The Future Sounds Promising: How Sonic Identity Can Empower Your Brand’s Diversity and Inclusivity Efforts

In our last article, we talked about how brands are increasingly using sound - by adopting a sonic identity - to forge a unique voice and footprint. So just like a visual logo helps to create clear recognition and association with a brand, a sonic logo aims to achieve the same memorable effect through sound and audio elements.

The simple fact is that brands need to exist in so many more places and spaces today and a consistent and recognisable audio asset helps to unite communication, improve attribution and reinforce personality. Even in short ad units or simply opening an app, sonic branding is sure to spark an emotional connection.

Sonic identity can also swiftly capture the essence of a brand’s personality and messaging in just a few seconds of sound. Crafted to be synonymous with each brand and to evoke responses in the listener, sonic identity means that deeper audience connections are ultimately formed.

A case in point is online food delivery service Just Eat’s jingle, which has been praised for being one of the  most effective and recognisable sonic logos of all UK brands. Meanwhile, greetings card service Moonpig clearly doesn’t want consumers to forget their name with its earworm of a sonic tagline, which also does the job of helping people to remember that all-important special occasion. And who could forget the financial services comparison website Go Compare’s infamous opera singer, whose ads earned Wynne Evans household name status.

As a result, it’s been firmly established that leveraging memorable sounds can spark the mission, values and vision tied to a given brand in order to build a consistent company image, not to mention an unforgettable customer experience.

However, its reach goes far beyond corporate branding, and even has the capacity to shape the way that equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) policies are implemented and executed moving forwards, something that is particularly vital across the recruitment sphere.

It’s worth noting several major corporations have recently scaled back or eliminated their Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives. This month, Boeing dismantled its global EDI department as part of an operational overhaul and in August, Ford announced a retreat from its inclusivity goals, ceasing participation in external surveys like the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index.  These actions reflect a broader trend of companies reassessing their EDI commitments amid external pressures and evolving legal landscapes.

Companies scaling back or eliminating their EDI initiatives have cited several reasons, driven by financial, legal, political, operational and cultural factors. They encompass cost-cutting measures, ‘anti-woke’ movements, risk of discrimination lawsuits, absorption of HR functions, internal pushback and difficulty in measuring tangible success.

This doesn’t stop this trend from being controversial and it has sparked debates about the long-term consequences for workplace equity, company culture and employee satisfaction. Critics argue that reducing EDI efforts risks reversing progress toward inclusivity, while proponents of these changes believe integrating ED into broader operations or reducing overt programs can be more effective and less contentious.

In our view, the decision to scale back EDI initiatives should be made thoughtfully and transparently. Companies must ensure that any changes:

• Are rooted in genuine strategy rather than reactionary politics or cost-cutting alone.
• Maintain a focus on fostering inclusivity and equity, even if through alternative methods such as sonic identity
• Do not ignore the underlying challenges that made EDI necessary in the first place.

Rather than eliminating EDI outright, businesses could refine these programs, making them more integrated, data-driven and impactful. True inclusivity is not just a corporate responsibility but also a driver of innovation, employee satisfaction and long-term success. The challenge lies in balancing these ideals with practical business needs.

How sonic identity can lead to more inclusive recruitment interactions

Sonic identity strategies can help to eradicate discrimination by embedding inclusion and stories of diverse, underrepresented audiences in all marketing communications.

A good sonic logo and audio identity can bring a recruitment brand to more people in different ways, heralding a new era of aural image creation for the sector, one which breaks away from those more traditional visual markers.

They have the benefit of enhancing the way people interact with a company’s customer service helpline, social media channels, website navigation and other marketing efforts.

They can also be used to create more striking highlights across certain recruitment functions. For example, a sound might be created to indicate the satisfying completion of a job application, a successful CV upload or the downloading of a salary guide or other relevant industry asset to herald a meaningful share of knowledge.

Equally, there is often a familiar sound to be heard when a website gets it wrong and a page goes down, often inferred with a downbeat flat note. Brands could instead use these faults as an opportunity to have fun with their sonic identity, perhaps with a pithy ‘oops we did it again’ in the voice of Britney or deploy the jaunty Warner Bros tagline ‘that’s all folks’ to denote the premature end of an ongoing interaction. This might just provide a valuable point of difference for those operating in the recruitment marketing space. We think the best thing to offer customers when communication goes awry is a helpful point of contact, just like ours.

At Marmalade, we even have our very own sonic identity with our unique Growth Bites podcast sound, which heralds the fact that our episodes contain fascinating insights from a host of industry trailblazers.

Indeed, when done well, sonic identity can create something truly memorable, with almost instant recall for potentially millions of people. More than that, it will allow brands to increase their accessibility across a more diverse audience base - for instance, those who are either blind or partially sighted - and can rise above cultural and language barriers. This is because it helps to foster a recognisable identity that everyone can be attuned to and involved in.

