As someone keenly interested in marketing and communication, I was fascinated by the recent interview Dan Storey, our head of Business Development UK, recorded with sound expert, Julian Treasure, and I wanted to share some of this incredible information with you.
Julian Treasure has been working for the past eight years teaching large corporations and big brand names to add soundscapes to their marketing strategies. According to Julian, this addition of sound to the marketing mix is not just for the big companies. He says entrepreneurs and small business owners can use sound to not only better market their business, they can also increase their own productivity as well.
The central idea is that you can expand the reach of your product or brand by tapping into more than one sense (many marketers focus purely on visual communication). Julian refers to it as multisensory marketing and it’s an idea gathering momentum. It’s the practice of adding multiple dimensions to your brand or product communications; in this case, audio.
According to Julian, sound affects us in four ways:
- Physiologically: If you hear a loud, rapid sound, your heart rate is going to increase.
- Psychologically: We all know how music can change our mood.
- Cognitively: It affects how well we can think and process information. Did you know that workers in open-plan offices are losing up to two-thirds of their potential productivity?
- Behaviourally: Perhaps most important for our purposes, sound changes customer behaviour. It is equally capable of driving them away or drawing them in. In fact, Julian increased customer satisfaction at a major, worldwide brand by 50% simply by altering the soundscape in the toilets!
Julian also says training your voice and learning to be a good listener, are essential ingredients for success, regardless of what type of business you are in.
Listening is a crucial skill for leaders and businesses and as we enter a world where social media is giving each and every customer a voice, it’s becoming increasingly important. Julian talks about coming from a proper “listening position” which will totally change the experience of listening and, more importantly, the effect it has on the person talking to you.
Some amazing statistics Julian shares about the power of using sound successfully in business:
- proven to triple productivity
- improve sales by up to 40%
- increase customer satisfaction by 50% or more
This interview really opened my ears when it comes to how I can use sound in my business and I hope this information will help you to attract more clients, increase employee productivity and keep customers happy.
You can listen to the entire interview with Julian Treasure here.
You can see Julian Treasure LIVE, click here to claim your free tickets to our Wealth From Marketing event on May 14 and 15 in Dublin and London, respectively.
