Are brand’s music logos a respite from visual clutter?

Sonic branding agency, BrandMusiq recently developed a sonic identity for HUL’s dishwashing brand Vim. The new musical logo (MOGO) is aimed at connecting with the consumers at an emotional level and engaging them more deeply with the brand by creating a strong sonic asset.

“Brands are now realising the importance of creating a distinct sonic identity for themselves. This has further been pushed by the great amount of visual clutter and screen fatigue that the audience is exposed to these days. Therefore, audio and sound have become important for brands,” says Rajeev Raja, founder & sound smith, BrandMusiq.

Historically also, consumers have been associating different brands with specific sounds. However, Raja believes that these were only limited to the sounds that were used while advertising the brands. Whereas when a brand creates a sonic identity, it is going much deeper into the brand’s values and its essence.

As per Raja, “The approach of BrandMusiq is to look at a scientific and strategic way with which music can trigger the emotions that resonate with a particular brand persona. It is not something that will last for just the duration of a particular campaign but endure through the brand’s journey, just like its logo.”

When BrandMusiq works on a particular brand, it marks out all the possible audio points that the brand can be heard. These possible consumer touchpoints have increased manifold in comparison to five years back. A brand today is heard not just on television but also in digital space including social media, digital content, websites etc.

Brands across categories are looking at creating music logos. Raja informs that in the early days, a lot of players from the financial services category like HDFC Bank, MasterCard Global. Especially, with the increased dependence on digital payments, it is good to have audio re-assurance.

Another category of brands includes delivery apps like Zomato. The audio alerts about the rider’s location seamlessly integrate with the app, Hence, the user might not have to track him through the screen all the time.

More and more FMCG brands are also realising that they cannot ignore the digital audio medium any longer. BrandMusiq has already worked with three brands from HUL, informs Raja.

BrandMusiq has created and managed sonic identities for several other brands including Vistara Airlines, Raymond, Kraft, Nestle, Blue Band, MG Motors and Reliance Petroleum, to name a few.

BrandMusiq has recently launched BrandMusiq Labs, to study the fundamental nature of sound and its effect on human beings at an emotional, physiological and neurological level.

This initiative will attempt to conduct sonic experiments and experiences to engage in conversation with leading practitioners in marketing, sonic branding, behavioural sciences, and musicologists.

“BrandMusiq Labs is our way of giving back to the industry. There are still many questions in the marketer's mind related to sonic branding– how it can be used and how effective it is for the brand’s ROI. To decode these questions, BrandMusiq Labs is launched. The purpose is to conduct fundamental research on how music can add to the brand’s overall performance without any commercial objective,” Raja explains.