What brands have the most addictive sounds? You work in the cleaning and restoration industry and you don’t know? Heck, should sound even matter in your marketing strategy as a carpet cleaner?
Did you guess that a cell phone service provider has the most addictive sound? Close … there are 2 cell phone sounds that made the top 10 but the winner is:
Envelope please!
INTEL Yes I know you are saying- “Ooh, ooh, I knew that!” Yeah, right …
One of my favorite authors, Martin Lindstrom, (the author of Buyology and also Brand Sense) studied the world’s most addictive sounds. Never forget that the sense of sound is a powerful force in marketing. For example, when a famous casino removed the “annoying sounds” from their slot machines in Las Vegas their slot business dropped 24%!
Maybe you are thinking, “Well, Bill that is real interesting but how can this benefit my carpet cleaning business.” Simple- you need to incorporate “sound” in your cleaning business marketing strategy. The best known sound, (the high pitched howl from your un-muffled truck mount blower doesn’t count!) is the swoosh sound of your carpet wand. (You haven’t lived until you have heard Chuck Violand do his “rushing air in a scrub wand” sound in our Strategies for Success class!)
Think how easy it would be to put your scrub wand sound on radio. Commercials on the radio all blend together unless a distinct sound makes you re-focus your attention. So here is the opening for your new commercial:
Indistinct vacuum sound of whispering air steadily increasing in volume and then dropping down.
Voice over: “What was that sound?”
Second person: “What sound?”
Voice over: “That sound!”
Loud sound: Swooshing, sucking noise. (Actually I am sure we could get Chuck to recreate it since he loves doing it!)
Announcer: “That is the sound of another happy customer getting their carpet cleaned beautifully by Jon-Don cleaners. Just go to www.JonDon.com or call … ”
OK so you don’t like that one! Then here is another idea. You have probably all bought a birthday card that plays a song. The sound comes from a very cheap computer chip in the card. Have your “carpet wand sound” recreated on a chip and you can place it on your reminder card. (Chuck may be able to retire off of the royalties from this one!)
I am even going to give you the copy:
“Has it been too long since you heard this beautiful sound?” SWOOSH
“What is it? It is the sound of clean, healthy carpet.”
“Call Jon Don today and tomorrow you can hear that great sound plus enjoy sparkling clean carpets once again.”
It may SOUND crazy but remember good marketing in carpet cleaning stands out. Trust me- these ideas WILL stand out!
I guarantee you’ll never listen to your industrial cleaning equipment in the same way. 🙂
If you would like to read the full article about the influence of sound in our buying decisions, here you go: