In order to seduce consumers, there are a multitude of marketing methods. Among them, new strategies have recently arrived, the aim being to influence the customer in the best possible way. In the latter, there is the famous sensory marketing.
Definition of sensory marketing
Also called experiential marketing or sensory communication, sensory marketing corresponds to all marketing methods targeting one or more of the five senses. This marketing technique aims to optimize the acquisition of a service, a product and/or its user experience. The advantages of sensory marketing on the customer relationship are many and varied.
For the consumer, the use of the senses takes place mainly at the level of the point of sale or the product. This has an essential function in relation to loyalty via what is called the user experience. Nowadays, experiential marketing adapts to the five senses, the goal being that there is a real impact on the consumer. So, here are the five types of marketing corresponding to the five senses: auditory, tactile, gustatory, olfactory and visual.
Sight, taste and touch are an integral part of product marketing. Thus, sensory marketing essentially targets the senses of hearing and smell.
Why use sensory marketing?
In order for you to understand the strengths of sensory marketing, it is essential that we talk about its major purposes. The first is customer loyalty. For example, it is possible to decorate your business in a certain way, play good music and/or diffuse specific smells. When customers love the atmosphere of a place, they are more likely to come back.
Optimize brand image
Sensory marketing offers the possibility of designing and optimizing the image of your company, in the same way as any marketing action. This marketing technique attracts customers and leads to purchase since the senses generate an affective effect. The use of sensory marketing gives the possibility of generating a warmer and more human interaction with consumers compared to e-commerce.
By choosing such a strategy, you offer a message and values. The client will remember the experience since his senses will have been stimulated. Experiential marketing aims to develop an atmosphere, a specific situation whose purpose is to mark the mind via sensory stimuli.
Positive emotions
By stimulating the sense of the consumer, you bring positive emotions to him. You can use one sense or combine multiple senses to complete your goals. Choose the actions to be taken and define the message to be transmitted, taking into account your activity environment.
Thus, to stimulate hearing, we recommend that you opt for the diffusion of continuous and powerful music in order to bring a discotheque effect and a sound identity. For the view, you can use punchy visuals and light shows, or even employees with advantageous physiques.
How to implement sensory marketing?
One of the main levers of sensory marketing is to use the cognitive perception of consumers in order to generate an emotional reaction. Normally, an act of purchase comes from an inner reflection whose purpose is to determine the pros and cons and to define the need. This strategy creates a positive atmosphere where the feeling of waiting decreases and the duration of the visit lengthens in a natural way. Therefore, the consumer is more likely to take action and buy!
More concretely, we recommend that you use for your target clientele an olfactory stimulus (such as a perfume designed for the occasion or specific scents), a sound (such as an ambient sound) and finally an environment offering a framework perfectly optimized visual.
All of these efforts aim to reduce the perception of time, while generating emotions related to the world of consumption. For example, a travel agency can set up a multitude of actions related to sensory marketing: the use of vanilla ambient scents, images of dream beaches as well as exotic sounds in order to fuel the the consumer’s desire to escape. In order to set up such a strategy, you can go to freelance portals like Elance, Upwork and Fiverr, microservices that have proven themselves over the years.
The concept of sensory marketing requires considering the target audience to ensure it has a positive effect on their behavior. It is by ensuring the well-being of consumers that they will retain their passage as an experience they want to relive.
Examples of companies using sensory marketing
Here are some prominent examples of companies using this type of marketing.
Starbucks
The American coffee chain Starbucks is one of the market leaders. It is one of the pioneering companies in the field of sensory marketing. Nowadays, a society in full evolution necessarily wants to stimulate the senses of its customers to pamper them and in order to build loyalty. This is the case with Starbucks. Consumers going to one of the group’s establishments can choose between multiple flavors of coffee, but also enjoy a pleasant smell of coffee or listen to the group’s flagship music.
Dunkin’ Donuts
Renowned donut brand Dunkin’ Donuts thought up and designed a sensory marketing strategy in South Korea’s capital Seoul. This was possible by stimulating the senses of smell and hearing. By doing this, the group supports its customers in purchasing its items. The goal is to proceed with the installation in the buses of the Asian city of Seoul of equipment that emits a smell of coffee. Thus, users could therefore enjoy this smell each time the Dunkin’ Donuts jingle was broadcast. And the effects of this strategy are more than positive. Indeed, Dunkin’ Donuts saw a 29% increase in sales.
Coca Cola
In the most famous examples of sound marketing, there is the inevitable Coca-Cola. Indeed, the brand has guaranteed that the noise of its cans during their opening generates a feeling of thirst. The purpose of this technique? Make consumers want to drink.
Conclusion
Similar to exposing customers to many advertising messages, companies use sensory marketing to capture their attention by stimulating instinctual areas of the brain. This technique offers the possibility of optimizing the identity of an article, a point of sale or a brand. In the long term, it aims to improve customer loyalty.
Hello, dear readers. I’m Adrien, Business virtual editor for the News Of Marseille website. You will be able to follow the various new contents on the companies and their secrets.