Sensory ploys and the scent of marketing

We have all heard of the estate agent tricks to help sell a property: baking bread in the oven or
simmering a fresh pot of coffee on the stove. But marketing assaults on peoples’ senses go far beyond
a simple house sale. Global brands have become increasingly aware of the power of sight, smell, touch
and sound to influence purchasing behaviours.

McDonald’s has trialed scents for use in its restaurants in the knowledge that this not only draws in
customers, but also improves their perception of their overall dining experience.

Lynx, the popular deodorant for men, has spent considerable sums perfecting the sound of its aerosol
can to amplify its brand message of strength and effectiveness. This has led to a spray that is noticeably
louder than their ‘female’ deodorants.

Singapore Airlines even has a signature scent, which is worn by its aircraft crew and sprayed on to its
steaming hot towels.

All these sensory ploys look to play on

the limitations of the human brain,
which is unable to cope with sensory
overload. When this happens it uses
cognitive short-cuts to reduce the
amount of information it needs to
process information. So a subtle scent
or a particular sound can be just
enough to awaken positive past
associations or simply alter our other
sensory perceptions.
Charles Spence, professor of
experimental psychology at Oxford
University and a sensory consultant to
brands, points to research conducted by Unilever about 15 years ago. The fast- moving consumer
goods group discovered that by adding a fragrance to clothes, they were perceived by users as whiter
even when they weren’t.

Scent in washing detergents has now become a powerful weapon in engendering brand loyalty. Indeed,
sensory marketing has evolved into a multimillion dollar global industry. Diageo, the drinks group,
which sets aside close to £2bn for its annual global marketing budget, invests heavily on managing
the emotional responses of its consumers to many of its key drinks brands and employs more than 180
people worldwide in innovation roles. Jeremy Lindley, Diageo’s global design director, highlights
examples such as ‘the pop of the cork when you open a bottle of whisky or the particular sound a
Baileys [Irish Cream liquor] makes as you pour it’ as powerful emotive tools to boost sales. ‘It’s kind
of hard-wired into our understanding of drinks and our understanding of the emotional connection that
our consumers have to them’, he says. ‘It’s a topic that marketers and designers have become more
aware of over the years’.

This understanding goes far beyond the drinks industry. From the reassuring clunk of a BMW car door
to the subdued lighting in some shopping outlets, many sensory experiences are no accident. They
are often the fruits of extensive market research and hours of work from behind- the-scenes scientists
such as Diageo’s own ‘liquid development team’, which sits inside its innovation centre.

Prof Spence says a push towards sensory marketing has accelerated in recent years following the
growth in – and wider availability of – consumer research. ‘If tests say [your brand] does not taste better
than a white label, what can you do? You can start selling the experience of the bottle’, he says.
Drinks brands are also increasingly looking to improve the experience of customers in bars and pubs as
ways to further engender brand loyalty. He points to a recent trend in Latin America of drinking gin and
tonic in balloon glasses, which has led more drinks brands to roll out their own branded glassware for
bars and pubs. ‘By developing a signature glass you can change the drinker's behaviour by changing
their experience’, he says, pointing to research that shows that a particular glass ‘can add 20 per cent to
the enjoyment’.

Francis McGlone, professor of cognitive

neuroscience at Liverpool John Moores
University, notes that some butchers use
special fluorescent lighting: ‘Lighting meat
with certain wavelengths makes it look
redder’.

But there can be measurable practical

benefits to sensory research too. Toyota
is looking to introduce a vibrating warning
signal in its car headrests on the back of
research which indicates that we respond
more quickly to alerts in this area. In a car accident scenario, every millisecond counts. And in the world
of trading, every millisecond has a financial value. Prof Spence is also working with a major bank to
introduce sensory signals on its trading desks with the aim of shaving fractions of a second off the
average trade.

Certainly, the advertising world appears to need little convincing of the emerging science behind
sensory marketing. In March, JWT, the international ad group, formed a strategic alliance with Prof
Spence as it seeks to push its consumer understanding beyond ‘data, questionnaires and focus
groups’. JWT says physical experiences and human senses will become even more important in the
digital world as ‘more people feel disconnected with the physical world’.
Some brands are encountering their own particular challenges as their customers migrate online.
Splendid, a US clothing retailer that built its brand by using particularly soft materials, has introduced
online tools that allow shoppers to listen to the texture of a material with the roll of mouse.

Other tricks, such as using high-pitch music, can drive people towards the top of a website, Prof Spence
says. Meanwhile, by simply changing the background colour on their website, companies can increase
trustworthiness. This is of particular value, for example, when asking customers to enter their credit
card details.

But brands do not always get it right. Back in 2008, Frito-Lay knew that consumers responded positively
not only to crunchier crisps, but also to noisier packaging. So it introduced new noisy packaging for its
SunChips. So loud that they reached as high as 105 decibels, louder than a lawnmower or food
processor.

Two years later it withdrew the packaging following widespread consumer complaints. There was even
an active Facebook page entitled: ‘Sorry but I can’t hear you over this SunChips bag’.

There can be advantages in tapping into consumers’ senses. But brands can clearly go too far, says Prof
McGlone: ‘People just don't like their world to be too dislocated sometimes’.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2013

Discussion questions

1. Why are marketers interested in scent and other sensory stimuli?

2. How can sensory stimuli be integrated in the marketing mix?
3. What issues can you envisage in the use of such stimuli in marketing?