Setting the tone: making the right auditory impression involves selecting a spoken voice and music that is closely aligned to the bank's brand promise and positioning statement.

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I've never heard your cell phone ring tone, but I'll bet it says quite a bit about you as a person.

Whether you know it or not, you're making a statement every time your phone rings. Having AC/DC's "Back in Black" actually is an extension of your personality and sends a completely different message than having T-Mobile's standard "T-Jingle," Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive" or a cat meow.

Your bank's brand is the same. Whether you know it or not, you're making a statement every time your brand makes a sound.

The sounds you associate with your bank's brand, like your personal brand, allow you to uniquely and deliberately show--not just tell--everyone what your bank brand stands for in a way that your competitors could never dream of, even if they tried. And to do so in a way that is much more engaging and memorable than a simple one-column, black-and-white ad in the local newspaper.

Just as you program your cell phone, you can program your bank to communicate with all of its audiences on an audible level--a level that can't easily be turned off:

With sound, you can create a brand calling card. And the best part? Like many multisensory branding tactics, it doesn't have to cost much.

In fact, it may mean paying closer attention to the specific tunes in your branch playlist. Or making your cash drawer emit a "cha-ching" with every transaction, proving your brand is the old-fashioned, downhome bank it claims to be.

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The sound of music

There's no doubt music is a powerful tool--when done well--to build brand recognition and loyalty through memorable customer experiences, and with relevance to your brand. As pointed out in the last statement, "over-the-counter music" may or may not be the best option for your bank's sound branding program. However, if you do try this approach, you have to take care in considering what the music is actually saying about your brand.

After all, if two banks have access to the same music playlist and both claim to be the local community bank, what's to prevent them from sounding alike? Not much, until you recognize that sound branding goes beyond music programming.

Take grocery stores for example. The next time you're shopping at Safeway, try to recall what kind of music it plays. Now compare that to Albertson's, Kroger or another grocer in your town. Are they different or the same? Chances are, they're roughly 99 percent the same. You'll find that both grocers use sound, but not in a defining way that is memorable or engaging. Some grocery stores actually use thunder and tropical sounds in their produce sections. That's cute, but is it unique to the grocery store's brand?

So there's more to branding with sound than selecting music that you like. It's important to underscore that you never select music you like; select music your brand likes.

Just ask the audio image architects at Muzak, who began their business to provide music programming to businesses and work with numerous financial institutions to tailor their sound to the bank's brand.

"What the bank's brand sounds like has increasingly become important to banks," says Muzak's Bob Finigan, vice president of product and marketing. "Banks see music as the best way to experientially connect with customers."

Muzak further bridges music and a bank's brand with its "Dayparting" feature that automatically changes programs throughout the day to best match the lifestyle and mood of the bank's customers. Knowing your customer and knowing your brand go hand in hand.

The sound of local music

In 2005, Roseburg, Ore.-based Umpqua Bank launched its innovative Discover Local Music program to show the world what its community bank brand sounds like.

Umpqua's Discover Local Music program allows new customers to come into the store and sample exclusive music produced by Pacific Northwest artists. New customers can create their very own, personalized CD--free with every new account opening. Existing customers can create similar CDs for $8.

As stated in the press release during the Discover Local Music launch, Umpqua CEO Ray Davis said, "We are always looking for new ways to provide a unique, meaningful experience to our customers and reach out to the local community. The Discover Local Music program is a way for Umpqua Bank to showcase and support local artists while interacting with customers and the community on an entirely new level."

Not only does the industry-first program support local artists, but it solidifies Umpqua's position as a community bank committed to being local.

Sounds vs. music

Selecting a type or genre of music to align with is just one way to prove what your brand sounds like. Sounds, unrelated to music, can also engage customers and provide valuable information.

In the homestead days, triangle bells told us it was time to eat. As kids, the school bell also told us recess was over, and we'd better get to class. Church bells encourage us to attend Sunday service. Police sirens tell us someone is in need of help. Yes, it's a bit Pavlovian, but sound strikes at our psyche. What do your bank's sounds tell people?

With sound, you can broadcast loudly and clearly whatever it is you want to communicate about your brand.

For example, chirping birds and forest sounds could communicate the values of an eco-conscious bank. The coastal community bank could leverage the most familiar, comforting sound to its residents--the ocean--in order to prove its brand story.

Pronouncing your brand

As we know, banks have a language all their own--in no other industry will you come across acronyms like HELOC, HELOAN, FDIC, and NSF. All the more reason why when your brand promotes these items, you should consider how it would "pronounce" them in a way that your competitors wouldn't.

It's not just what you say but how you say it.

Think about the last call you received from your best friend. How did you know it was him or her? Wasn't it not only the voice, but the way he or she spoke to you?

How about dialect? At Muzak, they go as far as to tailor the voice on the bank's call center to match the dialect in the bank's market. A bank's call center voice in Georgia better have a Southern drawl and not sound like some Bears fan from Chicago. "This is the bank's voice and brand," adds Finigan.

How your brand pronounces the sounds it makes, when it speaks, is key.

Finding your sound

In this article, you've learned three ways to prove your brand story through the sense of sound: music, sound (non-music) and speech. Now, here are a few important tips to consider as you discover your unique sound.

The most important factor is brand authenticity. As with all other elements of the brand, one cannot apply a flashy-but-irrelevant new tactic or a fad and expect it to complement the brand. Relevance to the brand is critical, and sound is no exception.

The sound strategies employed must be relevant to the other brand tactics used. In Umpqua's case, had the Discover Local Music program been introduced without an already-solid foundation the bank had built to become a locally committed community bank, it would've become the equivalent of a one-hit wonder.

With all aspects of your bank's brand, the sound of the bank can play an incredibly effective role in proving the bank's story. This "sound" decision should not simply be made on the basis that it "just sounds right," but rather the decision should be based on if the sound is closely aligned to the bank's brand promise and positioning statement.

Sound is just one of the multisensory marketing tools your bank should use to prove its story and let customers know exactly what the bank stands for. And don't limit it to just sound. That's just one sense. There are multiple ways to express your bank's unique brand, but the key is to be consistent. When you identify sounds that directly reflect your bank's brand, refrain from mistakenly adding other multisensory experiences that don't prove your story. Does the sound of your bank match the look of the branch's carpet? If you can say yes, you're accurately and consistently proving your bank's story.

Editor's Note:

This is the third article in a series about using multisensory marketing and branding in the banking industry. The previous articles covered sight and aroma.

Jeff Stephens is CEO and brand director of Creative Brand Communications, a Portland, Ore.-based multisensory and experiential brand development agency. The agency features two former members of the Umpqua Bank marketing team, including Jeff himself.