How does your brand sound?

What is an Audio Audit?

If you want to know how your brand or product is experienced within the realm of sound, look no further! The audio audit serves as an evaluation of your current audio landscape and delves into various aspects, including coherence, recall, brand fit, and appeal, while also identifying areas for improvement and potential opportunities for innovation.

During the audits, the Sonic Minds team takes a meticulous approach, thoroughly analyzing the audio identity across your communication platforms and products. They assess how well different elements of the identity, such as audio logos, UI sounds, sound effects, and background music, aligns with the overall brand image and messaging.

Lastly, the audits present the opportunity to explore potential areas of growth and innovation. By examining emerging opportunities in the audio branding domain, such as new platforms and emerging markets, as well as looking into current platforms that aren’t being used optimally, the Sonic Minds team can strategically give advice to stay ahead of the competition.

There are five key parts of a Audio Brand Audit exercise:

Coherence

– When we analyse your audio coherence, we look into your various touchpoints. This typically includes social media, app sounds, IVR, etc. We then analyse the audio content of these channels, and measure how well they are aligned with each other in terms of instrumentation, music genre, tone of voice, sound design and much more.

Brand Fit

– When we analyse your audio brand fit, we compare your audio output with your brand personality. We make a snapshot analysis of your brand personality, including your archetype, vision, mission and brand promise. We then compare our findings to your brand soundscape, using a mixture of AI tools and our expert knowledge.

Appeal

– When we analyse the appeal of your audio identity, we look into your target audience and their general preferences. The reason why we focus on your target audience, is because appeal is very subjective, and it depends on the individual. We start by establishing the auditory preferences of the target audience, including genres and musical time periods. This is typically the music that they discovered in their teens and early twenties.

Recall

– When we analyse recall of your audio identity, we make a projection based on music psychology, current trends and our expertise. We start by analysing your brand soundscape, asking ourselves questions such as: How frequently is it used? Is the brand name mentioned? And is it sung or spoken? Is there a certain melody or sound associated with the brand? How unique is it?

Functionality

– This category is specifically for product and UI sounds. We analyse the different sounds that are available in terms of which function they are supposed to represent and how well they achieve this goal.

Why do you need it?

Sound holds immense value as an intangible brand asset, both in relation to marketing and products. Consider the recognition that instantly comes to mind when consumers hear certain sounds associated with brands like McDonald’s, Intel, or Netflix. Sound alone can create a strong brand identity and enhance brand communication, making it clear that successful brands understand the significance of an audio logo, strategic UI sound design, and music in building overall brand equity.

In the realm of modern branding, the use of sound is indispensable. It’s not a matter of whether to incorporate sound and music, but rather how to leverage them effectively to reinforce the brand. The question becomes: How can sound and music be utilized to strengthen the brand or product? Where is the best place to start in this journey? How are we experienced by our audience currently? And how can brand equity be established through our own audio landscape?

To answer these questions and guide you in the process of audio branding, the Audio Audit offers valuable assistance. Whether you’re starting from scratch or looking to further develop an existing audio branding strategy, the audit provides a roadmap to help you navigate the journey.

Apply for your audio audit and get insights into:

• How coherent is the audio you use within your brand touch-points?
• How well does the audio fit with your brand personality?
• How appealing is the music you use to your audience?
• To which degree can your audiences recall your brand in sound?
• How your products communicate with audio?