Smell The Coffee

Brand Sense is a holistic way of understanding, deconstructing and building a brand by taking into account how it impresses each of our five senses. How does a sensory approach cut away the jargon typically associated with branding?

In the face of intense competition and various mergers and acquisitions, many companies are facing what is termed as “Brand Blur”. It is amazing how companies do not at times capitalise on the most obvious human behaviour to leverage their brand. They forget to leverage the five senses that can lead to creating a complete brand effect.

Research conducted reveals that aural communication is just as important as visual and otherwise. For instance, while researchers were testing Intel Inside, they came to a conclusion that the Intel melody was as recognisable and memorable to the consumer than the Intel Inside logo.

Often it is the consumers’ ability to recall scents and odours that leads to increasing brand equity. This is what prompts marketers for very famous companies to create what are called the “corporate smells” to fit the “corporate logo”.

Every brand strives to impress its audience. Companies spend inordinate amounts of money to create or alter two things: Recognition and Perception. Recognition and perception can come about only through one of the five senses. Knowledge is either taken through the eyes, ears, nose, mouth or the nervous system. Therefore, everything consumers know of brands begins from these sensory perceptions.

Our senses inform us of our surroundings. They inform and influence our entertainment and buying experiences. For instance, in retail environments, brand managers are giving more thought to their brand’s “soundtrack”. In a similar manner, the Volkswagen site - vw.com discovered that since it began to have music on its site, an average visitor stayed on five minutes longer.

Brand relationships operate in the manner of creating expectations which consumers hope will be fulfilled. A brand’s promise also works in a similar way to the expectations created through the senses. If for instance, a financial brand associates itself with the sound of champagne cork popping, the audience may expect celebratory profits.

Senses Together

Sounds, pictures, words, smells, tastes, and tactile stimuli are not as important individually as the relationship between them and the brand. People react to brands holistically. For instance, when Vincent Van Gogh painted with green he knew how orange would react next to it. In a similar manner, when we associate a sound with a brand, we need to know how it will interact with the pictures, or tastes that are also associated with it.

Brand Sense in a way infuses strategic business thinking into all of a company’s aesthetic decisions, which together make up its brand. Brand sense is also a way to distil a brand down to its essence. It’s a way of perceiving a brand that takes into account how the consumer perceives the world.

Sight + Sound + Taste + Touch + Smell = Brand Essence

What customers take in with their five senses is what ultimately creates a brand experience. From each brand experience there evolves the perception of what you are leading to : the Brand Personality.

Case in Point: StarBucks Coffee

Starbucks – as the website exclaims, “The Starbucks experience is as much about quality and service as it is about the superior taste of our coffee”. From its partnership ventures with Hear Music and The New York times to its strategic placement in Barnes & Noble bookstores, Starbucks sells a complete sensory experience – the smell of coffee, the décor, the music, even the energy of the Baristas serving you. Buying Starbucks coffee is an event that transports you to another place, another dimension, another world!

When reinventing your brand, go back to building blocks of how your customers create impressions of the five senses. Brand sense is a great way to get beyond preconceived notions about your brand. Get to the other senses of your customers and make them all brand advocates.

Let the sensing begin!

Related reading:

1. “Find your brand humanity”; Bremser, Jeff; BrandWeek; Jun 2001

2. “Delivering the Brand Promise”; Weinstein, Jeff; Hotels; Mar 2001

3. “The Living Breathing Brand”; PR Newswire; Apr 2000

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