Dimitar Trendafilov
When we talk about brands and their images among target groups, we talk about their fame, reputation and added value stored in the only possible place – a person’s mind. But there are a lot of physical spaces where consumers meet brands, these channels provide the primary data for brand positioning and preference studies. Stimuli, such as advertising, packaging, price and promotions, in principle, are within the control of the marketing department only in their creation and transmission, but their perception, however, is not. Brand management can cause headaches for marketers since the way we as consumers interpret ‘body language’ of brands is apparently trivial but can be of great significance (Bullmore 2001).
With the same train of thought, Underhill (2009) announced the new branch of anthropology should be devoted to the study of shopping; interacting with a retail environment (any in and outdoor commercial space), “the actual, physical premises, including but not limited to every rack, shelf, counter and table display of merchandise, every sign, banner, brochure, directional aid…”, and many more features. The first principle of shopping science states that there are certain physical and anatomical abilities, needs and limitations common to all people which every retail environment should take into consideration.
It is defined by factors beyond consumer or product characteristics. The effects could be behavioural (having fun with friends), or perceptive (having bad mood, time pressure, etc.) in a particular situation for which the product is needed (fig. 1). Very often self-image determines consumption according to the role we want to play in given context (‘man about town’ or ‘old fellow’, etc.). Even ‘habitual’ purchase is not simple and is not one and the same routine act every time. Nowadays, especially for high-value productssuch as cars, loans and real estate, we are well informed before even entering the shops/front offices/dealers and there a large set of factors and stimuli waiting for us – store fittings, sales members, other shoppers, promo-materials, etc., and we can often come out with more products than wanted.
Multisensory Branding
Lindstrom (2005) calls our attention to the fact that for a long time marketing has been dominated by a 2-D concept for brand perception since marketers have been underestimating the market environment. In fact, about 80% of parents’ purchases are influenced by their children whose senses are at least 200% stronger than those of the adults. A multisensory message directly influences the perceived quality of the product and from that point the value/price of the brand as well. Relatively few people deliberately think of taste or smell where they are interviewed about an automotive category, but in daily routine a lot of them eat and drink in their cars, and sensorial associations could be positive as well as negative. Moreover, our senses work in combination and the higher the number of sensory memories activated, the stronger the bound between brand and consumer. We ‘evaluate’ brands through senses, and through their combination and gradation according to attention, information, and feeling, all creating a bonding process. While sensation is a ‘immediate response of our sensory receptors to such basic stimuli as light, color, sound, smell, material structure… perception is the process by which the stimuli are selected, organised and interpreted’ (in this way we assign meaning to ‘raw’ data from the outer world) (Solomon et al. 2006). At the POS the emtire environment has an influence – the space mapping in the particular zone, brands’ names, package design, colors and their harmony. All this is preceded by the consumer experience with the product and cultural attitude towards the various types of goods.
First is the absolute threshold which signifies the lowest intensity of a stimulus, i.e. the minimum amount of stimulation that can be detected on a given sensory channel (hoardings are good channel but we need time to see the message or sound). Next is the differential threshold that signifies “the ability of a sensory system to detect changes between two stimuli”. It is relative and since what matters is the given marketing context and sensory channel by which should the information be provided (Solomon et al. 2006).
Sight
65% to 80% of communications passes through the visual channel. It is not by accident that good design has been developing, even among brands of widespread and everyday use goods (experts point out that packaging is simultaneously the ‘first moment of truth’ and ‘the last 5 seconds’ of marketing). As for colours, they are ‘seen’ in different way by different cultures, by different sexes as well as different languages. Our eyes can ‘tell’ us that we are replete more persistently then our stomach sensations do – for instance, if we eat our food from bigger box we are willing to eat more food than 50% more than usual quantity (or from smaller box) and even then we could say that we have not had enough.
Smell
Aromas awaken memories and activate emotions, reduce stress, and influence people’s mood. They are processed by the oldest/primary part of our brain – the limbic system. So called ‘aroma marketing’ is an industry worth more than $90 million, and available in various sectors. Producers put aromas, that are suitable for their goods, such as suits, underwear, etc. General Motors, for example, has elaborated its own aroma in order to put it into the leather seats of its automobiles since they should smell like lady’s handbag but not like cigarette lighter liquid.
Sound
Music can create good moods, and a lot of purchase appeals pass through a sound channel. Music serving as a background at a store or restaurant is among the main tools influencing the consumption. Thanks to the new technologies, sound, in the form of ray can be pointed towards the people passing at a significant distance from the device and in this manner an advertising message can to be heard only by a particular person.
Phonetic structure in the brand names also exercises influence on our perceptions about the substance and quality of the physical products. It is accepted that brands that have vowel ‘I’ in their names are perceived by the consumers as lighter than these with vowel ’a’ in them.
