We’ve all heard a jingle that we can’t get out of our head. While often thought of as irritating, or worse, the fact is that it didn’t get there by accident and it isn’t staying there by accident either. Associating a brand with a sound is no easy feat, and the mechanics of how it works and why it works can be elusive. In this episode, we have an extensive and in-depth interview with Dr. Ethan Decker about brand science, the power of sound in advertising, and how jingles jangle the money out of your customer’s pockets.
When Brand Strategy and Marketing Tactics Meet Science
Dr. Ethan Decker is a brand strategist, marketing scientist, consultant, trainer and speaker with decades of experience working with brands of all sizes and shapes to help them understand the brandscape they exist in and strategize meaningful campaigns and power moves, and he’s here today to talk about jingles, marketing, and brand science.
LEARN MORE ABOUT ETHAN DECKER AND APPLIED BRAND SCIENCE
Brand Science Uses Hypothesis and Marketing Data
Our interview with Dr. Ethan Decker starts with a dive into brand science and his experience in the space.
“I am a scientist by training,” explains Ethan. “And then at some point the cultural bug bit me and I fell into marketing and trying to understand the empirical side of the industry. In a vertical as full of hype as marketing is, I became obsessed with delineating the hype from the truth, the s**t from the shinola.”
As Ethan began to pursue brand science in earnest, a few overlapping themes emerged.
“Just like in science, marketing is a mixture of testable hypothesis and empirical evidence,” says Ethan. “Instead of following your bliss or gut, marketers can test their hypothesis, observe the outcomes, and start building an evidence-based approach to the job. You have to test taglines, headlines, variants in packaging, and you also have to focus on timeless principles. Gravity is a law because it’s been proven in countless experiments; you don’t have to keep retesting the theory of gravity, it’s a law. Same goes for marketing and brand science.”
We then pivot into jingles and how music works in marketing to create memorable moments and strengthen brand awareness.
Sonic Signatures and Sticky Jingles
“The connection between brands and sound is a visceral one,” states Ethan. “Sound quickly connects a brand in your brain and makes the advertising sticky. This is why a passive medium like TV is perfect for sonic branding. We may not be looking at the screen the whole time we’re watching TV, but we are listening to it 100%, which makes it a perfect medium for jingles.”
Ethan believes that sonic signatures are a critical part of getting the brand science right for a product and believes that sound is a massively effective way to link ads with a brand.
“When you think about all the elements of your company, it’s important to consider the sensory elements. When your target audience goes from seeing your ad to lapsing back into life, you have to find a way to trigger your brand at the time of purchase. The more senses you can associate with your brand through advertising, the higher the probability will be that they choose you while in the store.”
Ethan then linked his studies into brand loyalty and customer behaviors to the power of sonic branding.
“You have to remember that your customers are not ‘your customers,’” Ethan explains. “They are other brand’s customers that sometimes buy your brand, so the most important job for your advertising is to be just memorable enough to get the audience to buy you sometimes.”
The interview goes on to dive into celebrity endorsements, understanding your total addressable market, and Ethan shares a few Cinderella stories about audio advertising, and also some horror stories as well. To hear the interview in its entirety, listen to the full show on the links provided above and below.
References & Resources
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZK3c9GCjSx8
https://econsultancy.com/science-of-sound-how-music-makes-advertising-more-memorable/
https://appliedbrandscience.com/
https://www.marketingscience.info/
LISTEN TO THE FULL SHOW -> Stay tuned, stay curious and subscribe to Sounds Like Marketing on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or add it as a Favorite on your podcast player of choice.
LISTEN TO SOUNDS LIKE MARKETING ON YOUR FAVORITE AUDIO CONTENT PLATFORMS:
