A sound experience can be addictive

We have all experienced a time when we small something and it takes us back to an earlier event or time in our lives. Yesterday was a very hot day so we went to my wife's parents house for a swim to cool off. When she got in the pool she told me and our son that the smell really reminded her of coming home after school and being in the pool with her three sisters.

particular sound can create the same emotional links. Many of us have a favourite song with our partners that take us back to a special time in our relationship. Or a song on the radio reminds us of an event that was meaningful.

This article is interesting because it chronicles the Top 10 most addictive sounds in the world. In this case, as with many things, the world is classed as America. Hence the TMobile ringtone being featured.

Here's the point: Does your business have a recognisable, memorable and if possible, emotionally meaningful brand tag. Think the Nike or Apple logos. As listed the McDonalds or Intel sound tag. Not always branded but still enticing - the smell of hot bread shop or the aroma of ground coffee beans. Whatever it is does your business have something memorable and easily recognisable? It's an often overlooked part of your marketing.

Here is the article from Fast Company:

The 10 Most Addictive Sounds in the World

By: Martin LindstromFebruary 22, 2010

You're probably among the millions who have experienced it: driving in a car, listening to the radio, and suddenly this song comes on. It is not just any song--this was your favorite song when you were a teenager. As the first few notes strike up, you're transported back in time. Everything is so vivid, and your mind wanders to parties, first kisses and sweaty palms. It's as if time stands still and you suddenly realize that for the entire duration of the song, you haven't seen a single thing on the road.

There's no doubt about it, sound is immensely powerful. And yet 83% of all the advertising communication we're exposed to daily (bearing in mind that we will see two million TV commercials in a single lifetime) focuses, almost exclusively, on the sense of sight. That leaves just 17% for the remaining four senses. Think about how much we rely on sound. It confirms a connection when dialing or texting on cell phones and alerts us to emergencies. When the sound was removed from slot machines in Las Vegas, revenue fell by 24%. Experiments undertaken in restaurants show that when slow music (slower than the rhythm of a heartbeat) is played, we eat slower--and we eat more!

Is this just coincidence, or does sound make us buy more, want more, dream more and eat more? Any 50-year-old American can sing a whole range of television jingles from the 1970s--they are all well stored in the recesses of our brain. Yet if you were to ask the same of those who have come of age recently, you will find them stumped. Has the magic of a television tune disappeared, or has the advertising world lost sight of the fact that people do indeed have speakers at home? I decided to put these questions to the test.

Buyology Inc. and Elias Arts, a sound identity company in New York, wired up 50 volunteers and measured their galvanic, pupil and brainwave responses to sounds using the latest neuroscience-based research methods. We learned that sound has remarkable power. This may not be surprising for many, but it was certainly surprising to realize just how many commercial brands over the past 20 years have made their way into the world's 10 most powerful and addictive sounds--beating some of the most familiar and comforting sounds of nature.

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Quiz: Can You Guess The World's Most Addictive Sounds?

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Forget the sound of the waves or the songs of birds, they didn't even make the top 10. But the jingle advertising a computer chip, and object which most of us have never even seen, took the prominent second spot in our brains in terms of addiction. We strongly respond to the sound of Intel! This tells us that repetition is the key, since most of us can't even sing it. What this tells us is that there's no limit to this phenomenon, because a computer chip doesn't really have a sound.

The third most powerful sound is just over 10 years old, and yet it had such a profound effect on our volunteers that as soon as they hear it, they remove their headsets and check their bags for their vibrating cell phone. When we switch our phone into silent mode, we think it cannot be heard. But the vibration has its own sound, and almost immediately the test subjects stopped whatever they were doing to attend to their phones. It's hardly surprising that the Blackberry has been dubbed a CrackBerry--even President Obama is hooked.

Psychologically speaking, this is not a happy discovery. Recent studies show that the first thing we do when we wake is check our BlackBerry. Going to the bathroom, brushing our teeth and eating breakfast takes a back seat. Increasingly people sleep beside their phones--that message that arrives at 4.00am, is now a priority! Even though the sound of a vibrating phone has taken second place to a baby's giggles, it seems that in just over a decade technology now provides the predominant sounds of daily life.

As marketers become more aware of the power of sound, it will be used to increase brand recognition in increasingly sophisticated ways. It's just a matter of time before our brains hear sizzling steaks, newly lit cigarettes and sparkling sodas, and immediately register them as Outback, Marlboro and Dr. Pepper.

THE MOST ADDICTIVE SOUNDS IN THE WORLD

Non-branded and branded sounds:
1. Baby giggle
2. Intel
3. Vibrating phone
4. ATM / cash register
5. National Geographic
6. MTV
7. T-Mobile Ringtone
8. McDonald's
9. 'Star Spangled Banner'
10. State Farm

Top 10 Branded sounds:
1. Intel
2. National Geographic
3. MTV
4. T-Mobile
5. McDonald's
7. State Farm
8. AT&T Ringtone
9. Home Depot
10 Palm Treo Ringtone

Top 10 Non-branded sounds:
1. Baby giggle
2. Vibrating phone
3. ATM / cash register
4. "Star Spangled Banner"
5. Sizzling steak
6. 'Hail to the Chief'
7. Cigarette light and inhale
8. "Wedding March"
9. "Wish Upon a Star"
10. Late Night with David Letterman Theme

MARTIN LINDSTROM is a 2009 recipient of TIME Magazine's "World's 100 Most Influential People" and author of Buyology--Truth and Lies About Why We Buy (Doubleday, New York), which appeared on both The New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller lists. Lindstrom is an adviser to executives of McDonald's Corporation, Procter & Gamble, Nestlé, PepsiCo, Microsoft Corporation, The Walt Disney Company, and GlaxoSmithKline, amongst others. His personal global audience is estimated at over a million people. His book, Brand Sense, was hailed by the Wall Street Journal as "...one of the five best marketing books ever published." Lindstrom's latest books, Buyology and Brand Sense have been translated into more than 40 languages, and are now out in paperback.

No wonder American Airlines rates higher than United

While United has been dropping CX standards American Airlines has been raising them. This article looks at how.

The lesson here is not new. It's not complicated and it's easy to do - providing you are not a control freak.

The lesson is this. Give the power to fix or at least address the customer's to the people who are in on the frontline. It can reduce or stop escalation, create on the spot outcomes (that we all love) and give the staff the knowledge that they can make a real contribution, using their own good judgment.

A special note for the control freaks who may not trust that anyone else can do it right, other than them.

Consider the option. How do you feel when you ask for help with a problem, want to get an issue addressed or feel there is something that needs to be done to help you and the service person gives you that blank look and says, with often sincere regret "I will have to (choose one) talk to my manager, send an email to head office, see a supervisor, put you in touch with the customer service manager, or my all time favourite, 'There's nothing I can do 'it's out of my hands".

If you feel frustrated hearing those responses, so do your customers. Did American solve all their problems? No, but I'm willing to bet their passengers felt way better than at United.

Let me know what you think.

American Airlines hands out $10.3 million in customer-service bonuses

American Airlines Inc., one of seven carriers at Piedmont Triad International, said Thursday the company will be paying out a $10.3 million customer service award to 70,000 front line employees for meeting fourth-quarter goals.

The payout is part of the airline's Customer Experience Rewards program, which gives employees up to $100 per month for exceeding customer satisfaction goals.

In 2009, the company paid out $45 million through its annual incentive plans.

The goals are based on customer service standards -- measured by on-time departures and customer satisfaction at the airport and on board the aircraft.