“People will forget what you said, they will forget what you did, but they will never forget how you made them feel.” - Maya Angelou
Brands that connect on an emotional level don’t just speak to one sense. They engage them all.
Sensory marketing, as this concept is called, enables companies to extend their reach beyond just our visual perception. They communicate through sound, touch, smell, and even taste. This is where a brand moves from being just a logo to an experience.
The Psychology of Senses
Sight dominates our marketing world. With so much investment in visual identities, brand image, and digital marketing efforts, it's a visual feast out there!
I'm here for the evolution and strategy behind the ads, logos, and images flooding every screen. However, high-level brand and marketing strategies, while crucial, are only one piece of the puzzle.
As marketers and brand strategists, we must consider which elements, beyond the visual, contribute to building a successful brand. How can we enhance the day-to-day interaction between a brand and its customers, both in the physical and digital worlds?
The solution extends beyond the domains of enduring or provocative graphic design, comprehensive market research, or even the product itself. Throughout history, the creation of comprehensive, immersive brand experiences has played a crucial role in establishing successful brands. This approach enhances marketing and brand strategies by engaging multiple senses, offering a more complete consumer experience.
Imagine a scenario for me: you enter a bakery and the warm, inviting aroma of freshly baked bread instantly transport you back to a comforting moment in your life. Later on you hear the bakery's jingle on the radio, which stimulates a sensory recall. The scent and taste of the bakery's products resurface in your mind, eliciting nostalgia and reinforcing the bakery's impression on you and create lasting brand associations.
This is the power of smell; it can evoke emotions and memories that visuals alone cannot. Taking a standard radio advertisement to an entire sensory experience for their customer. All sensory inputs contribute significantly to shaping our perceptions and memories.
Adding sensory elements into marketing strategies can create a more immersive experience for consumers. When a brand engages multiple senses, it not only captures attention but also fosters a deeper emotional connection. This connection can lead to brand loyalty, as customers are more likely to remember how a brand made them feel.
In a world saturated with visual stimuli, it’s the emotional connections that will stand out and leave a lasting impression. Our brains remember experiences that involve multiple senses better than those that involve just one. This is an important point to understand.
A study from the Journal of Consumer Research found that multi-sensory experiences build stronger emotional connections. This leads to deeper brand loyalty. So is it prudent to rely solely on visual elements??
When developing future campaigns, consider expanding beyond visual components. Think about how you can incorporate sound, texture, or even scent to create layers of engagement.
Sound is Your Brand’s Silent Ambassador
Reflect on the signature Netflix “ta-dum" or distinctive sound of a MacBook closing.
Sound is another powerful tool in sensory marketing. The jingle of a catchy tune or the soothing sound of a brand’s voice can create a lasting impression. Consider how certain brands use music to set the mood in their advertisements or stores. A lively beat can energize customers, while soft melodies can create a calming atmosphere, encouraging them to linger longer.
Auditory elements are integral to brand identity. It signals presence, evokes emotion, and sticks with us. Music, jingles, even a brand’s specific tone of voice can carve out space in someone’s memory. That’s because sound taps into the emotional part of our brain, stirring feelings and associations almost instantly.
The consistent use of rhythmic patterns or distinctive audio elements contributes to brand recognition and familiarity. On TikTok soundtracks are being used to on content to build brand recognition for companies and influencers.
From the music in your videos to the chime of a notification, make it intentional. Think beyond catchy jingles—consider audio that aligns with your brand’s tone and message. Incorporate a consistent sound element in your brand's identity.
Taste Before You Buy
Taste, while often overlooked in marketing, can be incredibly impactful, especially for food and beverage brands.
Sampling a product can create a direct emotional connection, leading to a memorable experience that encourages repeat purchases. Brands that offer tastings or unique flavor combinations often find that customers are more likely to return.
Touch Sends a Message
Touch feels like a relic in this age of screens, but it holds incredible power. Studies show that haptic feedback (the sense of touch) can improve how we perceive quality.
Touch also plays a significant role in how we connect with brands. The feel of a product can influence our perception of its quality. Think about the difference between a well weighted, suction-cuppy product packaging and a flimsy Amazon parcel. Or the weight of a business card, the texture of packaging.
Digital brands can do this too, with immersive, tactile packaging or experiences that engage a sense of touch beyond the screen.
The tactile experience can make us feel more connected to a product, enhancing our overall satisfaction. If your product includes physical touchpoints, invest in texture. Consider packaging that provides a tactile experience suggestive of luxury, softness, or uniqueness. If your brand is digital, explore immersive touch experiences—like integrating haptic feedback in app design.
Smell is Potent and Real
Smell, the most underutilized sense in branding, has the strongest link to memory and emotion. Remember walking past a bakery and suddenly being 10 years old again? This illustrates the influence of olfactory stimuli.
Some brands excel at this approach: Abercrombie & Fitch, for example, is known for its iconic store fragrance, embedding the brand into your memory.
For physical spaces, consider a signature scent. Implement subtle olfactory elements to enhance the experience. Whether it’s the smell of fresh coffee in a cafe or lavender in a hotel lobby, scent can leave a lasting impression.
Combining the Senses
The real magic happens when you engage multiple senses together into a sensory symphony. Consider how brands like Apple make unboxing an iPhone a tactile, auditory, and visual experience. You don’t just open a box—you engage with the product from the moment you touch the packaging, hear the click, and see the sleek design. These little moments, strung together, create an unforgettable brand experience.
Ultimately, the goal of sensory marketing is to create a holistic experience that resonates with consumers on a personal level. By appealing to sight, sound, smell, touch, and taste, brands can transform ordinary interactions into memorable moments.
So the next time you are launching a new product or marketing campaign, ask yourself: how many senses are we engaging? A multisensory approach can be beneficial. Create a seamless sensory journey that touches on visuals, sounds, textures, and beyond.
Beyond the Senses
Sensory marketing is not just about adding layers for the sake of it. The objective is to create an experience that engages on a deeper, emotional level. When executed effectively, sensory elements complement rather than compete with each other. And in that harmony, your brand finds a permanent place in the hearts (and memories) of your audience.
When planning your next campaign, consider how to engage senses beyond sight, expanding your brand's experiential offerings.
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