Your secret weapon to emotionally connect with candidates
Sound is one of the most powerful tools in branding, but it’s often overlooked and underrated. Tapping into music’s ability to affect our feelings and decisions could give your brand the emotional edge over your competitors.
Have you ever felt tearful over a song? Or got goosebumps listening to your favourite track? Of course you have (unless you don’t have a soul).
That’s because sound creates emotion in the human brain unlike anything else. Scientists still aren’t exactly sure how, but listening to music illuminates the emotional part of your brain like a string of neurological fairy lights, and can trigger physiological reactions too. It’s the same part of the brain that makes decisions, which is why our emotions are so important to the choices we make.
Music affects decision-making, risk-taking and how we behave, all at a subconscious level. Music even has addictive qualities. Songs we enjoy listening to activate our brain’s pleasure and reward system, which releases the happy hormone dopamine. Something we crave again and again. Cue putting Lizzo’s ‘Good As Hell’ on repeat!
So, when music has such power to influence our emotions and decisions, why do brands often treat it as an afterthought?
Well, it’s subjective. Our musical preferences are diverse, and often unexplainable. Because of that, advertisers and agencies say they lack confidence in making a musical decision about what’s right for a brand. Despite spending a fortune on how a brand looks, their sound ends up being a bog standard bit of library music, chosen at the last minute without the careful consideration it deserves. This has to change.
Caring about how your brand sounds is a drum we’ve been banging on for a long time. Brands that use music strategically outperform ads that use music tactically, or not at all, on a myriad of levels. Music helps your audience understand your personality. How they should feel about your brand. It can make you famous. Or at the very least, memorable. Think of Intel. As you read that word, we bet you heard their iconic “bong...bong bong bong bong” in your head. You know the brand and what it stands for, just from those five notes.
How your brand sounds lies in your EVP. How do your people feel about working for you? How do you want them to feel? From the notes you play to the instruments you play them on, music creates the mood and identity of your brand in a way nothing else can.
So go ahead. Blow your own trumpet!
...But just in case you need a helping hand, why not get in touch? If you want to know more about how to incorporate sound into your employer brand strategy, we should connect. You can find more on Twitter and LinkedIn.
