Sensory marketing: definition, method, and examples

Any brand or retail chain wishing to boost its business results by offering a unique experience must master the technique of sensory marketing.

Sidely takes you on a journey to discover this key concept for product and service sales players. We will go through the definition, the benefits for manufacturers and points of sale, review iconic examples of brands that have used sensory marketing brilliantly, and then reveal the limitations you need to know. Finally, to help you take action, we will provide a step-by-step method to implement your own sensory marketing strategy.

Let's go!

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Sensory marketing: definition and contexts of use

Sensory marketing brings together all the techniques used to stimulate one or more of the consumer's 5 senses - sight, hearing, smell, touch, and taste - to influence the perception of a brand, product, or retail environment.

Indeed, positive sensory experiences increase engagement, strengthen memory retention, and influence purchasing decisions.‍

By triggerring emotional and cognitive reactions, the ultimate goal of sensory marketing is to promote the sale of a product or service. However, its objectives are often broadened to the commercial performance of a point of sale, whether it involves increasing the average basket size, the conversion rate, or customer loyalty.

Since sensory marketing relies mainly on feelings, it can also be referred to as experiential marketing, and each sense can lead to a discipline in its own right: 

• Sight → Visual marketing;

• Hearing → Auditory marketing;

• Touch → Tactile marketing;

• Smell → Olfactory marketing;

• Taste → Gustatory marketing.

The five senses in sensory marketing

1. Sight: colors, shapes, designs, and lighting are used to capture attention and convey a strong visual identity (which begins right from the storefront window). Retailers use specific palettes to evoke emotions or values. This concept of branding can be extended to the logo or messages used in points of sale, and even to different types of merchandising.

2. Hearing: music, voice-overs, or ambient sounds are carefully chosen to influence customers' mood and behavior, as seen in stores or restaurants. Sound design, such as jingles and other brand signatures, is part of this.

3. Smell: specific fragrances or scents are diffused in spaces to create a pleasant atmosphere, trigger memories, or associate a scent with a brand.

4. Touch: materials, textures, or even the opportunity to handle products play an important role in the sensory experience and the perception of quality. Physical contact is often considered a prerequisite for the purchasing act.‍

5. Taste: in certain sectors (food, beverages), tastings or taste experiences strengthen the emotional connection with the product. This sense is most frequently engaged in the food service industry and mass retail.‍

Why use sensory marketing?

The goals pursued by sensory marketing are multiple:

• ‍Brand identity: creating a unique and memorable sensory experience strengthens the brand's image with consumers and can even lead to the development of an emotional bond. Brands that succeed in this feat are called love brands;

• Extending time spent in-store: a pleasant environment encourages customers to stay longer in the shop. Beware, this must translate into an increase in revenue... Indeed, in some cases, the opposite happens!

• Boosting sales: a well-designed atmosphere can positively influence purchasing behavior. The conversion rate and average basket size are boosted by this pleasant feeling;

• Fostering customer loyalty: a successful sensory experience creates a more or less intense feeling of well-being, which generally encourages customers to return to relive this positive sensation. This is not always conscious!

• Positioning: with consumers saturated with advertising messages, differentiation is key to commercial performance. Emotional marketing then becomes a lever that allows brands to stand out from the crowd!

• Defending brick-and-mortar retail: the rise of e-commerce has increased pressure on physical retail stores, which must now "justify" the benefit of traveling to make a purchase. Sensory marketing then makes it possible to offer a special experience that is impossible to replicate online - e.g., tasting a product! - although we will see below that sensory marketing also exists in its digital version.

‍Digital sensory marketing

While sensory marketing is spontaneously associated with brick-and-mortar retail, its best practices generally apply to digital as well, as the web is also a great playground for brands to integrate numerous concepts of design (UI), experience (UX), and sound identity.

‍And the list goes on: the visual interface of websites or mobile applications is carefully designed to capture attention and create an engaging atmosphere; colors, animations, images, and videos play a key role in capturing consumer attention and generating positive emotions. Brands can even use virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) to immerse users in captivating visual stories. For example, Maybelline invites you to "find the perfect shades for you and try on its virtual makeup tools."

Grain de Sail, for its part, invites you to track the cargo sailboat transporting its organic products: coffees, chocolates, and wines with limited CO2 emissions!

‍Even merchandising has found its place in digital. This shows how thin the line between offline and online commerce has become, and how digital sensory marketing best practices are flourishing. Ultimately, the goal is the same: to make the user experience more immersive, strengthen memory retention, and encourage purchases by creating a stronger emotional connection with the brand.

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Examples of sensory marketing by business sectors

But then, which companies use sensory marketing?

Well... all of them! And regardless of their sector!

‍Indeed, experiential marketing has become indispensable in most physical retail spaces, as well as on the web, as we saw above. Every industry can thus find the right levers to activate to create a favorable experience centered around well-being.

‍Here are a few iconic examples! We bet you already know most of them?

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How to implement your sensory marketing?

Implementing sensory marketing requires a strategic and well-planned approach to guarantee a consistent and effective customer experience.

‍The marketing department should follow this methodology: 

1. Customer analysis: identify customer expectations, preferences, and needs. Example: will your customers be favorably stimulated by a warm, luxurious, or rather energizing atmosphere?

2. Define the right goals: increase sales, extend time spent in-store, strengthen loyalty, or improve brand image;

3. Identify the senses to engage:  sight; hearing; smell; touch; taste. Then search for ideas to leverage each of the 5 senses; 

4. Create sensory consistency: all sensory elements must reflect the brand's identity and be aligned with one another. Example: An organic retailer will combine soft music, natural colors, and woody scents.

5. Technical implementation: design, source, and deploy equipment such as scent diffusers, adjustable lighting, sound systems, etc.

6. Test and adjust: conduct real-world tests to measure the impact on customers (time spent, purchasing behaviors). Organize surveys to analyze reactions.

7. Evaluate results: measure key indicators:
   - Revenue: did sales increase?
   - Customer loyalty: do customers return more often?
   - Time spent in-store: do customers extend their visit?
   --> Use tools tailored to measuring commercial performance, like the Sidely CRM in the field of merchandising.

Practical example: a ready-to-wear boutique

• Goal: Create a premium ambiance to increase the perceived value of products.

• Actions:

  • Diffuse a light, floral scent;

  • Use targeted lighting to highlight articles;

  • Play a lounge music playlist in the background;

  • Offer gift wrapping with slightly scented paper.

• Evaluation: gather KPIs in a before/after mode: Purchase rate, average basket size, and (over a longer period) the percentage of returning customers.

💡 Setting up sensory marketing requires very detailed knowledge of the brand and especially how it is perceived by its customers, as well as careful implementation to avoid counterproductive mistakes or excesses.