Ever notice how you can immediately recognize a brand or industry by hearing its theme song, or visualizing their logo or smelling their product?
Making your brand recognizable by tapping into our six senses is a prime way to get customers to affiliate an emotion with your brand.
Hear: Everyone knows the theme to Jeopardy. That melody has become synonymous with the game show. You conjure up thoughts of those blue screen boxes and questions on Medieval History or Rock Music. That’s great marketing. The best way to use sound to benefit your business is to create a jingle or song in your media promotions. A jingle that reiterates your brand and your passion for what you do.
Touch: When we talk about touch as a sense, I’m focusing on the emotional touch some products give us. For example, Hallmark cards consistently make a few of us misty-eyed when it comes to their sentiment and commercials. They’re known for their emotional pull of our heart-strings. Utilizing emotion in your business marketing can help to allow clients to humanize your business. Spotlight a past client you helped to be successful after a tough start. Perhaps talk about your businesses charitable donations or volunteer activities. People like to know they’re working with an organization that’s not all about money. Humanizing your business appeals to a mass audience.
Taste: A rather difficult emotion to grasp if you’re not dealing with food or drink. The Pepsi versus Coke battle will reign on forever. We all can recognize that each has a distinct difference, but we love seeing them fight it out. If your business happens to deal with food, the best way is to hone in on your signature dish. Whether it’s Crème Brule or just a standard cup of coffee, creating a signature dish will help customers taste your brand and connect with it on a personal level. A customer will return to the brand because they’re comfortable with it. A business will thrive if customers can recognize and enjoy something that is distinctly yours. If they connect with it, they will be a customer for life. Look at Starbucks!
See: Probably the most used sense in marketing. Your main focus is to build loyalty from customers. You want them to recognize your brand and know what you’re about. From eyewear (Ray Ban) to spaghetti (Barilla) to tax agents (H&R Block – who recently rebranded their name and logo), building a recognizable brand and logo will ultimately help you construct a successful business. Your businesses outward appearance is key in getting clients to acknowledge your business and know you’re a solid pick. Rebranding is a great way to extend your “see sense” Look at the rebranded JCPenney logo and their ad campaign about “fair and square” pricing. Giving clients what they want. Of course, having famous spokespeople hawk your brand doesn’t hurt.
Smell: Powerful and everlasting in our mind… From candles to perfume, food to coffee, our sense of smell can really touch our psyche and allow us to emotionally connect to a brand. We all know the smell of clean laundry. Detergent companies like Tide and All, know they must have an irresistible scent or they will be overlooked. Manufactures of bleach recognized this and added “lemon” and “springtime” scents to reduce the harsh smell and negative association with the product. Even retail stores know that a scent wafting through the air will trigger you to think of a certain product, perhaps even enticing you to buy. Scent is a very powerful tool when it comes to success and failure. If your clients can smell and recognize your brand immediately, you’ve created a signature for your company. Scented marketing has been around for many years. We have used the scratch and sniff feature to promote and establish new products. Even the new Yankee Candle catalogues allow you to preview the candle scents before stepping foot inside the door. Now that is housewarming!
Our senses are our way to move around in life. Why not key in on a few of them for your business? Recognize which sense your business can make value of and utilize it. A business should be recognizable for something. Need some help identifying your sense in marketing your business? Contact me at marian@grp27.com and/or 201-741-9476 and we’ll work together to get you the marketing tools you need to become #1 to your clients.
P.S. – do you know we utilize “smelly inks” on apparel and paper printing?