Engage the senses with the brand

As you may be well aware, neuromarketing, publicized by Martin Lindstrom in his book Buy-ology, is the scientific method of measuring the brains reaction to marketing stimulus. It is based on the assumption that people cannot really articulate the reasoning behind their purchasing decisions or desire. The way someone responds to a survey and the way their brain responds to a survey can be very different. Since the brain is not subject to an ego or theatrics, it is assumed to be the one telling the truth. Sort of like a lie detector. Taking this idea a step further, it follows that there may be all sorts of outside influences affecting our decisions which we aren’t even aware of. Those influences though, will always reach us either through logic or emotion. And, the path to emotional engagement is the senses. Will you buy something because it smells, looks, feels, sounds or tastes hits a raw nerve within you? You bet!

According to Lindstrom, sneakers placed in a room with a scent so subtle it was considered subconscious, outsold sneakers placed in a room without the smell by 84%. Additionally, people were willing to spend on average $10.33 more for the sneakers in the scented room! Lindstrom suggests using scent to evoke childhood memories. Vanilla scent is naturally found in mother’s milk and is therefore the earliest childhood memory we can evoke through the senses. Baby powder scent as well creates a strong emotional reaction, taking us back to our earliest childhood memories. Many companies specialize in scent marketing. They can literally recreate any scent imaginable.

Sound is a powerful stimulus. Consider the fact that Harley Davidson sued Honda, claiming Honda’s Shadow Ice 1,000 sounded similar to Harley’s Fatboy. Obviously, Harley felt the “potato, potato" sound of their engines was an integral part of the Harley experience.

Consider this: In 1998, Adrian North, David Hargreaves and Jennifer McKendrick ran a test in a British wine shop to determine the role of background music in purchase decisions. For a number of days they piped in French and German music, alternating between the two. The results: on French-music days, the French wine outsold the German wine by a ratio of four to one. On German-music days, German wine outsold the French by a ratio of three to one. The same team also discovered that customers are likely to tolerate long waiting times (both on the phone and in the real world), if and when the hold/background music is enjoyable and fits our expectations. [From Building Brand Value Through the Strategic Use of Sound by Noel Franus.]

What about looks? Consider the back label of Listerine Purple: “the bottle design and purple color are trademarks of Johnson & Johnson”. Remember Crystal Pepsi? Somehow, colorless cola did not feel right. What about Heinz’s green ketchup, for that matter?

And, by the way, the smell of that new car you leased- It’s entirely artificial according to Lindstrom. Actually, it is sprayed in to the vehicle with an aerosol can right before coming off the assembly line and is designed to last 6 weeks after the purchase. What would buying a new car be like without its accompanied new car scent?