I missed my UPS delivery yesterday. It got me thinking 'if only UPS had a chime to rival that ear-raping ice-cream van that stalks my postcode like the child catcher from Chitty Bang Bang'. And so there you have it. A perfectly good premise for a blog. And in hindsight, that title is a little misleading.

So why don't UPS vans chime? And who said it was OK for ice-cream vendors to make such a fuss about their arrival? Well, the Government did. They made Mr. Whippy an exception to the rule on noise pollution quite a while ago:

'It is an offence under section 62 of the Control of Pollution Act 1974 (CoPA) to use a loudspeaker in the street. There is a specific exception for the operation of loudspeakers fixed to vehicles used to convey and sell perishable commodities for human consumption to the public, such as ice-cream, provided that they do not give reasonable cause for annoyance to persons in the vicinity.' 

So technically, if your company delivers a perishable commodity for human consumption, you would be in your rights to announce your arrival with a brand jingle of sorts, albeit not before noon or after 7pm.

Now, there are some additional stipulations to ensure that your jingle doesn't cause annoyance. Your jingle must NOT:

• be played too frequently (less than intervals of 2 mins)

• be played for too long (no more than 12 seconds)

• be too loud (80dB)

• appear to be distorted (well that one's clearly ignored)

• be played near people that may be sensitive to noise (eg. fishermen)

• be played in a stationary position (only as you approach small children and fishermen)

• be played within sight of another van (avoid creating a turf war)

From a branding perspective, this is looking very exciting indeed. If you're a street food vendor, why shouldn't you have a branded jingle? Obviously, the popular ones are already taken: 'Do Your Ears Hang Low?', 'Pop Goes The Weasel', 'The Entertainer', 'Music Box Dancer', 'Home on the Range', 'Für Elise' and 'Camptown Races' to name but a few.

Laugh as you may, however, audio is becoming recognized more and more as a serious brand asset. And why shouldn't it? Currently, your brand only demands 1 of your 5 senses and surely sound, hearing is one of the most powerful? We're all exposed to sound every day whether we like it or not. Hearing requires no effort on our part as our ears are naturally in an open state. And think about how powerful audio and music is. It can affect our mood, our energy levels, and our focus, it can get us on our feet, or send us off to sleep. Yes, from that first sound of our mothers' heartbeat, we've been naturally tuned into the sensitivity of sound.

And if we're talking brands and looking to build positive connections with customers, then consider how much psychology there is around sound. Sound can trigger memories and emotions far more effectively than any carefully scripted advertising headline. So it's surprising why in this golden age of the interweb, why most companies haven't lept on the idea of audio branding, using sound to be a key brand differentiator and to create a closer, positive consumer connection.

Of course 'jingles' have been around since the dawn of commercial radio. Used mostly to sell products such as burgers and frozen peas, the jingle was designed to get weave its way into the very fabric of our subconscious.

So by brand audio, are we talking about a little logo jingle similar to Intel's short but unmistakable 4 note chime? Well sort of, kind of. But think broader. Think 'brand soundscape'. If we're thinking of audio in a branding sense, then the audio should be aligned with the brand's personality. And so then how would you prescribe and govern the use of audio within that brand soundscape?

Enter 'music theory'.

Theoretically, if a brand agency were expected to create and keep the use of audio 'on brand', then there should be a set of rules and conditions to ensure the brand soundscape stays in key. Would a brand's soundscape exist exclusively in a musical key? Dm, C, F#? And what about the personality of a brands audio? In the context of colour, a brand's tones could be bright, pastel, earthy, neon. Could we propose to a company that their brand is more organic, string, woodwind but not brass? Or possibly digital, early 1980's analog synth and more notably Moog? Maybe it's entirely vocal, human, animal, bird songs and tweets.

Sound, colour, isn't this all just frequencies and waveforms, conveniently measured out in a way that we can perceive one colour from another, one pitch from another? And so would we navigate our brands soundscape using the circle of fifths in the same way we use the colour wheel to find our brand colours? And do I ask far too many questions? Is anyone honestly still with me?

Functionality in sound

In the realm of UI design, audio already plays a key part in UX helping to provide users with important feedback and assurance such as 'Thank you for your order, your pizza is on the way. Perhaps do some stomach crunches while you wait'. 

The use of audio in UX design helps to augment what is primarily a visual experience. UX designers have to constantly find solutions to communicate and deliver content and connect to the user. The use of audio within UI can help express emotion, provide feedback with specific sounds, and help to convey hierarchal changes. Essentially there are 3 types of audio that a UX designer has at their disposal:

• Sound (chimes, blips, beeps for those miro gestures)

• Voice (for complex information, dialogue) 

• Music (To express a mood or a moment of emotion)

All three of the aforementioned should sit within the brand's soundscape.

Using basic music theory to build principles in hierarchy, emotion, and feedback is an entirely credible approach in the creation and rationalization of a brand's soundscape. The characteristics and tonal personalities of this soundscape could be used to create hierarchy, similar to how your typical wordprocessing stylesheet (H1, H2, H3, body, bold, italics, etc) 

• H1 – Primary brand sounds (eg main theme, jingle or variation of)

• H2 – Primary UX Sounds (Functional button clicks and gestures)

• Body – Secondary UX Sounds (more passive sounds eg opening, closing of sections, accordion menus)

• Bold / italics – Notifications / alerts (for feedback and assurance)

The possibilities and applications of brand audio are endless, and in the context of accessibility – priceless. Adding descriptive labels to buttons allows for actions and gestures to be spoken out aloud using screen readers in a voice style of the brands choice. The use of brand audio can be an effective asset to help scale all manner of accessibility obstacles, that would otherwise prevent your brand from connecting with your customers.

Watch this space

Perhaps in future brand guidelines where we talk about 'Our tone of voice' we'll be prescribing preferred accents, and regional dialect, character stylings, or perhaps celebrity voice overs? There should almost definitely be some guidance for the choice of 'on hold' music. I've experienced everything from 'I'm a Barbie Girl' through to 'Pavane pour une infante défunte' while waiting patiently in line. 

The concept of sound becoming an integral part of the everyday brand is a little abstract and possibly 'unheard' of, however, the use of sound within branding can be an efficient and direct way to connect with your customer on a more emotional level. Perhaps brand soundscapes are a little long way off appearing in brand guidelines, but sometime soon I expect most businesses big and small will be tuning into the idea.

In the meantime, I'm going to dust off my Casiotone, replace those AA's and get to work on my scales and arpeggios. Now how did that A-ha riff go again…