Sensory Branding : What is this I smell??

Marketing and Branding is all about appealing to the emotions of your target audience. Its about creating an intimate connect with them, by appealing to their feelings, aspirations, fears, desires and wants. Isn't it all about Senses?


Alicia Clegg shares the story of Orgasmic Chocolates, the brain (or perhaps love) child of two budding UK entrepreneurs, is a new luxury chocolate infused with “wildcrafted” Chinese herbs, which its owners hope will be the next big thing in chocolate indulgence.

The Branding , although making the most rash promise, is intent on creating a deep emotional connect with their target customers through texture, smell, taste and visual appeal. 

In India, the use of Sensory marketing is quite limited to visual senses. While the field lies wide open to appeal through the touch, texture, smell and sound , creating a more comprehensive and wholesome brand experience.

Also interesting is the inherent ability of the Direct Marketing channel to adopt the most substance out of sensory marketing efforts.
  
In Brand Sense, author Martin Lindstrom predicts that the world of marketing is about to witness “seismic shifts” in the way in which consumers perceive brands, analogous to “moving from black and white television…with mono sound to high-definition color screens installed with surround sound.” The revolution will come about, he argues in the book, as businesses look beyond their traditional palette to include as many sensory cues as possible in their marketing and product development. 


 This should bring a new wave to the branding discipline. And we are already SMELLING it in the air!

Brand INDIA

What a disaster! CWG is a classic case of a wonderful opportunity gone drastically wrong. What happened here? Did the government get overambitious? Did they misjudge the corruption capabilities of our officers and bureaucrats? Or is it just destiny and weather playing truant?

Whatever it maybe....the Brand India, stands tarnished for a very long time to come. India had positioned itself as a economic force to reckon with , when it fought off the recession to be some of the first economies to stabilize, and growth thereafter helped strengthen that positioning. And everything now gets washed out along with the rains that washed out CWG...

Why didn't we start in good time? Why did the Central Govt. not play a more active part to get all forces mobilized? Why was the participation of all other states not sought? ...so many questions unanswered, and a mess so huge, one cannot fathom how to wipe it off the face of India.....

...and the Games haven't even started yet!

Brands

I read somewhere, Brands are not company names, Brands are not the Logo, Brands are not even what you say they are, Brands are simply the GUT FEEL of your customers and potential customers, about what YOU are. How true.

Today everything , everyone, every entity aspires to have a Brand Equity. The sentiment has acquired new proportions due to the advent of the Social Media. With so many different platforms for projecting your professional and personal ethos, one cant help being exceedingly nervous about equal number of platforms for being judged and evaluated.

Be it individuals, Professionals, Artists ,Stars ,Companies or Institutions, all are clamoring for some Brand Space. This is the time to delve deep into the very existence of the "Brandology" , to adapt oneself most optimally , to be able to make the most of it.

It is time to weave intricate Brands. Brands with ethos, with depth and with integrity.