When it comes to store experience through sound, for many managers who have already experienced or dealt with this issue, the answer will probably lie in defining music or implementing a dedicated radio station, for example. But what many do not realize is that choosing sound content should be the last thing to be considered when designing and/or creating a store concept through sound.

We began implementing our Sound Thinking methodology more than ten years ago in the retail environment. Since then, we have learned a lot by designing sound solutions for different contexts and commercial spaces for the most varied segments. One of the first things we noticed is the negligence of Brazilians regarding the use of sound when thinking about the journey of employees and customers in these locations. And here is an important gap that needs to be corrected. Each and every sound factor must be taken into account when we want to produce an experience in line with the brand's precepts, making the experience even more intuitive and user-friendly.

These are key issues that will certainly make a difference and impact customer retention and the perception of your brand. This lesson also applies to the productivity of different teams throughout the workday. There is no point in aiming for team sales results if you do not provide a sound environment that is appropriate for this purpose. And this, unfortunately, is something very common in Brazilian retail.

Whether it is a chain with many branches or a single store, when designing a sound concept it is essential to understand how the journey of different players will take place and how the essence of the brand and key aspects of the experience, such as pleasantness, intelligibility and even team productivity, will be translated into each sound manifestation. The second point, after understanding how people will experience the brand environment, is to identify the level of sound comfort that will be established. Here, factors such as acoustics and the selection of equipment and machinery, also based on noise assumptions, are essential.

Much of the background noise generated in a store's operations, for example, is caused by the lack of good acoustic design and the lack of planning in the selection of excessively noisy equipment during the day. Remember that, like visual pollution, you may be producing noise pollution in your brand experience if you are not careful about this issue. We have come across several cases in which the store concept was visually very well conceived, but the sound aspect was completely incongruent with the central concept. And here is a first and major difference for those seeking to generate unique and consistent brand manifestations: have sound as an ally and design it, as well as the visual and tactile aspect.

Once this stage is complete, it is time to think about the sound system for each space. Incredibly, this process is also put aside, often being carried out only after the lighting phase, where speakers, usually built-in and low cost, are launched without much thought. I would like to emphasize that this is another crucial point in designing a brand's sound atmosphere: understanding in which locations within the same space the sound content will sound at different volumes, but always prioritizing good quality.

Lack of planning at this stage results in environments with "sound holes", where it is noticeable that there are spots without sound projection or that the volume is too high. Furthermore, designing the sound system that will be implemented can help with the aesthetic factor and, in some cases, generate budget optimization, considering the acquisition of fewer and higher quality equipment.

Finally, now that the environment is prepared to receive sound, we are ready to design the sound content that will be projected together with all the other sound layers that will be present. However, the sound reasoning, as I have already mentioned in other articles, needs to make sense with your sound DNA and be consistently present in your narrative arc. The central axis is that, regardless of the point of contact, your brand has a sound coherence and does not sound different every time it is accessed. And in retail, remember not to think only about creating sound moments linked to your different customer profiles but also about enhancing the productivity of your team, because every detail matters when it comes to generating results through sound.

(Re)think design through sound.

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