For its August issue, DER SPIEGEL offered our design director, Alina Schlaier a platform to discuss current developments in Sound Branding. The article’s focus "Die greisen Riesen" lies on the demand for voice solutions of FMCG brands. According to Alina, this sector is particularly endangered of losing touch with digitalization.

As a result, it is highly difficult for many traditional brands in the consumer goods industry to reach young people as well as maintaining them as customers.

The reason: instead of brand loyalty, values such as sustainability, originality and lifestyle are most relevant for young target groups today. Rapidly declining figures also make the crisis of confidence economically obvious. The Gesellschaft für Konsumgüterforschung (GfK) calls the established but outdated brands "burn-out brands" - they are considered to be slow, conservative and above all uninspired, according to a recent study by GfK.

"Brand Managers always aim to make their brand heard. Now it’s time for them to put their money on where their voice interfaces are.

Alina Schlaier, Design Director at denkwerk

They are challenged by the young and wild:
More and more start-ups and microbrands (companies with revenue of less than 100 million euros) are entering the market. By applying modern communication concepts, they are reaching more young people and thus emphasize the weaknesses of the "old giants". Retailers are willing to give shelve space to newcomers and banish the long-established ones.

"What are brands supposed to do?" asks DER SPIEGEL No. 24 / 8.6.2019 our design director Alina Schlaier. For several years, denkwerk has been working intensively with smart voice solutions in order to pave the way for its clients in this new discipline. Consequently, Alina has a straight response: companies need to communicate with their customers and be accessible to them. Shortly: brands need a voice.

"Sound is the new color."

Alina Schlaier, Design Director at denkwerk

With the growth of voice assistants, Alexa, Siri and Co. have become omnipresent. In Germany alone, more than a third of the population make use of voice assistants - trend rising. This forces other brands to become smarter as well. If you want to keep up with the development of voice assistants, you have to demonstrate a strong presence in voice marketing today. For this to happen, companies have to invest in voice technology as well as design in order to find and develop their own acoustic personality.

The potential is enormous. In order to stand out from the crowd, brands will need a distinctive sound identity with which they are associated. So, let's talk! hello@denkwerk.com

Don‘t forget to visit the website of our voice initiative, which we developed together with the world's leading sound branding agency amp: givebrandsavoice.com