May 1, 2009
The Sound of an Image
For Your Listening Pleasure – Led Zeppelin
Fingernails on a chalkboard. The pump of a shotgun. The slashing soundtrack of Hitchcock’s Psycho. All of these things conjure up distinctive images in our mind. You can almost hear these one-of-a-kind sounds just by picturing them.
- Nothing goes better than hard rock and family dining.
But what about Led Zeppelin and family dining? How about Emineim and a daycare center? Then there’s congressional laughter amidst bailout talks. These real-life examples of sounds are juxtaposed in their settings, which makes it unsettling to process what you’re seeing with what you’re hearing. Yet, sight and sound are very much a part of branding.
Branding isn’t just about an attractive logo or convenient location. Branding is the total experience of your customer, so don’t underestimate the value of each component of that experience. When something as seemingly trivial as background music doesn’t appropriately reflect your branding, the customers’ experience is sublimely, if not openly, affected. And as consumers are more selective about where their dollars go in a difficult economy, businesses need to be attentive to the totality of branding and its correlation to repeat business.
Absolutely – this little “strategy” is behind some really big gaffes in history. The theory that it will go away or turn out already never seems to work out in real life.