Why I Stopped Trying to Sell Sonic Branding Online: and What I’m Doing Instead

Christopher McHale
7 hours ago
4 min read

I set up the funnel. I wrote the copy about "Sonic Systems." I even tried to productize it. A "7-Day Starter Kit." A low-cost entry point to the high-art world of Studio Jijiji. But I'm not that guy. I'm not really a 'creative economy' guy. I'm a writer. A composer. A marketer. I love the combination, and it defines me. Internet hustles are kind of boring, tbh.

A lot was off. Not just the headline. Not the button color. The entire model felt like wearing a suit two sizes too small. It pinched in all the wrong places. It lacked the breath and motion of actual creative work.

I was trying to sell "taste" like it was a subscription box of razors.

It didn't work because it couldn't work.

The Realization: Commodities vs. Perceptions

Internet commerce is built for scale. It’s built for repetition. Low-touch, high-volume. You click, you buy, you receive.

My work? My work is about interpretation. It’s about perception. It’s about having the "sound wizards" in the room to understand the ghost in the machine of a brand. It’s about taste.

You can’t productize taste.

I was trying to compress deep, perceptual work into a format designed for commodities. I was offering a "Starter Kit" for something that requires a soul. It was a mismatch of medium and message.

The realization hit me: If I wanted to build the Sonic Humanist Project, I had to stop acting like a software company.

The Shift in Language

The first thing to go was the jargon.

"Sonic systems." Too technical. Too cold. It sounds like something you install in a server rack. "Starter Kit." Too cheap. It implies that a brand’s soul can be assembled like a piece of flat-pack furniture.

I needed language that moved. Language that felt like the things we make.

I started using words like:

Invisible.
Perception.
Connection.

The pitch changed from "Buy this sound identity" to "We define how your brand sounds."

It’s subtle. But it changed everything.

Defining "Invisible Marketing"

Most marketing is an interruption. A loud shout in a quiet room. A billboard blocking a sunset. A forced message pushed through a funnel.

I call what we do now Invisible Marketing.

It doesn’t shout. It doesn’t interrupt. It moves quietly, like water, through the real moments of a person's life. I've always felt that way about my marketing. I just never had the invisible bit before, but that's exactly what it is. Is anybody interested in this? They should be. It's potent.

It’s the sound of the train doors closing. The specific hum of a kitchen as you’re cooking dinner. The rhythmic pace of a morning walk. It’s the sonic connective tissue that carries a brand into the deep, reptilian parts of human memory without ever asking for permission.

Sound is the only medium that can bypass the "marketing brain" and go straight to the heart.

A mnemonic. A line. A world. It's dadada dada of T-Mobile. You can hear it, right? We produced that two decades ago.

Redefining Sonic Branding as Behavior

Traditionally, people think of sonic branding as a logo. A three-second ping at the end of a commercial.

That’s a fragment. Not a brand.

Sonic branding isn’t a layer you slap on at the end of a production. It’s a behavior. It’s how a brand behaves through voice, through content, and through sound across every single touchpoint.

It’s the way a Song in Space episode feels before the first word is even spoken. It’s the "how" and the "feeling" of the project. If the emotional connection of the story isn’t there, no amount of technical "branding" will save it.

Execution reveals the idea. Always.

The Power of the Sonic Audit

Instead of the "buy now" button, I moved to the conversation.

The entry point is now the Sonic Audit.

We don't ask you to buy a product. We ask to look at what’s actually happening in your brand right now.

We identify the inconsistencies.
We reveal where the sound is fighting the story.
We open a conversation about the "why."

Insight is the entry point. Not transaction.

When you lead with insight, you’re not a vendor. You’re a collaborator. You’re a sound strategist helping a brand find its true voice.

The Real Funnel

The traditional funnel is: Product → Checkout → Scale.

My "funnel" looks more like a slow-burning fire:

Someone encounters an idea (a post, a song, a thought).
The idea resonates. It sticks.
They reach out.
A conversation begins.
The real work happens.

I don’t need 100 leads a week. I don’t want them. I need the right conversation with the person who understands that their brand's sound is as important as their brand's logo.

I’m looking for the believers.

The Landing Page Evolution

If you look at our site now, the evolution is clear. It’s idea-first. It’s human language.

H1: Invisible.

H2: We define how your brand sounds.

It’s quiet. It’s confident. It’s a bit mysterious. It’s not a sales pitch; it’s an invitation to a different way of seeing.

I stopped trying to sell a product. I started selling a way of perceiving the world.

The Core Insight

I’ve spent years in the industry. I’ve been nervous. I’ve "sucked" at the corporate game of funnels and conversions. I’ve tried to fit the Studio Jijiji vibe into a box that was never meant for us.

The internet commerce model didn't fail me. I was just using the wrong map.

The goal isn’t more attention. We have enough noise in the world.

The goal is turning attention into connection.

Building. Shaping. Uncovering. Driving.

We’re not making "content." We’re building storyworlds powered by sound.

If you’re tired of the noise, maybe it’s time to look at the invisible.

Work with passion. Always.