Market Your Brand With Sound Audio 

Your audio brand strategy, sonic logo (audio tagline), and other key audio components are central to your marketing efforts and establishing brand voice (literally). However, brand sound is often overlooked by businesses, explains Jodi Krangle in today’s episode of The Marketing Mirror.

Having professional voiceover actor Jodi Krangle as the kickoff guest on the first show for the grand Relaunch of The Marketing Mirror makes me feel honored. I’m so appreciative of the lovely person and rare talent that’s Jodi. 

SIDE NOTE: Jodi is the voiceover talent for The Marketing Mirror’s Opening Intro! woot woot yay yay

So, what is audio branding?

Audio branding is the use of sound to define, reinforce, and strengthen a company’s identity.

Mastering the right sound mix to reinforce your brand, or company identity if you prefer, entails more thoughtfulness according to professional voice actor, Jodi Krangle. In this part 1 interview episode, Jodi drops a ton of information about audio branding. But she also shares her journey to becoming a known voice actor for major international brands, and tells what marketing herself along the way involved.

Singing Praises to Collaborators and Friends

I think you’ll find Jodi’s story of “instant success,” like so many others, (and not so instant at all), is instead built on years of hard work. And learning, honing skills, practice, and finding industry colleagues and peers. Although she graciously shares that she entered the earth singing and has been singing ever since, Jodi attributes her initial voiceover success to establishing key relationships and collaborations with like-minded colleagues. 

Her first practical experience was voluntary, and a perfect fit, reading books for the blind near her Toronto-area home. Jodi’s ongoing marketing for voiceover and audio-scripted work is fueled by networking, relationships, and goodwill. 

I love how she emphasizes the need to organize your business from an operational standpoint. This is especially true when first starting. 

“None of it is easy or quick.” ~Jodi Krangle, professional voice actor

For creatives, this foundational business functionality represents an easy-to-overlook (but key) success component. Especially so when creating, producing, and performing are much more exciting and fun! 

The same thoroughness Jodi details in setting up your business properly and educating yourself reflects the intensity and significance, artistry, and foundational nature you need to make your audio signature a core ingredient in your business branding. It belongs, she further explains, at the level of your Style Guide, and expands into many use cases and layers. 

Establishing a Signature Sound for Your Business

Further, c o n s i s t e n c y in the case of your brand sound is also a must. That is, if you want to achieve optimal results. Establishing your company voice means sharing it at every possible audience touchpoint. You want it to be recognizable for your brand and stuck in people’s heads. 

We discuss a few Sonic Logos and how recognizable they are to most of us as an example. I love the inside scoop Jodi shares about the Intel processor’s slick marketing plan using their Sonic Logo alone to gain HUGE brand recognition industry-wide. 

In this recent article from Inc., they call sonic branding “the next frontier of branding,” mentioning that “good branding is all about memory.” 

Like the article, Jodi relays in our interview how emotions are highly connected to sound. And, therefore, more likely to reside in the mind. Just think of how you have attachments to, say, a favorite song because it reminds you so strongly of someone or a time or event in your life. Music and sounds, it seems, are burned into our souls in some cases. 

Wouldn’t you love your brand to be stored comfortably in the minds of your customers, audiences, and fans? 

Jodi does a great job demonstrating how emphatic the emotional connection sounds are for humans. She talks about a scary movie tale as an example that totally hits home. (I think I heard a ding ding ding in my head while listening to her!) 

Audio and sound branding work differently for different industries. But it extends brand reach further than ever for businesses in this current marketing landscape. 

Your Audio Brand: Layers of Sound 

The wide range of audio brand indicators you can use may extend to represent a single product, a product line, an experience offered via an event, or even the music you play while people are on telephone hold or as background in your physical business. 

And, of course, jingles. We all know those get stuck in our heads, right? 

For some brands, there’s a theme song. But whatever your use of audio in marketing, branding, and advertising for your company, be thoughtful and intentional from the start is Jodi’s top recommendation for you. 

Further, if you’re the voice of a brand, spokesman, or host, there are some techniques you can use to improve your voice for recording, says Jodi. (My question here was what to do if you have a “bad” voice (say, too high or something) and it makes you less listenable. 

Turn Your Passion Into Your Audio Brand

Jodi diplomatically points out that there are NO bad voices, just techniques like the following to make you sound better.

• Speak slower
• Take a few deep breaths
• Try to find your lower register
• There is a resonance in your face you can use
• Try taking a calmer approach overall and slowing things down.

In my experience, practice is a factor, too, so executing before you perfect your presentation and speaking performance means you get better by doing it, even when it feels scary or intimidating. I find you get more comfortable over time with doing audio content, or video, for that matter. 

For Jodi’s business, one of the audio components for marketing her brand is hosting a podcast, appropriately called Audio Branding… the Hidden Gem of Marketing… 

Not only does it allow her to reach more of her international audience, but the podcast also gives Jodi the perfect opportunity to educate clients and potential buyers on the importance of audio branding. Did I mention networking and relationship building are core marketing components for Jodi to grow her business? 

Listen to this Episode on Spotify:

Bake in Your Sound From the Start 

Most crucial, Jodi wants to offer the perspective of the high significance of the audio components for your brand. That is if you want to create an emotional connection to the people you serve. 

To make that happen, she reminds and stresses how your brand’s voice/sound/audio set should never be an afterthought. Rather, it belongs baked into everything from the start. Although top agencies know it, many business owners and small businesses do not.

I don’t think many businesses are thinking about the vocal tone at the onset, even of individual productions; as Jodi suggests is imperative, let alone for the whole brand image and overall marketing strategy. 

Are you thinking about your audio strategy about now? Is it a part of your Style Guide? 

In Jodi’s case, she discloses that often it’s her agent or an ad agency (not direct-to-client) who hires her. Therefore it’s all the more important that they understand the impact of vocal talent on the project or marketing campaign and compellingly convey that to the client. 

Jodi doesn’t want to be the icing on the cake, but instead, a main ingredient in an extraordinary production mix, she points out. 

I love Jodi’s deep understanding of and commitment to her trade. It’s more than evident in talking with her. Most of her work is in the marketing, branding, and advertising side of things, and she notes that the companies that do understand and pay attention to the significant role of audio seem to produce more successful work— “they’re the ones that land better,” she says.

Audio makes an impression, belongs in every aspect of your marketing, and plays a part in creating the experience people have with your brand. 

Thank You, Jodi Krangle

What a powerful message from talking to the lovely Jodi Krangle! I know she’s got me doing a lot of thinking about an audio brand; how about you? 

“Think about your sound. Often that’s the last thing anyone thinks about. Having a nice logo is wonderful, but how does that sound?”~ Jodi Krangle 

In thinking over what Jodi talks about in the interview, I find myself wondering about applying sound incrementally while pondering a universal audio brand. As an example, using sound intricately wound into the experience products you offer seems like a great way to, not only start embracing audio for its branding impact but, also as a chance to experiment more with sound to learn what feels like the perfect fit for you. 

Learning what fits you means it works in conjunction with your brand’s unique voice— style, tone, and personality, along with your industry, and perhaps most significantly, your audience. Because all of these factors need to align, careful iteration makes sense. 

And don’t forget the power of the emotional impact you can leverage, making an audio brand that’s memorable. Sticky. 

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