The Components Of Your Brand’s 5 Senses

By Brandon Allen - Feb 24 , 2011

On the surface branding seems like a pretty simple and straightforward endeavor. Get me a logo, a tagline and some colors and let’s get going.  Then you get a little deeper into the process and your realize there are many facets or your brand that you need to consider.

There are many ways that people can experience your company.  They can experience your company.  In the book Experience Economy, they talk about how important visuals are as well as smell with the goal to be touch as many as a clients senses as possible when they experience your company.  These are all components that go into your brand’s five senses.

Visual: This one’s the easiest for us to handle.  We create logos and other graphic visuals as well as websites, store fronts etc.  The typestyles that you use as well as the color scheme.

Auditory: Everyone knows what sounds accompanies any presentation of the Intel logo.  You recognize the noise that occurs when you start up Windows.  If you drink coffee at Starbucks you are likely to hear an artist like Elvis Costello or Joni Mitchell playing in the background.  How people talk to you at a business is very important as well.

Smell: This is obvious when you walk into a restaurant but what about other types of businesses?  What do you want your customer to experience from a sense of smell standpoint. I read an article not too long ago from Brand Strategy Insider about this very topic.  Here’s what they had to say: “Smells invoke memories and appeal directly to feelings without first being filtered and analyzed by the brain, which is how the remaining four senses are processed.” Sense of smell can be powerful.

Touch: How do your products feel when they are in your hands?  I love the iPod packaging for that very reason.  I love the way the paper on the box feels as you are holding it. It feels like something you want to own.  Again the Brand Strategy Insider articles cited online clothes shopping as one of the industries that never took off online.  People want to feel who the clothes fit before they buy them.  They obviously can’t get that experience online.

Taste: Obviously this one is easy for businesses in the food industry as this is an important component for them.  How can you also leverage this in your own business?  Do you offer clients drinks when they come in? Maybe a mint?  Just because your business is not in the food business doesn’t mean you can’t use taste in your experience.

Utilizing the five senses in your brand experience takes some work to implement and depending on your platform for business, you may not be able to incorporate all of the senses into your experience. My guess is that there are, however, senses you can incorporate into your business brand that you haven’t even thought about.  Our senses can trigger powerful thoughts and memories, this can be a great way to create positive, memorable experiences for your business.

What can you incorporate into your brand today using the five senses?