Multisensory Branding Definition

1 What is multisensory branding?

Before identifying what is multisensory branding, it is important to clarify the definition of branding. According to American Marketing Association Dictionary, branding is a set of marketing and communication methods that help to distinguish a company or products from competitors, aiming to create a lasting impression in the minds of customers.

Continue with multisensory branding, it is the branding activities that involve more than one sense. Multisensory branding can establish distinct consumption experience by means of five senses, namely visual, auditory, olfactory, gustative and tactile. Customer’s judgment toward the brand could be influence by the multisensory experience. Branding activities engaged

This kind of emotional reaction is not supported by solid justifications and logical reasoning. For example, somebody might dislike snakes because of their scary appear-ance. Marketing activities connected to five senses can generate general positivity which increase the level of satisfaction of customers and result in advantageous behaviour. When optimal stimulation attained by mixing and adjusting the sensory elements to equi-librium, the effect of multisensory marketing can be maximized.

Cognitive attitude involves a person’s beliefs, ideas or knowledge about something. For example, somebody might dislike snakes because they are dangerous and poisonous. Multisensory marketing activities can generate association and direct behavioural effects under cognitive attitude. Associations between a product and designed sensation intima-tion can influence customer’s decision. Although customers may not aware, direct behav-ioural effect were resulted when they engaged in multisensory branding.

2.2 The five senses

The five senses involved in multisensory branding are visual, auditory, olfactory, gusta-tive and tactile. Each sense has their own characteristic which connects customers in various and distinct

(Cobos, 2012) (Hultén, Sensory marketing: The multi-sensory brand-experience concept, 2010, p. 265) Visual sensation always is the first ele-ment to be noticed by the customers comparing to the other senses. Customer can identi-fy a brand by looking into the design, colour, shape and other visual features connected to the brand. Visual features of a brand provide crucial evidence regarding details and quality of their products. Not only does visual branding play an important role in affecting the customer’s first impression toward the brand, it also affects people sentimentally. A study indicated that people feel more relaxed when the websites’ background are in blue colour. The relaxed atmosphere leads them to believe the websites offer faster download speeds. (Spence, Puccinelli, Grewal, & Roggeveen, 2014) Because of its responsive na-ture, the sense of sight is widely used in