Branding and Sensory Awareness: Theory and Case Study of Abercrombie & Fitch - published: 12/06/2009

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Branding and Sensory Awareness: Theory and Case Study of Abercrombie & Fitch - published: 12/06/2009

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Themes

Branding, Long Term Memory, Semantic Memory, Episodic Memory, Sensory Memory, Short Term Memory, Brand Sense, Sensory Perception, Marketing Strategy, Brand Identity, Consumer Behavior

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Abstract

According to Lindstrom, the author of 'BRAND sense', brand sense is the integration of the five of the senses - touch, taste, smell, sight and sound. The five senses play a key role in the brand creation and retail experiences. In fact, people's senses usually influence their choice, for example, people choose fresh and avoid rotten food by smell. Or the great vision and sound effect of movie preview excites people and they choose to buy cinema tickets to enjoy it.
On the other hand, human beings can use at least five tracks- image, sound, smell, taste, and touch to contain data as these five senses directly involve with people's emotions and all that they entail. In addition, the human being's senses link to memory and can tap right into emotion. As Lindstrom mentioned that "events, moods, feelings and products in humans' lives are constantly imprinted on their five track sensory recorder from the second we wake to the moment we sleep."
Since distinctive brands pursue differentiated experiences to offer their audience, they employ sensory channels to deliver their message and evoke people's emotions. However, it is not possible to put products and services through each sense into an ad and deliver to public. Therefore, marketers need to create their own sensory experiences through different channels to gain people's attention.

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[...] Branding and Sensory Awareness: Theory and Case Study of Abercrombie & Fitch 1. Introduction According to Lindstrom, the author of 'BRAND sense', brand sense is the integration of the five of the senses - touch, taste, smell, sight and sound. The five senses play a key role in the brand creation and retail experiences. In fact, people's senses usually influence their choice, for example, people choose fresh and avoid rotten food by smell. Or the great vision and sound effect of movie preview excites people and they choose to buy cinema tickets to enjoy it. [...]

[...] This is a really strong application of branding via senses: the idea is to link the image of the brand with the good looking people. This plays a key role in the success of the company. People used to take picture with the models and the word of mouth works so well that Abercrombie & Fitch doesn't need to advertise at all 8.4) Limits of this branding strategy A branding strategy based on senses such as Abercrombie's also creates risks. [...]

[...] These unique sensory experiences could offer people to have their own perception in mind. Since people's senses are linked to their memory as well as their emotion, marketers work hard to build a unique association with the sensation in order to create a strong brand impression. The following step is to analyze the features of each sensation. 3.1) Sight As Lindstrom (2005) stated, sight is the most desirable sense of all. It usually dominates the other senses, and has the power to persuade human beings against all logic. [...]

[...] Hence, companies should know how to proceed with creating a sensory platform for their own brands via the sense rather than buying a lot of expensive advertising. 3. Sensory Systems All sensations come from the immediate response of our sensory receptors, which are eyes, ears, nose, mouth and skin. These receptors are stimulated by light, color, sound, odour and texture (Soloman, Dann, Dann, & Russell-Bennett, 2007). Since sensory receptors have gathered senses from stimuli, it would create three stages of perception process, which are exposure, attention and interpretation (figure 1). [...]

[...] Therefore, in some particular market such as perfume and food, marketers use smell to promote their products. In addition, Nike ever did this research that two identical pairs of shoes displayed in two different showrooms. One room was full of scent, and the other was not. Through the questionnaire, the result showed that 84 percent of respondents said they preferred the shoes displayed in the room with scent and appraised the price of the shoes in the room with scent (Lindstrom, 2005). [...]

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