From the moment we’re born, we begin learning through our senses — touch, sound, sight — building the foundation for how we understand the world. Large group events, such as concerts or professional sports games, aim to incorporate multiple senses as a way to further engage the audience and trigger specific emotions. To get the same benefits, companies need to consider sensory marketing. These elements can help businesses to turn marketing campaigns into immersive experiences.
How Do the Senses Affect Emotional Associations?
When people consume online content, they use their senses to learn and perceive. Sensory experiences can help to create a specific emotional response in consumers, which can affect how they think about the thing they are experiencing. Sensory experiences affect emotional associations in these ways:
- Sight: Most people are visual learners, which means that they are more likely to consume or remember visual elements. This is why visual communication is so important.
- Sound: The types of sounds people hear during an experience affect their moods, based on their existing associations with those sounds.
- Touch: People are more likely to perceive certain textures as high-quality, enhancing their experiences.
- Taste: A familiar taste can evoke nostalgia, comfort, or delight.
Because the senses are not mutually exclusive, people often use multiple senses to determine how they feel about an experience.
How Do Sensory Experiences Affect Brand Recognition?
Branding can be evocative more than just visually, and companies can capitalize on the senses to create and maintain positive brand recognition. Sensory experiences affect brand recognition in several ways, including:
- Recognizable visual elements and logos
- Memorable scents inside of a store or restaurant
- Musical themes that trigger anticipation or excitement
Brand recognition is not always positive, so companies need to consider how to foster positive associations. As part of the data analytics businesses consider when crafting a brand strategy, they should include metrics that evaluate brand recognition based on the senses.
Immersive Branding Strategies
To create a lasting impression, brands need more than logos and taglines. They need experiences. Immersive branding through visual communications taps into multiple senses, helping people connect with a product or service from the moment they encounter it.
Color schemes and visual elements
Since people mostly process information based on what they see, especially online, visual branding should take center stage. A new branding effort can take time for people to recognize on sight, but the use of color schemes and visual elements can make a difference. Businesses should research ingrained associations based on color and choose themes that are more likely to evoke the emotions they would like to see in the target demographic. People are influenced in face to face or physical form through visual communications which come in the form of promotional displays, billboards, signs and more.
Memorable jingles or slogans
Almost everyone can name a few jingles or slogans that have stuck in their heads through the years, long after the marketing campaigns are done. Teachers use poetry and songs as a way to help reinforce learning, which means that these methods can be a potent tool for brand recognition. The slogan or jingle ought to be brief enough to repeat without becoming distracting or irritating.
Aroma marketing
A boutique selling specialty cleaning supplies might use aromas to evoke a sense of freshness or clean feelings in the shop, but online marketers can also use aroma marketing. Common experiences can be easily triggered in visual marketing as long as the target consumers will immediately recognize the sensory experience. For example, an orange-scented cleaning product might use fresh-cut orange slices to trigger the memory of the scent of fresh oranges.
Sound cues
Smartphones use sounds as a way to communicate to users without relying on visual engagement. These cues can be useful to create a more immersive sensory experience that leads to brand association with positive emotions. For example, the tones people hear when they turn on their favorite streaming app can help them relax or prepare for an entertaining experience.
Tactile feedback
Tactile feedback can help consumers make decisions about products and reinforce other elements of the brand. People who walk into a store selling blankets and other textiles may want to feel the fabric, to get a sense for its quality and comfort. Similarly, users rely on tactile elements to help them find their way through an online immersive experience. Haptics can do everything from notify users about an alert to giving a sense of driving on a dirt road.
Taste branding
Although marketing to taste is more difficult outside of serving food and drink, it still offers plenty of opportunities. Similar to aroma marketing, online images can evoke memories of tasting certain things. For example, an image of a child puckering their lips after tasting a lemon wedge can help consumers to recall tasting something sour. Along the same lines, the use of a plate of tea sandwiches and cakes in advertisements can add a high-class element to a brand selling tea.
Multisensory visuals
For the ultimate in positive brand recognition, companies should consider integrating multiple senses into the experience. Immersive experiences allow customers to feel like they are truly experiencing the product or service even if they are simply viewing the website. For example, the image of a person sitting in a mud bath with a towel on their hair and cucumber slices over their eyes evokes the following:
- Heat and humidity from a shower
- Feeling of mud on skin
- Cool, crisp skin and flesh of a cucumber
If people have positive associations with these things, they may create a further positive recognition of the brand. The use of immersive elements, including hanging structures, ambient lighting, and other designs, can help to set the stage for enjoyment.
Effective marketing is not just about creating moving images or sound. The most evocative campaigns rely on a variety of senses to instill certain brand associations, so that customers feel like they are immersed in the experience.
Author bio: Natalie Whited is the Enterprise VP of Marketing at Orbus® Visual Communications Group, where she has worked for 15 years, helping grow the company into a market leader in visual communications. She has led strategic product innovations and helped steer Orbus’ acquisition strategy, positioning the company for continued growth. Under her leadership, Orbus has quadrupled in sales, becoming North America’s largest visual communications group.
Want additional reading material on this topic? Check out these sources below:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15268926
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0022242919881137
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vlxF62J9yOuU-L2tHOZ7U_cybcr-dEJm/view
https://www.shiftelearning.com/blog/bid/350326/studies-confirm-the-power-of-visuals-in-elearning
https://www.promodo.com/blog/sensory-marketing#how-sensory-marketing-works
https://www.marq.com/blog/how-senses-influence-brand-experience