Our Emotional Connection to Ringtones
Written by simon, December 17th, 2010
Less than a generation ago the phone was a fixed appliance in the house shared by the entire family. Typical responses to the family phone ringing included, ”I’ll get it….Who’s going to answer the phone?…It’s dinner time, let it go to the answering machine”. An incoming call might be for anyone in the family. Answering the phone was a task shared by the family and until the call was answered you didn’t know exactly who the call was for.
The advent of the mobile phone changed all that. Now every phone number has a unique owner. We carry our phones on our bodies, in purse or at least keep them very close.
It has become very popular especially among teens and young adults, to select a custom ringtone. We train our ears and minds to instantly recognize our own phone ringing. But the sound of our phone triggers something even deeper. When our mobile phone rings we know someone is trying to reach us personally….we know that we are – at some level – wanted and needed! In other words there is a strong emotional connection to the human nature of the owner.
Over 70 years ago, Dale Carnegie coined one of his most famous sayings, “Remember that a person’s name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language”.
Today, we can update this to say, “The sound of a mobile phone ringing is to the owner of that phone the sweetest and most important sound they will hear all day”.
A broad range of musicians are already benefiting from this – connecting multiple times per day at with their fans. Soon brands will be using services like ShoutOut to similarly connect a deep emotional level with their greatest advocates – current and prospective customers.