Marketing and advertising are all around us, which means brands must really strategize and think outside the box for ways to engage with an audience. When it comes to interior brand design, marketing strategies have continued to develop in ways to help businesses succeed while engaging with and educating target audiences.
One way marketing has adapted from traditional routes in recent years is through concepts like sensorial marketing, a component of experiential marketing that works well for branded interiors such as corporate headquarters, customer service centers and training facilities. Branded interiors go beyond using logos or creating a pleasant interior design aesthetic. In fact, branding and interior design can work together to engage with consumers and visitors by invoking emotions and inspiring the senses. When your company’s space reflects the message and story behind your brand, it creates a much stronger overall effect. Here’s what you need to know about sensorial marketing and how custom interiors work for brands.
What Is Sensorial Marketing?
Sensorial marketing appeals to one or more of the five senses to better engage with your audience. This type of marketing goes beyond making connections virtually or in person. Sensorial marketing creates a unique and memorable experience for your target audience so they can easily make connections to your brand in the future. By focusing on the senses, you can evoke emotions and actions from your customers to raise brand awareness and garner customer loyalty. When it comes to sensorial marketing, the best strategy will involve an innovative and personalized approach that works specifically with a product or service you offer. Thus, a vital part of the sensorial marketing process is selecting what types of senses best align with your brand.
One example of how sensorial marketing has made a lasting impression on customers is a store like Abercrombie & Fitch. With hundreds of retail stores across the US, the company knew it had a consistent game plan for how to reach its target audience. Each store features the strong scent of a signature cologne, loud popular music, and dimmed lighting. The generation of millennials who spent hours in the mall will never forget the scent of that store or the sounds of its music wafting out the door. This is an example of early efforts to utilize sensorial marketing to develop brand awareness, attract customers, and create a memorable experience. Brands can incorporate similar strategies when designing spaces for customer interactions, even in B2B environments.
Enhancing Customer Experience Through Multi-Sensory Design
Multi-sensory design and marketing create space for you to enhance the customer’s experience by appealing to their five senses. Here are ways you can consider enhancing your customer experience through sensorial marketing with each of the five senses.
Sight
Sight is perhaps the most common sense that brands engage when it comes to marketing a product or service. Interior brand design focuses on how the look and feel of the space resonates with the target audience and what that branded space communicates. People are visual creatures, and engaging with their sight is a quick and easy way to draw someone in. From lighting to spatial awareness, the visual experience plays a significant role in connecting current and potential customers to your brand.
Sound
Consider the soundtrack for your brand, whether real or imagined. What do you want your target audience to hear when they interact with your product or service? What sound profile best fits the branding and storytelling of your product or service?
Take a moment to think about what you actually hear in the space, from the rattle of the air vents to any music playing over the speakers. Humming, buzzing, and rattling sounds can distract and even signal that your place is in disrepair and, therefore, not trustworthy. Choose music or other sounds that complement your brand as well as your target audience’s interests. A soundscape should feature smooth transitions that help blend into the background of the overall experience.
Scent
Smell is one of the most effective ways of engaging with the senses in a memorable way. In fact, people can even connect certain scents with long-term memories. Focusing on pleasant scents that connect with your product can help customers remember your product, service, or space long after they visit.
Before considering a scent profile for your branded space, you first want to check for any scents to remove. You never want to cover up an old or musty smell with your scent profile. Instead, make sure your space is clean before you add any aromas into the air. Also, consider seasonal scents as powerful motivators and for creating sense memories that will have your target audience feeling nostalgic and wanting more of your product or service.
Touch
The sense of touch isn’t just about what we can feel or touch with our fingertips. Engaging with touch can include tactile experiences like what the floor feels like beneath your feet and the temperature in the room. Consider your target audience and what they would typically be wearing, what time of year it is, and where they might be coming from before they reach your space. These factors can impact their experience. Also, consider how your customers will interact with your product or services. Make sure you work with spatial awareness so that products are within reach and that the space flows well so your customers can move through unencumbered.
Taste
Finally, taste is the final sense that can often get overlooked when it comes to sensorial marketing, too. Taste can make a huge impact on a customer’s experience. There are low-cost yet effective ways to engage with your target audience through their tastebuds that will have them associating that positive experience with your brand. Your taste marketing strategy should also be purposeful and fit into the larger story you are trying to tell with your brand.
What Can a Brand Get Out of Custom Interior Brand Design?
When you partner with Exhibitus, we will help you create a custom interior brand design that best meets your marketing goals. Incorporating sensorial marketing into your environment will create a multi-sensory experience geared directly toward your target audience. Sensorial marketing will align well with your overall experiential marketing strategy and help develop a consistent brand experience. At Exhibitus, we offer innovative solutions for experiential marketing and always strive to incorporate the best strategies that align with your brand.
Make a Lasting Impression Through Branded Interiors Today
Contact Exhibitus today to learn more about how we can assist you in making a lasting impression through bespoke branded interiors.