Touch
Tactile and overall skin feelings can be key factors in consumers choice if the consumer has opportunity to ‘feel with their fingers’ while they consider the product. People associate quality of fabrics and surfaces with the feeling of touch, which is also used by the cosmetics specialists who, for instance, have invited ‘tender’ in catch packages for shampoos. The prominent design of the Coca-Cola bottle significantly enhances the experience and bonding.
Taste
Very often food and drinks, which we consume in our childhood, and, in most of the cases are the products of the local culture, determine our perceptions of taste and companies take into consideration the peculiarities of the given market when they launch and communicate their products. There are laboratories working on new tastes and producers actively use the so called ‘electronic tongues’, which imitate almost 100% of the capacity of a human tongue, in order to make various tests on different tastes of food and medicines. Some of them count on ‘sensory panelists’ – ordinary consumers or well trained ones to rate the products comparing them with the competitors production.
Experience Marketing
For the first time the concept appeared in “The Experience Economy” (1997) by Pine and Gilmore. Experience, along with product benefits, is a ‘qualitative’ revolution in market demand, which powerfully knits together physical goods and services related with them, providing a new, higher level of valuation on behalf of the consumer. Since we are talking about ‘experience’, it concerns the consumer as the centre of both marketing efforts and of business as a whole. In a broader sense the notion of ‘experience’ includes satisfaction of knowledge and aesthetic needs of the consumer.
The grid of the consumer experience management includes ‘modules’ (or possible strategies) that should offer stimuli which the consumer should react to (sensually, intellectually, bodily, and socially) and ‘experience providers’ embracing communications, identity (brand name, logo, symbols), product design, availability, co-branding, situation (context) of consumption, websites, people (appearance and communication skills of the employees).
Strategies can vary according to geographical market, consumer segment chosen, product or/and service. Possible approaches in marketing programs include:
Intensity (Intensifying vs. Diffusing) – if the level of experience should be increased or decreased?
Depth – (Enriching vs. Simplifying) if the manager should put in motion only one or two providers, or should add more of them?
Breadth – (Broadening vs. Shrinking) if the manager should step to only one of the modules of experience or should use several of them?
The 6th Sense
We all have it. Culture is an accumulation of shared meanings as well as rules, norms, rituals, and traditions among the members of any given society or organisation (Solomon et al. 2006). As Parsons (1973) specifies, there are different levels of symbolism in any culture.
That’s why we should never exclude cultural influence when we talk about attaining knowledge through our senses; the “raw” experience is always put in frames of given models and meaning in order to be organized product and the individual is not just a passive receiver. Since commercial communication in particular market is part of the whole system of signification it forms and sometimes overcodes our perception by means of culture.
The famous anthropologist McCracken specifies (1988) that culture is both the ‘lens’ through which human beings see all phenomena around them and ‘blueprint’ of all human activities. Some drivers in our pop culture and everyday life are available to determinate consumer behavior.
The 7th Sense
Even the omnipresence culture needs ‘data storage’, i.e. memory to be able to work. It embraces traditions, scenarios of rituals, role models, and storytelling. Previous experience is immanent part of a consumer’s delight, bonding, and brand ‘evangelism’. Models and habits formed predominantly in childhood, in family culture and reference group, and with a circle of certain goods play dominant role in our brand preference, particular purchase choice, and our passive or active attitude towards given products and categories.
Dimitar Trendafilov, PhD is Managing Partner at Brand in Trend, Bulgaria
REFERENCES:
Bullmore, J., 2001. Posh Spice & Persil, The Brands Lecture; Available on: <http://www.britishbrandsgroup.org.uk/library> [Accessed 11 Dec. 2008].
Lindstrom, M., 2005. Brand Sense: Build Powerful Brands through Touch, Taste, Smell, Sight, and Sound. New York: Free Press.
Lindstrom, M., 2008. Buy-ology. Truth and Lies about Why You Buy. New York/London: Doubleday.
McCracken, G., 1988. Culture and Consumption: New Approaches to the Symbolic Character of Consumer Goods and Activities. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Parsons, T., 1973. The Idea of Culture in Social Sciences. Cambridge: University Press.
Pine, J. and Gilmore, J., 1997. The Experience Economy. Work is Theatre & Every Business is a Stage. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.
Solomon, M., Bamossy, G., Askegaard, S. and Hogg, M. K., 2006 [1999]. Consumer Behavior. A European Perspective (3rd ed.). Harlow, England/New Jersey: Prentice Hall, Inc.
Underhill, P., 2009 [1999]. Why We Buy. The Science of Shopping. New York/London: Simon & Schuster.
