I’m  not sure if the interaction of sound and colour quite hits the mark - simplifying the colour and animations would help in creating more obvious connections between the sound and light - but the willingness of the crowd to participate is really inspiring.

The use of human voice is really refreshing and personalises the experience.

The means now exist to create amazing brand experiences by connecting the emotional expression of sound to the benefits and personality of your brand, in  real- time interactive environments.

Imagine this happening in front of your stores…. powerful stuff.

“People with voices of different frequencies, rhythms or cadences will be able to evoke quite different magical patterns upon the surface of the building - a staccato chirping will result in a completely different set of visual effects to a long howl for example, blending old and new to continue animating the facade of the Minster”.

More at InteractiveArchitecture.org and Haque.

via InteractiveArchitecture.org

Just like playing mum’s pots n pans as a kid…

Love what David Byrne has to say about democratisation at 02:45

Remember when music was simply FUN?

Thanks to our mates at Rumblefish for pointing us to this.

Via Boing Boing

AEG-Electrolux has installed billboards outfitted with sensors to measure noise levels. So far, they’ve deployed them in London, Berlin, Madrid, Brussels, and Milan. The billboards are part of a “noise awareness” campaign that’s actually a marketing effort for a new “silent” washing machine. The data is also viewable online. Link to AEG Noise Awareness Blog, Link to AEG Noise Awareness site, Link to more info and video at Laughing Squid

via Boing Boing

I really like this because it works on the show them, don’t tell them principle,

It’s really powerful because it uses everyday experiences, and actually empathises with the consumer, customer, PEOPLE.

It’s worth clicking on the above links too, nice follow through and on-line integration.

50 Things You Need To Know About Point of Sale provides some great stats and insights into marketing at the point of purchase/sale.

Most would be familiar with the role that muzak has played in the retail space (though often quite badly and with little thought).

Sound however can be used in a much more targeted and powerful way, as an attention grabber, memory trigger and differentiator in out of home (OOH) and point of sale (POS) marketing.

“Always opt for digital where available, especially if it incorporates sound and Bluetooth. Research conducted by the JC Williams Group concluded that shoppers are 5-10 times more likely to notice and recall dynamic media than static media….”
Jeff Estok, General manager sales and marketing, Global Mall Media

“Use all senses to trigger emotional impact. Emotion is the key! If your customer comes home and still talks about your brilliant and unique POS advertising you got it right. To achieve this, you should think about all human senses and how your POS campaign can stimulate the senses….”
Holger Pfeilmaier, marketing manager, LookPrint

When implementing sound in your OOH/POS it is worth considering the following:

1. Like the internet OOH is not television: Even if the delivery media is screen based. But like TV, if not implemented in a way that is sensitive to shoppers and passers by, they will switch off. We learnt that the hard way with the internet, didn’t we?
2. People hate being yelled at. OOH should invite people to engage with your brand. Whether through interactive technologies or the tone and feel of the audio content. Sonically hitting people over the head is more likely to damage your brand.
3. Technology is not the message. Content is.
4. You are not alone. OOH and POS often occurs in shared environments. Using the physical space and working together with other retailers/users will reduce the need to shout over each other and drive people away because all they are hearing is a big argument.
5. The purpose of the audio content should be clear, should support the visual content and broader communication strategy, and conform to your sonic branding guidelines.
6. Most importantly: Have fun, be adventurous and unique and evaluate, evaluate, evaluate.

Happy spruiking

Some responses I get when I explain what I do are:

“Can you tell the shops to do something about the music they play, it makes me want to leave”!?

and

“Please fix the on hold music that I have to listen to, it drives me insane”.

So what is the music and sonic character of your organisation doing to your customers, employees and your business?

Is it damaging or enhancing your image?

By the way that’s what I do: make you sound good, that is.

Marcel

The impact of sound on your customer’s perception and behaviour towards your brand is influenced by more than just the style of the music/sound. It is equally influenced by both the media that it is being delivered through, and the effect on and of the surrounding environment.

This was an important consideration for the Immigration Museums soundscape for the Bollywood Dreams Exhibition, and is also applicable to retail and other physical environments.

