Background information on the Schaerer sound and on the creation of a sound brand.
#wepresent: The brand new Schaerer sound
You are reading this but do not hear anything yet? This will change during the post – we promise! You should definitely continue reading this article. We have interviewed three people who helped develop the Schaerer sound. They will provide you with background information on the Schaerer sound and very specifically on the creation of a sound brand.
We have asked Schaerer’s Marketing Manager Matthias Lübke: Why did you start developing sound branding, and what do you hope to achieve with it?
Since we started producing professional coffee machines in 1924, we at Schaerer have been pursuing the goal of bringing incredibly good coffee taste to our customers’ cups. And I am proud to say that we have succeeded quite well. Schaerer represents the greatest coffee expertise worldwide. Coffee triggers many emotions, and these emotions are inevitably associated with sounds. Two years ago, we underlined our brand values “Coffee competence – Switzerland – Flexible” with a new branding. The resulting corporate design was very well received by our customers and in the markets. This was the right time to expand the corporate design with a corporate sound. So, we set out to explore what our brand sounded like.
Coffee itself, the preparation of our coffee specialities, and ultimately the moment of coffee enjoyment produce many sounds. Think of the milk frothing, cups banging against each other, or the background noise when coffee is served, or when the cup is lifted to the mouth for the first sip.
From this multitude of noises, tones and sounds, we wanted to develop a modern Schaerer sound that could be used flexibly and would reflect our brand values in the best possible way.
Sounds are becoming more and more important in our world, communication is becoming more multimedia, often takes place in digital spaces, static information is replaced by moving or animated images. Sound accounts for more than 50% of an emotion – it creates real “brand atmosphere”.
Our sound branding will help us attract even more attention, differentiate ourselves from our competitors and significantly increase brand recognition.
We have asked Sebastian Hanfland of Hanfland and Friends: How does sound branding come about in general, and how did you specifically approach it regarding the Schaerer sound?
To develop sound branding, we must first understand what sounds are associated with a company’s brand values. This allows us to attach an identity and reference to the sounds of a brand and make them tangible. We use everything that is already defined in the brand, what makes it recognisable and shapes its identity. These usually include the visual appearance, the design language, the culture of the company and the products themselves.
With Schaerer, for example, the activating role of the main colour red, the round, soft shapes of the coffee machines, the warmth we associate with coffee in itself, and the manual labour associated with coffee preparation all had an influence on the sound. We also conducted surveys to find out what sounds Schaerer employees associate with the Schaerer brand values.
All of this together then created an acoustic description of the brand.
As soon as this description becomes available, we start setting each brand value. The description is the basis for which musical instruments, harmony, rhythm, or pitch are appropriate. Once all brand values have been set to music, we combine them into a sound DNA.
Finally, we have asked Sebastian Walk, Global Digital Marketing Manager: Can you describe the result in your own words?
The Schaerer sound is a combination of friendly, pleasant and rhythmic sounds. These sounds are aligned with our positioning as a fun-loving, approachable and human company. This is also how we are perceived by our customers. In addition, there are sounds of manual instruments that ground the sound and establish the relationship with manual labour. As a matter of course, these sounds are complemented by modern accents such as synthesiser or electric guitars. This allows us to create a link to the leading Schaerer technology that is contained in our coffee machines.
Just listen in!
You may soon hear the Schaerer sound in all our products and in our communications. Then we would have achieved our visionary goal.
