A complete glossary of essential terms in sonic branding, because when it comes to making your brand heard, every sound matters.
What is Sonic Branding?
Sonic branding is how your brand sounds to the world. It’s both a strategy and a discipline. A strong sonic brand ensures people recognize your audio identity wherever they hear it—whether in an ad, on social media, in-store, or even on hold.
Key Terms in Sonic Branding
Audio Branding (also known as Music Branding)
The strategic use of sound and music to establish a brand identity, ensuring brand recognition through audio.
Audio Logo (Sonic Logo, Audio Signature)
The hardest-working part of your sonic DNA in sonic branding, your logo appears at the end of every piece of communication. It’s the perfect partner to the animation of your visual logo. To describe these short 2- to 3-second sounds, you might also hear the word ‘mnemonic’ used but the original of that word refers to ‘memory’ or ‘memorability’ so we feel this usage is weak. At other times, people say ‘sting’ as if its role is attention-grabbing. But a logo is more profound. It performs both the aforementioned functions, but also conveys meaning, values, and personality.
Automotive Sound Design
The creation of soundscapes and functional signals for physical objects or spaces, in this case for cars and car shows.
Background Music
Custom sounds designed for vehicles, from electric car acceleration to in-car notifications.
Brand Authenticity
The extent to which consumers perceive a brand to be faithful to itself, true to its consumers, consistent, and able to support consumers in being true to themselves, as well.
Brand Anthem
A signature melody or song that encapsulates a brand’s essence and is often used in campaigns or major brand events.
Branded Playlist
A collection of recorded songs or pieces of music chosen to be part of a brands’ physical environment. These are chosen based on a communication strategy and come with guidelines. The collection often is interspersed with “brand winks” that bring the audience back to the brand every few songs.
Closing music
A touchpoint: Music played at the end of an event, when people are leaving. The goal is to keep the memory and motivation alive.
Content Library
A bank of all the musical adaptations of the sonic brand that have been created for a specific brand. It allows employees and marketing and brand specialists to share each work and, often, repurpose it.
Endframe
The visual (animated) and sonic logo combined, usually about 2.5 seconds.
Environmental Sound Design
The design of the soundscapes for physical spaces like shopping centers, spas, airports, or expos, where music and sounds are used to create the environment you strive for. For instance, the soundscape is designed to make the audience feel comfortable, relaxed, awestruck, or amused. If you already have a Sonic Brand, you can drop little hints of that into the sound of your environment.
Event Sound Design
Branded soundscapes to add impact and meaning to physical spaces, in this case for events/ meetings/expos.
Customer Service Line Music (Call Waiting, On-Hold Music)
Branded music for pre-pickup and on-hold music that aims to give callers satisfying brand experiences and, in the best cases, discourages them from hanging up. Sometimes on-hold includes ambient sounds and scripted recordings by voices that best capture the personality of the brand.
Functional Sound Design
Sounds that indicate action or interaction between humans, machines, vehicles, appliances and robots. These are intended as non-verbal auditory cues that communicate a situation, activity, or mode. For example: open, shut down, power on/ power off, error, download, movement, battery charging. In Sixième Son’s world, those are adapted from the brand’s sonic identity.
Harmony
Harmony occurs when simultaneous notes made by different voices or instruments combine to make chords. This can lend a pleasing richness to the music.
Intro
The music that begins a video or podcast and alerts the audience to the brand. See ‘branded content’.
Impact, effect, influence
To sway an audience’s emotions, preferences, comprehension or behaviors.
Groove
A rhythmic quality that catches your attention, connects emotionally and makes you want to dance.
Musical Brand Activation
Using your branded music universe to animate your various internal and external touchpoints. Sometimes, refers more specifically to in-market promotions, concerts and events.
Musical Coherence
The idea that all of a brand’s sounds derive from the same musical root and reinforce each other. An expo booth may remind the attendee of a brand video and the app opening signal. Just as the brand colors unite a brand’s interactions, the brand music does the same.
Musical Narrative
Conveying a story to consumers through the use of sound and music. Having the emotional content of the music support and enhance the various stages in the flow in the story.
Musical Metaphor
When a word or sound that ordinarily designates one thing is used to illuminate another this creates an implicit comparison between the two. It’s symbolic, not literal. In music, you can draw upon many associations to lend meaning to a brand. Think of the brand meaning conveyed by sophisticated jazz vs. a toy piano, by a kettledrum vs. a rain stick.
