Our Senses are How We Experience the World

In a normal lifespan you will experience almost 24 million images of the world around you. There are about 100 touch receptors in each of your fingertips. If your nose is at its best, you can tell the difference between 4,000 and 10,000 smells, and 75% of your emotions are generated through what you smell.

Despite the power of all of our senses to perceive the world around us, almost 83% of all commercial communication appeals only to one sense – our eyes. Today, this is not enough. If brands want to develop a deeper, more emotional connection with consumers, it will be important to simulate the senses, and as many of them as possible.  This is a concept referred to as Sensory Branding, as part of a broader shift in brand communication efforts to engage through Experiential Marketing.

Sensory Marketing More Important Than Ever

•    It is increasingly difficult to connect with consumers. There is a paradigm shift happening in the 21st century. Technical advantages are fleeting, anything can be duplicated and there are endless choices for consumers. Armed with endless sources of information and choices, consumers are fickle, flee from the mainstream and see through the persuasion techniques of traditional marketing.
•    Marketing must engage the most powerful part of the mind. Roughly 90% of consumer buying behavior is subconscious. Buying is not a rational decision, but is instead an emotional decision that arises from within the subconscious brain. In fact, unconscious decisions guide conscious decisions - our brains automatically make buying decisions, sometimes within fractions of a second. This unconscious part of the human mind is capable of producing very powerful and beneficial experiences over and above those expected from the technical merits of a product.
•    Traditional marketing and product efforts are not enough. In this new economy, many brands are experiencing diminishing returns on traditional ad spending and improvements to products and services.  As branding becomes increasingly important to differentiate, marketers will need to employ new forms of communication to be successful.

Sensory Branding – An Evolving Practice

Sensory Branding is a form of branding that relies on the use of sensory stimuli to develop a more relevant, compelling and memorable customer experience, and engage with consumers on an emotional level. However, sensory branding is not a new concept. Many successful brands have worked to engage the senses. Consider Kellogg’s use of sound in Rice Krispies’ signature “Snap, Crackle and Pop”, Crayola’s trademarked and differentiating scent of its crayons, and the tactile experience at an Apple store where interaction with the products is strongly encouraged.

However, in today’s world, focusing on just one of the human senses is not enough. When experiencing the world around us, the human brain does not process stimuli through one sense. Remember some of your favorite experiences or memories.  What senses did this experience engage? I love going to college football games, but the thrill of my experience is not just about the action I see on the field.  It’s the roar of the crowd on a good play, the smell of hot dogs and popcorn, the taste of warm hot chocolate, and the camaraderie of high fiving with my neighbors when our team scores. All of these sensory elements create such strong memories that every time I smell popcorn or drink hot chocolate, I immediately think “college football” and feel a tinge of excitement inside.  Today, successful brands are engaging several of the senses to create the ultimate brand experience. Singapore Airlines has successfully differentiated its brand through a multi-sensory experience by carefully designing the fragrance, flight attendant look and behavior, interior setting and foods and services, to blend together to reflect the brand image.

Is Your Brand Communicating Effectively to the Senses?

When thinking about developing your future brand marketing strategy, consider the following:
•    Which senses are you using to engage consumers in your brand today?
•    How well are you using sensory stimuli to convey your target brand experience and image?
•    How can you better leverage multiple senses across different consumer touch points to communicate and differentiate your brand?

(r)evolution can help you successfully create the right sensory branding strategy through five key steps:

1.    Determine the most important elements of the brand image, experience and positioning you want to convey
2.    Map out key points of customer’s experience with your brand
3.    Identify a blend of potential sensory stimuli that best convey the brand along key touch points
4.    Validate through consumer research
5.    Create a sensory stimuli roadmap to activate through your marketing strategy and communication

Sources:  Millward Brown Study. Lindstrom, Martin. BRAND sense. New York, New York: Simon& Schuster, 2005. Walker, Rob. Buying In: The Secret Dialogue Between What We Buy and Who We Are. New York, New York: Random House, 2008. Zaltman, Gerald. How Customers Think: Essential Insights Into The Mind of the Market. Boston, Massachusetts: Harvard Business School Press, 2003. Brandchannel.com. Image from paul.malon.