication with consumers. As he stated, each of us can easily imagine a sound that currently brings a smile to our face. It could be someone’s favorite song, the laughter of a loved one, or the opening theme of a favorite series. There are also sounds that provoke immediate irritation, even anger or rage, such as the sound of a siren, a child’s cry on a crowded airplane, or the voice of a politician they feel disdain for. In short, sounds have an exceptional ability to directly hit emotions; their power is universal and even affects health.
The well-known sound therapy can help with migraines, stress, improve focus, boost energy, reduce nausea, and even improve mental health – alleviating symptoms of anxiety or helping with insomnia. Thus, for example, the entire industry of meditation apps is based on the idea that sound has a beneficial effect. The founder of the health audio app and the creator of the ‘bong’ sound of the Intel brand, as well as a member of the team that attempted to finish Beethoven’s ‘Tenth Symphony’ with the help of AI technology, Walter Werzowa, highlighted at the Cannes festival that there are studies proving that improvements in neurological functions have been recorded in Alzheimer’s patients after sound therapy, and sound even helps in therapies for newborns, reducing their accelerated heart rate.
As Pappas continues, sound should play a more important role in the advertising world, especially considering the data obtained by iHeart Media. According to them, consumers listen for as much as 31 percent of the time – whether they are streaming music, listening to the radio, podcasts, or some other form of audio entertainment. Wireless speakers are rising on the list of best-selling electronic devices, and smart speakers are found in as many as 60 percent of American households. More than 60 percent of podcast lovers listen to them daily, and radio still ranks high.