A successful brief is all about the questions you ask.

The first question I always ask a client is: What do you want to achieve?

The second question is: Who is your audience?

The answers to these questions go a long way to defining the form and function of the audio content and method of delivery.

To further determine the needs of The Immigration Museum I asked a third and as I discovered, a very important question: What are you worried about?

This produced a range of answers ranging from the soundscape must not interfere with surrounding exhibitions to it must not annoy or irritate the customer service staff who have to listen to it all day, everyday Imagine listening to the same song over and over again for 7 months.

Think about it. If the sound you are using is driving your staff crazy or making them edgy, how will they respond to your customers?
… and how does this affect your customers’ experience of your brand/business?

What’s also important is that whilst The Amber Theatre is a specialist in sonic branding and audio communication, it is our clients and their staff and customers that understand their brand and business best. Our job is to ask the right questions.

Also a quick thank you to the team at the Immigration Museum. Their professionalism, clarity and attention to detail, meant that I could concentrate on creating a great product instead of fixing preventable problems.

Listen to the soundscape here

Marcel
New position title
Director of fun

Technorati Tags: customer experience, environment, exhibition, retail experience

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Boxing day 2005, I was recovering from a lovely lunch with my family and my beautiful partner Renee and feeling like a bit of retail therapy, as if getting christmas presents wasn’t enough. So I decided for the first time in my life to go for a browse through the Melbourne CBD to peruse the Boxing day sales.As we wandered around marvelling at the lovely designs and logos on the shopping bags people were carrying, I felt an urge to look at some clothes. Being a guy and statistically not a browser I knew exactly where I wanted to go and what I wanted to buy. been to this store once before and liked what they did; street wear with clean lines that avoided the baggy look which I so detest. I also remembered that they were playing cool drum n bass tunes on my first visit so I felt right at home.

So off to the store we go- we walked around three floors to find it, eventually finding it exactly where Renee said it would be two floors ago. Cool… lots of funky 20 somethings in the shop checking out clothes- I’m only 31 but I already feel like I’m living vicariously through youth culture. This time the store was playing rap another favorite when done well and with a bit of funk and soul, now thats definately a title for another article.
So we’re looking at clothes flicking through the racks, sales assistants dutifully standing at the ready, and suddenly I notice that the music is really, really loud. So loud in fact that if I’d wanted to buy something which I did or if I wanted to discuss anything with the staff or my advisor,I wouldn’t have been able to- well not comfortably at least. And that is the point I started to feel uncomfortable. Not because of the style of music but because of the sheer volume.

A few reasons as to why the style and volume of the in store sound track might have been chosen:
to attract a certain customer;
to compete with all the other shops in the complex;
the staff had free reign over the sound system and knew that with music this loud people wouldn’t talk they’d just shop or
the staff where just indulging themselves.

This experience was very different to my first experience, arguably not in the choice of genre or sub cultural affiliations but in the volume of the music and the subsequent mood of the retail experience.
Anyway I decided not to buy anything and people certainly weren’t lining up to give over their hard earned cash for the heavily discounted items on offer.

Turn the music down and you’ll hear your customers better.

Listening is fun

Marcel

Thanks for your feedback Lolly Belle.

I’ve spoken to a few other people about this issue and this seems to be a bit of a recurring problem for customers or is that lost customers.

It’s odd that companies neglect to inform the person on the end of the line that they are still connected and that the queue is getting shorter.
Particularly as 90% of interactions with a company is via the telephone.
Pretty crucial touchpoint in my opinion.

On the other hand- silence in other situations can be very powerful.

Turn the sound off on a TV Commercial and watch the viewer come running back from making their cup of tea.

Equally some retail and public environments can benefit just as much from silence as they can from sound- the local library for example or the local aquarium- Who needs music when you’ve got bubbles and pumps.

Technorati Tags: silence, retail experience, sound, television

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So you wan’t to keep certain people away from your shop…Do it with this…

Mosquito is a teenager repellent - an ultrasonic device that emits a sound only audible to teenagers. It’s targeted to business seeking a solution to anti social youths hanging in front of their stores fronts and driving their customers away.

Hmmm  Read the rest here.