Sensory marketing refers to marketing to the five senses: sight, hearing, touch, taste and smell. With a multi-sensory marketing strategy, you can create a complete, memorable customer experience and encourage specific responses to your brand.
First, scent can be used to make your brand instantly recognizable and influence the mood of your customers or the atmosphere of your store. A relaxing scent like lavender can be used in a hospital or spa, luxury items can be made to appear more expensive with scents like leather, and the smell of fresh linens can make an otherwise sweaty gym seem pleasant and clean.
Another great example of scent marketing is the Destinia travel agency in Madrid, Spain. Destinia installed scent dispensers in the Madrid subway and programmed them to spray scents that reflect the regions they el salvador telegram number database travel through, such as the region’s famous wines. Then, if you guess the scent correctly on social media, you have a chance to win a hotel stay in the area. This not only increases brand recognition for local products, but also promotes engagement with new customers.
Music can also be used strategically to influence customers’ emotions and encourage certain behaviors. For example, Abercrombie and Fitch played pop music at 90 decibels in order to (1) attract young people to their target demographic and (2) overstimulate customers and make them make impulse purchases.
In advertising, brands have reused their classic songs time and again to spread brand awareness and get their theme songs stuck in consumers’ minds. Some notable examples include Subway’s “Five Dollar Foot Long” song, Huggies’ “I’m a Big Kid Now” and Nationwide’s “Nationwide is on Your Side.”
The sense of touch allows customers to literally feel your brand in their hands and can directly influence their perception. In The Power of Touch for Psychology Today, Rick Chilliot discusses how research shows that “seemingly insignificant touches can lead to bigger cues for waitresses, that people shop and buy more when touched by store greeters. [...] Call it the human touch, it’s a brief reminder that we are social animals at heart.”
This isn’t to say you need to go out and give your customers a hug – but some kind of tactile experience can improve how they feel about interacting with your brand. For example, if you have a booth at a trade show, you could incorporate active, hands-on activities like branded games or design some activities to take home yourself. Apple understands the importance of touch, which is why Apple stores let you pick up and play with smartphones and tablets as you please.