Audio Logos: An Interview with Dr. David Allan - Part 1

“It certainly adds another sense to sight, you know, and most of the people that I talk to, you can see a logo, but sound really helps you to feel a logo.” -- Dr. David Allan   My next guest is a professor of marketing at Saint Joseph's University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He has a BA in communications from American University, an MBA in marketing from St Joseph's, and a Ph.D. in Mass Media & Communication from Temple University, and is currently pursuing a master's degree in Legal Studies in Entertainment Law from the University of Southern California. He's a prolific writer with three books – Super Sonic Logos & This Note’s for You, both on Business Experts Press, and Hit Play, on Sentia Publishing – as well as three book chapters about music, advertising, and marketing, six music case studies, and a multitude of journal articles. He also hosts two podcasts, Marketing Musicology and The NFT PHD, and spent over twenty years in radio as a DJ, program director, and general manager.  His name is Dr. David Allan and he knows a thing or two about sound marketing.  Stay tuned, because you and I are about to be schooled. As always, if you have any questions for my guest, you’re welcome to reach out through the links in the show notes.  If you have questions for me, just visit www.audiobrandingpodcast.com where you’ll find all sorts of ways to get in touch. Plus, subscribing to the newsletter (on the www.audiobrandingpodcast.com webpage) will let you know when the new podcasts are available.   This is Your Classroom We start the episode with a look back at Dr. Allan's childhood memories of sound and the radio DJs who helped inspire him. He tells about his very first stint as a college DJ and how a storied radio career took an unexpected turn towards academia. “He hands me a textbook and a syllabus,” David recalls a surprise conversation one morning with a college department head, “and he says ‘this is your classroom. Good luck.’” The opportunity inspired him to go back to school and earn his Ph.D., and he explains how some of his friends at the time questioned his decision to trade a high-paying radio career for a new start as a marketing professor. “’I make a lot of money,’” he remembers telling them, “but I'm not going to make it for a long time, and on some level, it's not going to be worth it."   A Perpetual Learner Dr. Allan tells us about the process of writing his latest book Super Sonic Logos, and how the early days of the COVID pandemic turned out to be an unlikely blessing, from drawing his attention to smart speakers, audio logos, and the prevalence of sound in our online lives to the practical issue of being able to find and interviewing so many audio experts. “Everybody was home,” he recalls the process of interviewing famous industry composers and sound gurus, “and everybody had a lot of time to talk.” He reveals the one interview question that always gets a surprising answer from his guests, and how much he learned from them about the audio industry.  “I'm a perpetual learner and I'm highly intellectually curious,” he explains, and then adds, “more curious than intellectual.”   Getting Better Every Day Just what sort of companies need a sonic identity and branding strategy? “Most of the people that I talk to that are in the business,” Dr. Allan recounts from those interviews, “think everyone needs one, and then they're very quick to point out that they shouldn't have one if they think it's just a logo.” We talk about the evolving role of sound in modern media, from the vital role...