Although there are more than 7000 different languages spoken in the world by over 6 billion people, one has always been defined as the universal language par excellence: music.
It has always been part of our life. Very few people do not play an instrument or compose music. Music moves us and helps us express what happens within us.
According to Charles Darwin, father of evolutionary theory, humans learned to sing and invented music to court each other, as some birds do. But we also need sounds and songs to dance and make friends, get excited and be together. They connect us to our identity: like national anthems or those of our favourite teams.
From a neuroscientific point of view, music, like language, is processed by both cerebral hemispheres, but it is even more deeply rooted in emotion: for example, it is able to influence our mood and our physiology more quickly and effectively than words and sight. Neuroscientists tell us that listening to a song also activates the areas in our brain that control movement.
So, scientific studies show that a skilfully arranged sequence of notes that 'touches our heart and soul', as we often say, actually affects our nervous system and brain. Listening to music perceived as pleasant is accompanied by the release of dopamine, one of the neurotransmitters that most influences mood and emotion, and which also produces changes in skin conductance, heart rate, breathing and temperature: all variables that can be measured in correlation with the level of music appreciation.
Even the greatest marketing and communication experts have noticed the enormous power of music, and they have understood that, in a world like ours where we are exposed to thousands of stimuli every day, a sound can be a very efficient way to directly and selectively create an emotional link with the brand.
A brand can actually be heard, even when it is not seen. We all remember the Barilla soundtrack or the sound logo of McDonald's, Windows, Coca Cola, Samsung, Nokia, Audi, Volkswagen. Listening to these sounds evokes brand identity and a consistent brand reputation, even when we are in front of a TV with ads playing while we are busy doing something else.
Sound branding, or audio branding, is therefore a way to build the sound identity of a brand, and to engage deeply with the emotions and memories of its audience.
Brands are thus increasingly involved in the world of music and sound and do not want to be left behind. But one must be careful: it is not true that having any kind of sound stimulus is better than having none. That is why it is important that these new sounds are produced by specialised professionals and that their proposals are properly tested before being adopted.
Neuromarketing is an ideal testing and selection tool for these proposals, as it is able to measure the neurophysiological changes induced by listening and the level of appreciation and emotional involvement of music for a specific brand in a way that mirrors how the audiobrand communicates emotion and connects to brand identity.
This is what BrainSigns has observed in neuromarketing studies conducted for the audiobranding initiatives of major companies that have decided to rely on a scientific study to measure the impact of their musical communication. We are referring to TIM and Banca Ifis.
