Marketing to the 5 senses

A long while ago, we kickstarted #EXP101 defining experiential marketing in relation to the sense organs. Let's delve some more with this article.?

Why market to the senses?

#Research has found that in the short term, we remember 1% of what we touch, 2% of what we hear, 5% of what we see, 15% of what we taste and 35% of what we smell. Similarly, since we naturally depend on our senses as humans, consumers do not have the usual resistance built up against annoying ads. Either way, your audience will still use these senses whether you use them or not and if you do not define that experience, especially during your activation or event, the experience might not be favourable to your brand.

So how to incorporate marketing for the senses, especially during activations and brand events??

#sight: Highlight the visual elements associated with your brand. Display your brand colours, the logo, identifiable images of the product and parts or pieces of it. This is the consumer's opportunity to see things close up so be elegant about it. Communicate in line with your brand personality of course. The walls, furniture, and small pocket-size souvenir samples of the product are all ways of bringing that visual experience home for your attendees. Visual Reality is also a thing these days. Create an ideal world with your brand as the centre of the consumer (whichever fits). Additionally, pictures and videos taken by the audience at the event can be shared on social media serving as marketing for those who aren't physically present. See that?

#sound: Sound is one of the most used in this part of the world. It can quickly become a nuisance though, so be careful about it. Everyone listens to music or some sort of sound across various genres, you just have to use sounds in line with your brand. For example, how Opera communicates high class and elegance, R&B communicates a soothing sensation, etc. Use different sounds at different stages. To call attention to your stand, to define the moment while they are at the event, to demonstrate excellent customer service, even. Hear that?

#smell: No. Not only food and fragrance brands have the advantage of smell in events. Science says that if we see an image with an accompanying smell, we remember it much longer. Think about the smell of home-cooked food right now and everyone’s mind wafts to different places even though the smell is not physically present. That is the power of scent. Create ambiences that accompany the ideal atmosphere for your brand. Do not overdo it though. Candles, strong furniture finishes, bubble wraps, cartons from boxes, wrapping paper, and forest plants are all items with distinct smells. These can be timed interactively. If you are a food, fragrance or tourism brand though, you have a greater advantage. Smell it?

#taste: This is a bit sensitive and usually more restricted to food and consumption brands. Stuff like the regular food samples, wine sips, and small-sized versions of your package for your target audience's little appetizing taste. Science says that what people taste is often strongly linked to their other four senses. So even for brands that aren't exactly selling the 'eatables', take advantage of the sense of taste to condition the atmosphere you want for your consumers. Providing samples of non-related confectionery like cake and toffee to create a calm, breakfast mood, strong bitters for a daring and bold adventuristic brand, etc. It's all about the intention. A simple bottle of cold water under your cool shade for audiences coming from the sun passes across a great deal. These items could be non-branded if it's within your means, but if not, try to secure this as a partnership of sorts.?

#touch: The largest sense organ in the body is the skin. It makes sense therefore to communicate with the sense of touch. If you've well observed, ideas have been given alongside other senses on how to maximise the sensory touch in your next brand efforts. Essentially, let all that is available for sight, taste, or smell be inviting and with a corresponding finish. We mostly touch with our hands, so we're talking furniture, wall finishes, cutlery, paper designs and texture, etc. Know the likely 'touch points' the consumer is likely to chance upon and 'accidentally' guide their experience along those lines. A simple, functioning air conditioning vent to ease hot weather is not a bad idea, dependent on what kind of venue. Touch makes folks conclude on a product faster as a lot can be decided just upon feeling.?

There you have templates on how to implement sense-based marketing especially targeted at the five main sense organs.?

Be back soon with another article. Cheers!