Ford’s Rings And Pings
Shoppers, enthusiasts, manufacturers – lend me your ears. Perhaps, by now, you could drop company names by just listening to familiar rings and pings. Basically, the technique is establishing brand signature recognition and retention via sounds, tunes, and the like. This is why automakers turn an ear in an effort to enhance the rings and pings in their lineup.
“When Derrick M. Kuzak became Ford Motor Co.’s global chief for product development in 2005, he didn’t like what he was hearing. It wasn’t hostile car reviews that bothered Kuzak,” BusinessWeek reports. “It was the insipid gong chimes that greeted a potential buyer when the door of a Ford was opened as well as the rickety sound produced when it was shut. So the Ford Taurus hitting the showrooms now has a new latch system that will make a vault-like sound when the door closes. Next year’s Ford Flex SUV will greet drivers with a symphonic door chime.”
“Customers are incredibly attuned to the sounds of quality, but we weren’t, and I think it was costing us,” says Kuzak. The innovations on the Taurus and Flex will be rolled out across the rest of Ford’s lineup over the next three years.
In an industry focused on grabbing shoppers’ eyeballs, automakers oftentimes overlook purchaser’s eardrums, another vital organ to satisfy. What is invisible to the eye is equally essential, that is. Unique and unusual sounds, like a bizarre smell, draw out reactions. These reactions could bolster brand retention more than the conventional marketing campaign. This is the reason why automakers are trying every trick to make their company names sing.
The BusinessWeek has this to say: “The first sonic brand signatures date back to the 1950s. NBC has used its three-chime ID for decades. Intel’s familiar sound logo gave an identity to a complex technology brand few consumers understood. And United Air Lines has found that its longtime use of a snippet of George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue translates into trust. Successful sound brands can take on a life of their own. McDonald’s Corp.’s ‘I’m Lovin’ It’ sound bite has been adopted by consumers as a cell-phone ringtone and incorporated into a song by Taiwanese recording artist Leehom Wang.”
The report continued: A sign of the growing importance of sound in the auto industry is that J.D. Power & Associates, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies, the parent of BusinessWeek, last year began measuring “pleasantness of sound” for doors, signals, and engine acceleration in its Initial Quality Study. “The door closure and chime is the car’s second impression after exterior design,” says J.D. Power Executive Director Joe Ivers.
Gadgeters are also into sound customization. In the previous year, Samsung unified the boot-up musical sequences of its selected devices, from mobile phones to DVD players. To sell high-end phones, Samsung has been looking at exclusive ringtones from star Korean composers. “The right sound can communicate exclusivity, like flashing a black American Express (AXP ) Card,” says Paul Fulberg, a partner at London-based Sonicbrand Ltd.