Musical Vocabulary
The musical universe of a brand. Your “vocabulary” reflects your choices in the process.It includes instrumentation, melody, timbre, rhythm, tempo, voice. It allows your brand to sound like itself without repeating the same piece of music over and over.
Musical Transitions
A few seconds of brand music whose style may signal the topic of the next speaker, e.g. Technical, Human Resources, Industrial.
Moodboard
The playlist of carefully selected music designed to evoke given values. These are produced by sonic brand strategists in order to prompt discussion and choice of the musical ingredients that will eventually go into the composition.
Musical Theme
A recognizable melody, upon which part or all of a composition is based.
Outro
The music that ends a video or podcast and leaves a brand ear print.
Recall
The ability to bring a brand to mind by simply hearing the sonic logo or an adaptation of the sonic branding.
Retail Music
Curated music played in brand-owned retail spaces to enhance the shopping experience.
Ringtone
A touchpoint: The sound made by a mobile device when an incoming call, text message or email is received.
Sonic Adaptation
The pieces of music that are derived from your brand sound and that specifically fit the unique psychological and needs of each touchpoint.
Sonic Branding
The big one! It is how you sound to the world. It’s both a system and a discipline. You want people to recognize your sonic brand, no matter where they hear it, whether their eyes are open or closed, whether they’re listening to a radio spot, visiting one of your locations, waiting on hold with your customer service center, or watching a how-to-video.
Sonic DNA
A short (under one minute) original composition that captures the values, personality and aspirations of the brand as well as defines the musical vocabulary of instrumentation, tempo, melody, harmonies and rhythms that the brand will use across your multiple sonic touchpoints. It’s your musical bible for sonic branding.
Sonic Logo, Sonic Signature
The hardest-working part of your sonic DNA in sonic branding, your sonic logo appears at the end of every piece of communication. It’s the perfect partner to the animation of your visual logo. To describe these short 2- to 3-second sounds, you might also hear the word ‘mnemonic’ used but the original of that word refers to ‘memory’ or ‘memorability’ so we feel this usage is weak. At other times, people say ‘sting’ as if its role is attention-grabbing. But a sonic logo is more profound. It performs both the aforementioned functions, but also conveys meaning, values, and personality.
Sonic Touchpoints, Brand Experiences
Points of employee and customer contact that create big and small auditory brand experiences. A sonic identity unifies them so that when you hear it, you attribute the positive experiences to the sonic branding.
Sonic Identity
The bad news is that you have one of these, whether you manage it or not. It’s the sum total of the sonic impressions your brand makes. And it leaves its’ effect on your visual brand as well. When you have a good one and manage it responsibly, it’s a powerful brand asset.
Sonic Guideliness
This handy compilation of guidelines catalogues all the sonic elements in sonic branding available that are based on your sonic DNA and gives you the rules of the road. Some are interactive, so employees, partners, and agencies can hear samples of each piece.
Sonic Brand Management
Establishing and maintaining sonic guidelines. Managing and nurturing one’s sonic branding.
Sound Design
When Sixième Son uses this term, we often mean the manipulation of sounds or the addition of sound effects, but it’s an evolving phrase. Another usage refers to creating the sounds that are used for devices or vehicles. And a third for adjusting the sound that an instrument makes. For instance, near a display of electric cars, you might manipulate sonic to make the music feel more electronic and near gasoline-powered vehicles let it sound more acoustic. Or, in a video, sound design can add the sounds of people eating in a restaurant or walking in a rainforest. It also can refer to creating an appropriate sound for the medium, that sound will be different for a mobile phone than for a giant theater.
Sound Icon, Signal
Similar to the sonic logo in length, “sound icon” refers to all the short sounds associated with a brand. For example, the sound of a Mac or PC turning on.
Sound Mixing
The process by which multiple sounds are combined to create an effective balance. e.g. music and voiceover.
Sung Slogans
A short and memorable phrase sung for marketing and advertising purposes.
Tune
A succession of musical notes forming a recognizable musical pattern, no matter what instrument or key its played in.
TV Spot Sonic/ Music
Music for TV and radio. Ideally, branded music scored to complement the narrative of the commercial.
Walk in music
Music played as attendees enter a conference or meeting.
Wink
Also called Brand Winks and Clins d’Oeil, are short reminders of the brand woven, now and then, among the music being played in brand environments. They often include the sonic logo and a further sound, words or song segments that bring out the personality of the brand. The intention is to lightly and, often, playfully bring attention back to the brand.
For over 25 years, Sixième Son has been a pioneer in sonic branding, helping brands around the world define their unique sound identities. Want to make your brand heard? Let’s talk.