Yes, there are plenty of websites which currently offer blind or partially sighted people such as audio descriptions, alternative text and colour contrast. A strong sonic identity will act as the bridge that brings all of these elements together coherently, by providing a common thread.

It’s also vital - when creating an accessible brand sonic identity - to take into consideration the needs of the hearing-diverse and deaf community where possible. So when a website takes steps to include visual text, like subtitles, captions, transcriptions, to audio elements, such as video, sound clips, podcasts, sonic ID again can link them all together.

Sonic logos and brand tracks with set key notes - when done well - can help to effectively define a company’s signature style and purpose to people from all walks of life, while signposting its work and content.

When it comes to recruitment specifically, sonic assets - which might include a long-form brand anthem and an audio logo - have the capacity to help elevate and enhance an overall careers-based brand.

This is because the sounds should be designed to inspire and impact multiple recruitment marketing audiences, such as clients, the B2B element, candidate (customers) and colleagues, or what we in the business call an employee value proposition (EVP).  This will all help to showcase your recruitment business as a leader in today’s competitive global hiring environment.

While sonic identity is making waves as an important EDI tool, here are some further ways in which the recruitment sector can enhance their sonic ID strategies in order to be even more inclusive towards people with impairments, in turn resulting in stronger and more meaningful relationships.

Diversify recruitment sources

Candidates

Take the time to search around and use a variety of channels to reach a more diverse pool of applicants and think about creating a distinctive sound alert for when you post a job and there so that people are able to respond quickly. Places to target your distinctive sound include disabled people organisations, relevant LinkedIn groups and job boards, not to mention your own website and social media channels, where this should be baked into your functionality as standard.

Clients

Clients could be alerted to your brightest and best candidates with an upbeat alert note. It might also be worth considering creating a weekly email newsletter so that the businesses you work with can keep up to speed with your latest triumphs and developments, particularly in the EDI sphere. This could be peppered with audio extracts and teasers to keep interest mounting.

EVP

Here, sonic identity might be used as part of the online application and website user experience, particularly on ‘Join Us’ or careers pages. Audio soundbites or short films of testimonials from current employees - something Apple does particularly well - are always a good idea, as well as audio descriptions of the role in question, FAQs and EDI or CSR efforts. Again, Apple excels here with its Accessibility function offering provision across speech, hearing, vision, cognitive and mobility.

Write (and record) inclusive job descriptions 

Inclusive job descriptions are written to be welcoming to a diverse range of applicants and to promote a sense of belonging in the workplace. And there’s no reason why they can’t be recorded in the spoken word using a welcoming and calm tone of voice so that people can download and listen to them at their own leisure. Regional accents have long been heralded as having a significant impact on how a message is received in marketing. Plusnet famously used actors with strong Yorkshire accents in their advertising to cultivate a friendly tone and Boddingtons capitalised on its northern heritage with a strong Mancunian accent in the 1990s to convey a warm and down-to-earth image. This is why regional accents should also play a vital part when it comes to building up a dependable sonic identity.

Some useful tips for creating inclusive job descriptions include avoiding gender, racial and age bias in your language. Use clear, simple and concise language, avoid jargon, make it clear that EDI is a top priority for your business and demonstrate what you’re doing to promote those values.

Consider alternative assessment methods

Avoid CV scanning and personality profiling exercises, which can be challenging for neurodivergent people. Allow them - if they feel comfortable - to provide a verbal or video account of their attributes and what makes them perfect for the role in question. You could go one step further and provide spoken feedback as to whether they’re a good fit for the role in question.

Involve people with disabilities in the process

Engage people with disabilities in testing your core sound choices, and adapt as necessary and ask people in your network to share their opinions about them. After all, they need to sound appealing and welcoming, rather than jarring or annoying.

What recruiters can learn from the world of eCommerce

Over time, speech recognition has become a more frequently used tool by e-commerce brands in shops to enhance the bricks and mortar experience. However, it’s rapidly gaining traction as a digital function on social media channels and websites. Here is where the recruitment sector could learn a trick or two to create truly memorable and experiential marketing campaigns which are fuelled by an injection of sonic power.

At Marmalade Marketing, we believe that the correct application of sonic identity will help strengthen the EDI requirements of the recruiting brands we work with. When paired with the right dose of forward-thinking recruitment marketing campaigns, we really are ringing in the changes and preparing for a brighter, more inclusive future.  Notwithstanding EDI, Sonic Identity masterfully cuts through the noise in this highly competitive industry, by making use of AI tools and people power - such as our very own talented team - to stand out.

Since 2017, Marmalade Marketing has been offering a complete range of marketing services that will leave your audience in awe. From eye-catching design and animated visuals to captivating content marketing, email campaigns, and social media strategies, we've got you covered. Above all else, we know that building a successful marketing function takes time, effort and strategic planning.