Shaping Brand Perception through Multi-Sensory Identities

In a previous post about what it means to be a living brand, I outlined a few traits of what it takes: Be Human, Be Seamless, and Be Responsive. Within the "Be Human" section of that post, I spent most of the time outlining how brands should speak with their customers. Not as a corporate drone. Or by using technical jargon. But instead, in an authentic, relatable way. And while that's true, that's only scratching the surface of what it means to be a living brand.

Part of the human experience means experiencing the world multi-sensically. At home, we feel the texture of the couch, see the glow of the television, smell the soft scent of a candle, and hear the rain tap on the window while we sip our mug of hot coffee. The ability to take in multi-sensory experiences more clearly forms our perception of, connection to, and engagement with people, places, and things.

The same is true for brands. In his book Brand Sense, researcher Martin Lindstrom reported brand impact increases by 30% when more than one sense is engaged, such as through visual and auditory, visual and olfactory, or olfactory and auditory strategies. Engagement rises by 70% when a brand message appeals to three senses.

Why does this make such a big difference? Because, like the senses, effective brands connect us to emotional concepts rooted in human perception, emotion, beliefs, and attitudes. By defining a brand's identity through each of the senses, you go beyond products and services. You more clearly relate through emotions, building a stronger, lasting connection with your customers, prospects, partners, and employees. Yet, even today, when companies talk about developing a brand's identity, they only focus on one factor: visuals.

This is not only unfortunate but also exclusionary, as many people with disabilities may never get to experience your brand. This is unfortunate on many levels, especially as a limited or non-existent single sense often allows for other senses to be heightened. How much more could your brand relate to people by catering to the senses they count on most? By ignoring senses, you exclude a large portion of the population's needs and desires, missing the opportunity to engage on a meaningful level. As one data point alone, in the United States, 26,000 people yearly suffer from permanent loss of upper extremities. But when we include people with temporary and situational impairments, the number is greater than 20 million.

With that potential impact in mind, we can no longer continue to design for one sense alone. Let's look at the individual senses and what we can do to better design solutions for each.

Visual Identity

This is by far and away the sense most often considered and designed for. I, and many others, have built careers on the practice of translating brand strategy into compelling visuals. Don't get me wrong, the way something looks is extremely important—and can add tangible value to a cause, initiative, or organization. And as culture increasingly shifts to visuals over text, this sense will continue to be important.

But too often, brands are satisfied with creating new logos and updating color palettes, as “rebranding,” without ever connecting the work back into human emotion. Design that only makes things look better doesn’t create a long-term impact or deepened connection.

I see this happening quite often in the B2B technology space—and is rearing it’s head in other verticals as the world becomes more digital. The brand becomes subservient to the product, resulting in sterile brands that don’t stand for anything. In The Most Important Quarter-Inch in Business, Rob Walker states, “Many tech companies aren’t just design-centric, they’re interaction-design-centric. They focus heavily on the graphical user interfaces that shape how we interact with computers, the Internet, and mobile apps. In an information-design environment, clarity rules. Applying interaction-design thinking to identity design results in logos that can be “highly logical, very stripped down,” … “But I think what’s starting to happen is you’re starting to lose personality. You’re losing what brands are all about, connecting to human emotion.”

I won't belabor this point as there is a wealth of information on creating emotional brand connections at your local library or online, including some of my own thoughts, where I highlight one tool to help achieve this, Brand Archetypes.

Auditory Identity

Sound is a powerful way to connect as it has a direct line to the human emotional core. We've all been taken to another place by listening to a favorite song or artist. And so many of those same songs were born directly from the emotion of heartbreak, desire, triumph, or revenge.

When it comes to brand identity, it's no different. The NBC chimes or the "ba da ba da da" McDonalds uses to reinforce the "I'm lovin' it" tagline contain strong emotive ties. And when applied consistently and repeated over time, it becomes another item in a brand's toolkit to drive engagement.

However, sound isn't relegated to music or sonic logos alone. It also applies to everyday items, like car doors. It may seem strange, but the sound of the door closing is an extremely valuable sound. Most shoppers in a car dealership will sit in the vehicle and open or close the doors several times before they ever hear the roar of the engine or the purr of the exhaust. If the door closing sounds cheap, it will convey to the customer that the car isn't built well or won't protect their family in the event of a crash. Emar Vegt, an aural designer working with BMW, says, "The sound of the door closing is a remarkable aspect of the buying decision," he says. "It gives people reassurance if the door feels solid and safe."

As a result, car manufacturers will go to great lengths, including working with acoustic engineers, or even hiring composers, to ensure the feeling of quality is reinforced by engineering what the door sounds like when it closes, the warning system, and the exhaust.

What may seem like an innocuous item, the car door, has been carefully crafted to honor the brand. As Charles Eames once said, "the details are not the details; they make the design." The next time you’re car shopping, pay attention to the door-closing sound between brands and how each sound reinforces the qualities of the manufacturer.

