Sight, sound, smell, taste and touch. The five senses we use daily. While it may be obvious how some of these senses can be exploited through marketing, you might be overlooking how some other senses subtly influence customer purchasing decisions, which could be costing you sales and market share. This approach is known as sensory marketing or sensory branding, and brands use it to stimulate emotional responses with consumers. So, how are the five senses engaged through marketing, and how can they be leveraged to gain a competitive edge? Let’s see.
Sight and Sound
Sight and sound are arguably the most common and recognizable senses employed in marketing, whether through television, radio, billboards, podcasts, print ads or social media. Marketers strive to capture our attention with bright colors, engaging sounds and captivating visuals. Sound is used constantly in marketing—think of your favorite memorable jingle, slogan or signature brand sound, and consider the emotional responses they evoke. The power of a song or a jingle is unmatched in getting people to recognize, remember and recall a brand.
This emotional triggering tactic works with sight as well. A recent study published by Management Decision found that color alone accounts for up to 90% of the information that shapes consumer perceptions of a brand. Additionally, research indicates that specific colors stimulate certain buying emotions, highlighting the strategic importance of color choice in marketing campaigns.
Below is a list of common colors and the emotions they can bring out in the average consumer:
- Red: excitement, action, power
- Orange: playfulness, creativity, enthusiasm
- Yellow: happiness, optimism, joy
- Green: nature, growth, stability
- Purple: royalty, luxury, romance
- Blue: calm, peacefulness, trust
Through color these emotions can be effectively utilized to help market products and represent a brand through packaging or even their company logo too. Beyond audio, video and still imagery, the other three senses influence purchasing decisions too.
Smell and Taste
Although less useful in traditional media marketing, Smell and taste can play crucial roles, particularly in food and beverage, hospitality and retail industries. The scent of a bakery’s freshly baked bread or the distinctive smell of a high-end clothing store can significantly influence consumer behavior. An American Marketing Association study found that smell is the sense most closely related to memory, with enticing, desirable scents helping trigger 3% increases in consumer spending. Cinnabon, the beloved bakery and restaurant, purposely places its ovens at the front of its stores so that the smell of freshly baked cinnamon rolls fills the surrounding areas to draw in customers, sometimes even warming just cinnamon in their ovens for the smell and subsequent desired emotional response from hungry customers.
Similarly, taste also summons memories and emotions. That’s why restaurants sometimes offer taste testing and sampling opportunities, and grocery stores offer bite-size samples in aisles to help encourage immediate impulse purchases. Smell and taste are both effective senses to trigger in marketing tactics, but in nearly all cases, each require foot traffic and one-on-one personal customer engagement to maximize effectiveness.
Touch
Finally, let’s ‘touch on’ the sense of touch within marketing. This is an extremely valuable sense in presenting a physical product, from clothes to electronics to automobiles and so much more. The way a product feels in a consumer’s hands can make or break that product in the marketplace. Creating a quality product is obviously very important, but don’t skimp on making its packaging presentation part of the experience; its delivery method and appearance are also vital. A company that utilizes detail in packaging their product brands is Apple. Although Apple’s packaging is quite simple, there are specific feelings that come with unboxing an Apple phone or iPad or Mac that ooze quality and value; it feels substantial and expensive. This feeling positively influences consumer perception and in turn provides worthwhile benefits to their overall purchasing experience.
By understanding and strategically stimulating multiple combinations of the five senses, businesses can create deeper, more meaningful connections with consumers based on emotional responses. This sensory approach enhances creative tactics, differentiates brands in their market space and fosters raving-fan relationships between customers and businesses. Let CMOco’s marketing experts help you stimulate the five senses of potential customers and expand your market share.
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