What does your personal brand sound like?

by Marguerite Granat on November 11, 2009

I’ve been thinking all week about the power of sound and music. Visuals, words and smells are powerful. There’s no doubt about that.  My opinion is that music is the most powerful of all. There are legends that abound about the power of sound. One old legend that comes to us from ancient Greece goes like this. The son of Zeus, Amphion, was an adept musician. When the city of Thebes was being built, Amphion raised all the stones to build the walls of the Seven Gated city by effortlessly playing the lyre.

Organizations have realized the power of sound and a new type of industry has emerged that specializes in sound branding or audio identity. Sound Branding is the use of sound to reinforce brand identity. Brands used to be visual and verbal. Now they have an audio identity component. For instance we all recognize the T-Mobile ring tone or the Intel jingle and immediately think of the brand. Music has the power to change our emotions instantly. It can evoke every single emotion in existence including sadness, fear (music in scary movies), joy, feelings of invincibility, and inspiration. I believe that music will continue to play a major role in business, but what about music as a personal brand identity?

King Louis XIV was an expert brander. He started by identifying with the phrase “The Sun King”.  The art and architecture that housed him and his court had a grand appearance and brilliance, just like the Sun. The interior of the palaces were awe inspiring. I found out that he had a personal composer (Lully) and closely micromanaged all his works in order to ensure that the music had the right sound to support his personal brand. I’ve included a short sound bite of Lully’s work and I would think that this piece would fit his personal brand and was probably played each time the King showed up into a room.  He wanted to evoke awe and invincibility from his courtiers, representatives of foreign countries, and his subjects using every available tool at his disposal. He had a lot of resources to do that.

I’m wondering if the next phase of  personal branding is the sound component. Fortunately with technology most of us could easily create a sound for our personal brand. A recent post in the  Marketing You blog suggests that a blogger could have a ring-tone or sound when people visit the site, or a unique sound could be added to a slideshare presentation.

Your Insights and Thoughts

  • Will it be an expectation at some point that we each have a personal ring tone. What do you think?
  • Are you already doing this? If so, please share how you’re using your unique personal brand sound.

Photo Credits,  elbelbelb2000.

Please Share!

    Tagged as: Influence, Leadership Competencies, Personal Branding

    • http://intrepid-llc.com Todd Schnick

      I like this concept of a personal sound. In fact, I’ve already got songs selected for the soundtrack of my life… ;-)

      • Marguerite Granat

        Todd, that seems very personal and I would imagine that you would share that with friends and family or maybe not. What about a personal jingle like the T-Mobile sound? Do you think it’s going to move in that direction?

        • http://intrepid-llc.com Todd Schnick

          It would not surprise me that it would move in that direction…

    • http://www.linkedin.com/in/rachelled Rachelle Dillon

      Such a novel idea Marguerite regarding personal ringtones. My cell provider AT&T, currently offers a utility app for users to create their own. Since I’m not musical and there was a charge I declined. You are right about sound in that technology is enabling those to are willing and able. I suspect that other online services, maybe free, can be used like a personality test to generate personal tunes for those who are interested but not talented.

      • Marguerite Granat

        Yes Rachelle. I guess this is already happening. Music is such an integral part of our lives and since the technology is here, it would be fairly inexpensive to create the tune. What I find interesting as well is that throughout history, smart scientists have gravitated towards music. Einstein played the violin and today, a lot of software developers are also musicians. Isn’t that interesting?

    • Nancy Hilpert

      For those of us who spend a great deal of time working on the phone, a person’s individual voice–the qualities and unique aspects that our brains recognize and can name without seeing–becomes the source of the image we develops of them, and in a sense their brand. Meeting people in person is often a huge surprise. This happened to me once: a candidate I had spent a number of hours talking with on the phone, when he came in for the interview was shocked that my physicality seemed such a mismatch for my voice (which had become my ‘brand’ to him). I’m a person of diminished size and don’t have any particularly striking features–he had conjured me as a tall gorgeous blonde woman. What would the ring tone of a tall gorgeous blonde sound like? I don’t know but it brings up the issue of matching your brand to your actual self…what happens when the reality doesn’t ‘ring tone’ true?

      • Marguerite Granat

        That’s a good point Nancy. Sometimes a person’s portrayal of who they are does not match the physical reality. In the case of your candidate example, you were being yourself and his interpretation of your voice created an image in his mind. You were not purposefully creating a branded voice that was not aligned with your true self. He chose to focus on the physical rather than the essence of who you are. From a personal branding perspective, a person could be authentic and create a sound that truly reflects their personality. My husband Eugene who is a musician and woodworker is thinking about creating a jingle for his website using the sound of the mandolin. His music is an expression of who he is, just like the clothes we choose to wear or sometimes the pets we acquire. On a lighter note, I’m amazed at the physical similarities between pets and owners. Thanks for your comment!

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