Beyond this example, how does sound play a part in your brand? When you consider voiceover talent to represent your brand, the music that will play in your lobby, or the sounds your product will make as customers use certain features, remember that sound conveys qualities about your brand that would be hard to replicate in other senses.

Taste Identity

For most companies, this is the hardest sense to crack. Many posts on multi-sensory branding either avoid taste altogether or encourage experimentation with new flavor profiles and combinations. But for most companies that don't produce a food or beverage, it can feel daunting, or near impossible, to develop a taste identity.

I'd like to offer the idea that a company should take advantage of conveying their brand through positive association with taste. For example, on a trip to the Ace Hotel in Portland, I was greeted in my room with a small tray of bite-sized, locally-baked treats. It immediately gave me a warm welcome and provided an opportunity to learn about local bakeries. This told me a lot about the kind of hotel I was staying in and their committment to the community in which they live and work.

It was a small gesture that has already begun to reap dividends for Ace Hotel. You see, Ace Hotel didn't bake these treats themselves but worked with local bakers to showcase their brand through the sense of taste. The positive association I have with that experience I now associate with the Ace Hotel. I've shared that story with several people, encouraging them to stay in the hotel, and if my travels bring me to another city with an Ace Hotel, I already know where I’ll stay.

This isn't a new concept; in 1986, nearly thirty years before, The DoubleTree hotel recognized a small touch of home they could offer to weary travelers that would differentiate them from their competition—who also touted soft mattresses and free breakfast. They began by offering each guest two freshly baked chocolate-chip cookies in a box in their room upon arrival. Today, every DoubleTree hotel is required to have a warming drawer at the front desk when guests arrive, ensuring you get that "fresh from the oven" taste (and scent)—so that guests perceive the DoubleTree as a little more like home.

Going beyond the flavor itself into how it’s prepared, its color, weight, and how it’s packaged or displayed tells you about the item and signals to your brain how it might taste—and the qualities of the brand it represents. As the developing field of neurogastronomy evolves, it’s continuing to shape how we think about designing—and/or perceiving brands.

As a real-life example, Malcolm Gladwell describes an interesting study in his book Blink, in which a consulting firm had tested different versions of 7-Up and found that when they added 15% more yellow, people said the taste experience was much more lime or lemon. People even got upset. “You are changing my 7-Up.”, “Don’t do a ‘New Coke’ on me!” they said. It was the same product, but the additional 15% yellow completely changed the taste perception.

When it comes to connecting with people over taste, brands have a vast amount of opportuity in front of them.

Tactile Identity

In a world driven by backlit screens and digital interactions, it may feel unnatural to consider the tactile experience of an object. But that's precisely why you should. It can help set you apart and convey qualities about your brand that words or images alone cannot. For example, think about the last handshake you had. What did it tell you about the person?

Since the pandemic and remote work began, you'd be hard-pressed to find a day when I wasn't wearing Vuori. There's a lot to like about the company. They care about sustainability, strive for ethical manufacturing, and produce quality apparel. This was evident the first time I picked up a pair of their joggers. The way the fabric felt, how the piece was constructed, and even the thickness and premium feel of the label were designed to convey that "premium" isn't just a marketing buzzword—this is truly a premium performance brand.

But retail and apparel isn't the only place touch can be used effectively. What about at a trade show booth? Most expo halls are designed to be utilitarian and, therefore, generic. What about offering a more plush carpet for your guests to stand on, relieving them from hours of being on their feet? Or replacing the standard, sterile, plastic booth countertop with natural wood? Beyond the booth itself, your physical collateral or the giveaways you offer go a long way in telling people what to think about your brand. Do they exude quality, or do they feel cheap? Are they sustainable? What brand qualities are you conveying?

Olfactory Identity

Scent is one of the most undervalued senses in a brand's arsenal. Most of us learned very early on smell is a powerful sense and has a direct tie to our memories and emotions. Whether it was Mom's Sunday pot roast marking a day of relaxation, a love interest's cologne or perfume signaling their nearness, or fresh-cut grass celebrating the end of winter, each of us has scents that immediately draw us back to a specific time, place, and feeling. And brands can take advantage of this, too.

But recognizing scent's importance is only the first step. Then, it's about identifying the scent to represent your brand, understanding how and where to deploy it, and designing an experience around it to ensure it's used most effectively.

It's not hard to imagine the warm, sweet smell of Cinnabon wafting through the shopping mall. From several stores away, and by scent alone, our tastebuds tell us just how much we need that cinnamon roll. To maximize the opportunity, Cinnabon recognized the allure and intentionally and strategically designed their stores to place their commercial-grade ovens (typically hidden from public view) toward the front of the store so that the smell could permeate even further.

Numerous studies have shown customers stay longer, explore more products, report higher satisfaction, are willing to pay more for your goods or services—and can even increase employee productivity—all due to the power of tapping into the strongest of our five senses.

By designing solutions appropriate for each of our human senses, we more fully shape the perception of a brand for anyone that experiences it. And when done well, it makes for more meaningful touch points, more holistic experiences, and more inclusive brands—and that will always have a direct impact on your bottom line.