Kia wants to create a positive "emotional trigger" by implementing signature sounds for various functions in its vehicles.
Featured in the 2015 Kia Soul EV and Sedona minivan for now, the "Sonic Branding" initiative plays a sound when convenience and safety functions in the cars are started or shut down, Edmunds.com reported.
Kia describes the campaign as "the auto industry's first ever fully integrated brand signature sound applied to vehicles as well as numerous customer touch-points with the Kia brand."
The hope is that the signature Kia sound will have an effect similar to NBC's famous three-note chime, which has been used in network branding since 1929. Originally created for radio, the signature NBC sound is still sometimes used on television.
Other examples of companies that used sounds for branding purposes include Apple, Xbox and Windows.
The initial sound for the Soul EV and Sedona is called "The Rise of Surprise," and Kia plans eventually to customize the sound into four versions for different vehicle types.
Future SUVs, compacts, midsize and large sedans as well as eco-friendly vehicles will all have distinctive sounds, Kia said.
"At Kia Motors we have been putting a tremendous effort into creating sonic branding with a unified signature sound that delivers Kia's distinctive brand identity to our customers," Ike Kwon, director of Kia's Global Brand Strategy Group, said in a statement quoted by Edmunds. "Now we are excited to introduce and share 'The Rise of Surprise' with our customers at various points of interaction with our company, its products and services, both inside and outside of our vehicles."
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