The Transaction Tone

POS sounds; what are we trying to say about our brand experience as our customers are literally checking out?

If the last thing a customer hears is an annoying beep, what does that say about the brand experience? In this episode, I challenge brands to explore the overlooked world of POS sounds. An on-brand transaction tone doesn’t just signal the end of a sale- it shapes future customer loyalty and long-term spending.

Referenced in the episode are:

• Fixing Retail’s Weakest Link: Payment, a study by Sentient Decision Science- https://www.sentientdecisionscience.com/sentient-decision-science-lab/publications/fixing-retails-weakest-link-payment/
• Trader Joe’s Reddit strand referenced- https://www.reddit.com/r/CasualConversation/comments/9yydm2/trader_joes_changed_the_sound_that_their_credit/ 
• What Do the Bells Mean at Trader Joe’s? From Inside Trader Joe’s Podcast- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJlZpH9pmFY 
• Coca Cola Happy Beep Sound- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kucuxCN6x0 

Want more listening suggestions? Here are a few relevant Sound In Marketing episodes to dig into.

• POS: Retail’s Weakest Link- dig into this study on the effectiveness of POS sounds.

https://pod.link/1467112373/episode/cb17fdb7df82c01d3e055839409fa15a 

• The World’s Loudest Chips Bag- SunChips made a completely compostable chip bag, which was great. But it was loud...too loud.

https://pod.link/1467112373/episode/3520335b9f34509c17173b38153555db 

• Sound in the Shopping Experience- Interac, a Canadian debit card company, used sound to help their customers shop more mindfully.
  
  https://pod.link/1467112373/episode/fbcde37d720263d845f8c43e742e1e6d

Another big thanks to Sentient Decision Science for providing preliminary research on the subject of POS Sounds. I hope to see more and more studies to come. 

Thank you also to Artlist.io and Pixabay for being such a great musical and sound effects resource. I also referenced an episode of the Inside Trader Joe’s podcast. A fun branded podcast to check out if you’re feeling Trader Joey.

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For further inquiries, email Jeanna at mailto:jeanna@dreamrproductions.com    

The Sound In Marketing Podcast is produced by Dreamr Productions and hosted, written, and edited by Jeanna Isham. It is available on all the major podcast channels here https://pod.link/1467112373.

Let’s make this world of sound more intriguing, more unique, and more on brand.

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