Try Blinkist to get the key ideas from 5,500+ bestselling nonfiction titles and podcasts. Listen or read in just 15 minutes.
Start your free trial
Blink 3 of 8 - The 5 AM Club
by Robin Sharma
How Sound Transforms the Way We Think, Feel and Buy
Sonic Boom (2014) highlights the many ways sounds permeate not only our environment but also our personal lives. From your company brand to your personal space, sound has the power to make us remember and even can encourage us to buy. These blinks show you exactly how to harness the power of sound in your business and life.
Joel Beckerman is an award-winning composer, television producer and founder of Man Made Music, a company specializing in sonic branding.
Tyler Gray is an editorial director for Edelman in New York.
Close your eyes right now and take in the sounds around you.
What do you hear close to you? Perhaps you can eavesdrop on a whispered conversation on the bus. Now, what do you hear further away from you? Maybe you can identify the rumble of highway traffic, or children shouting in a nearby playground.
Every day we are surrounded by sound, and what we hear shapes the way we feel, influences our energy level and touches our consciousness. Movie music does this particularly well: you can’t help but be put on edge when the “shark theme” from Jaws – just two resonant bass notes – is played!
The right sound heard at the right time can even trigger a memory or evoke a powerful emotion. When this happens, it’s called a boom moment. But why exactly do boom moments occur?
It’s simple: your brain never stops listening. Even when you might not consciously be paying attention to the sounds around you, your brain is processing it all and connecting the sonic input with experiences you’ve had.
Chili’s, a Mexican restaurant chain in the United States, has recognized the power of sound to influence its customers. When you enter a Chili’s restaurant, you immediately hear the sizzle of meat on a hot iron plate.
This sizzle grabs your attention and inspires a chain of sensory reactions: you hear and smell the meat, the laughter of other happy and sated guests surrounds you, and you realize suddenly just how hungry you are for fajitas!
This is a boom moment, and one that obviously contributes to the restaurant’s bottom line. No surprise that Chili’s sells as much as 60.4 million pounds of fajitas per year!
The influence of sound on how we feel isn’t random; there’s definitely a science to it. Researchers Clare Caldwell and Sally A. Hibbert found that diners spent almost 15 minutes longer in a restaurant in which slower-tempo music was played, in contrast to a restaurant that played faster-tempo music.
The reason? Slower music made diners feel relaxed and safe, so they lingered over dinner.
Would you want to incorporate the power of sound in your business? There’s more to it than just turning on the radio. Read the next blink to learn more.
The quickest way to understand the power of sound is by seeing what happens when its gone.
It's highly addictive to get core insights on personally relevant topics without repetition or triviality. Added to that the apps ability to suggest kindred interests opens up a foundation of knowledge.
Great app. Good selection of book summaries you can read or listen to while commuting. Instead of scrolling through your social media news feed, this is a much better way to spend your spare time in my opinion.
Life changing. The concept of being able to grasp a book's main point in such a short time truly opens multiple opportunities to grow every area of your life at a faster rate.
Great app. Addicting. Perfect for wait times, morning coffee, evening before bed. Extremely well written, thorough, easy to use.
Try Blinkist to get the key ideas from 5,500+ bestselling nonfiction titles and podcasts. Listen or read in just 15 minutes.
Start your free trialBlink 3 of 8 - The 5 AM Club
by Robin Sharma