Why test sound logos?

The field of Sound Logo and Sound Brand development, under its varying names, has been rapidly evolving over the last few years. Many well know case example of sound logos such as the Intel jingle or the Nokia ring tone exist that illustrate the power and potential value of the Sound as a means of conveying brand associations. Nowadays, the field is progressing into a more mature phase where sound logos are being designed to convey certain messages. Sound logo development is still vitally a very creative process, where there are no absolutes. Nonetheless, composers of sound logos typically have a design brief, which outlines the ”nature” and ”associations” of the sound to be created. Quite often there is a desire for the sound logo to support a company’s visual brand and values. For example, a brand producing sustainable, ecological hand-cream may wish to convey an image with feminine appeal, tenderness, with an ecological element that aligns with their natural light green logo. It is clear from such a design brief that many different sound logos might fulfill this requirement.

Soon the question will arise of ”how well does the sound logo fit our brand”? Very often this starts a long discussion over which proposed sound logo is more ”tender” or closely aligned to the natural light green logo. And quite often this becomes a “who prefers what” conversion. Both of these discussions are very opinionated with not correct answer and people will have valuable, but different views.

Whilst we maintain that the composition process for sound logos should be a truly creative and artistic task, there is clearly a need to measure and characterise the nature of sound logos, in order to provide some objectivity, and strategic guidance in the process.

The next logical question thus arises, as to what should be measured. In the field of psychology, perception and sound quality, many different aspects of sound can be evaluated.

Should we measure, which sound logo consumers prefer? Or could it be that we which sound logo best aligns with the visual brand of the company or the company values? Alternatively we could measure the degree of congruence of a sound logo with the company brand? Or should we look at the projected image of the sound logo?

One way or another, it is possible the objectively measure and characterize different aspects of a sound logo – now this is something we are examining within the CKO – eXsL project with the aim of identifying different means to quantify the impact of a sound logo.

Watch this space for more on what we learn.