The Importance of Music & Sound for FMCG
Blog
10.06.2022
Getting your brand to stand out on the shelves
Getting your brand to stand out on the shelves
Buying a washing machine is very different from buying a pack of cookies, a box of cereal or a bottle of water. The washing machine will have you thinking long and hard about your decision, whereas you most likely buy the other products every other week, which makes them fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) – products that sell quickly at a relatively low cost.
Aside from the examples above, you could also think of toothpaste, toilet paper, milk, soda… we could go on for days (we won’t do that to you though, pinky promise). FMCG account for more than half of all consumer spending.
With so many products from different brands on the market, it’s hard for a single brand to stand out. So let us tell you some more about current trends in the FMCG market and how the magic of sonic branding can help your brand stand out on the shelves (and online too).
Money, Money, Money
Recently, material prices have gone through the roof and companies have been forced to start cutting down on ad spends to save money. However, lowering the marketing budget means that your brand will be less visible to consumers and your advertising effectiveness might be going down with it. Now, what if we told you that there’s a way to make up for the lower budget by creating more effective ads?
Music has been proven to influence purchase behaviour more strongly than brand knowledge, logos, slogans, or colours alone. So, if you want to cut down on the marketing budget without having your effectiveness suffer, sonic branding is the way to go. Next to its positive effect on purchase behaviour, it also increases recall and ad effectiveness.
The Rise of TikTok
Another recent trend – aside from the rising material costs – is the migration from Facebook to TikTok for advertising products. The rise of TikTok and its immense popularity worldwide has led to brands reconsidering their marketing strategy and shift platforms to reach a bigger audience.
Unlike more traditional social media platforms like Facebook, TikTok is an audio-led platform. Users can choose any kind of song, remix or voice-over and match that to their video. This is a huge shift for digital advertising, because it requires brands to shift their focus to music and sound. With 88% of TikTok users saying music is vital to their TikTok experience, brands can no longer be missing out.
Unfortunately, nothing in life worth having comes easy. The same goes for advertising on TikTok. It’s not as simple as throwing a trending song onto an advertisement and *crosses fingers* hoping for the best.
Brands that want to succeed on TikTok need a sonic branding strategy to make the shift from platform to platform successful. Nice music is not enough. If you want to make it on TikTok, you need to have strategically curated music and sounds that can engage your audience while signalling your brand.
Consider this TikTok campaign for Lancôme, which included words such as ‘bigger volume’ and ‘bold eyes’ in the lyrics to convey what the product is about. This is the type of music that makes your brand stand out on TikTok. And if it works for mascara (an FMCG product), why wouldn’t it work for other FMCG products?
With MassiveMusic being an official Sound Partner for TikTok, we might very well be one of the best in our field to give you and your brand the best advice on how to find your sound (humblebrag). Slide in our DMs for tailored music advice or shoot us a message through our TikTok landing page.
Let's Get Emotional
If you thought these two paragraphs above were the biggest pain points for FMCG marketeers, we have to disappoint you – but don’t worry, we’ll make up for it.
The main struggle is that the fast-moving consumer goods market is a highly competitive one. With many brands selling the same product, consumers have endless options and often aren’t actively involved in their purchase decisions. Be honest, how much thought do you put into choosing a new manual toothbrush? Not much, right?
That is exactly what FMCG brands struggle with. Purchase decisions are often made in a fraction of a second, which means that emotions play a more important role than rational thinking.
Now, with so many brands on the shelves, how do you make yours stand out?
At MassiveMusic, we know that music and sound are the most effective triggers of emotions and can help make a product an actual experience. When used strategically, music and sound can boost the emotional connection of your brand with consumers and build brand affinity.
The more consumers interact positively with a brand, the deeper the emotional connection becomes, especially when the brand is adding value through something they care about. This guides their subconscious purchase decisions in your favour. Think of it like dominos – the tiniest push is enough to get the ball (or stones) rolling. Another point is that consumers are often more interested in distinctive, meaningful experiences than in actual products. Good news: that’s what music is there for. A prime example is our work for this Chiquita campaign, where each banana sticker had its banana in the supermarket was provided with its own Spotify code, guiding customers to a curated playlist.
For The Sound of Colgate, we used music to stand out from the crowd and created an entire sonic identity around the well-known toothpaste brand. We discovered that the ‘human hum’ can be seen as a universal sound of optimism and incorporated that into the sonic logo for Colgate.
With sonic branding triggering more recall than other brand assets, you might now catch yourself humming in front of the shelves with toothpaste in the supermarket – and the point of all this? You’re now more likely to choose Colgate over other toothpaste brands.
Your Turn
So, although the FMCG market is a highly competitive one with growing material costs and lower margins, there’s still opportunity for growth. Customer experience can be used as a way to differentiate a brand from the competition and sonic branding can help to keep your brand top of mind. From Spotify stickers on bananas to the optimistic hum of toothpaste, everything is possible.
Want to enhance your brand through music and sound?