The Hindu Business Line : The sensorial brand

My academic probe into the subject of the brand takes me deep into the gut of the entity we know and cherish. An entity that is fast becoming the singular buzzword of significance in every business of every hue. The brand.

The brand is but a function of the aggregate perception of the senses you believe in. Some believe in five and others in six. An extra-sensory perception (ESP) added to it as well, if you may!

The brand is a perception that lands up in the nether depths of your thinking. This perception is of two types. A basic perception, which is quite like the seed of a thought. Type two is really the way the seed germinates as it is watered by successive stages of `brand experience' from the consumer's perspective and `brand-building exercises' from the Ivory Tower marketer's view of the Brand Manager. Both these occur in consumer mindspace.

The brand in every phase of its circuitous route into the psyche of the consumer is a complete sensorial experience. A multi-sensory experience as well!

Let's count the senses then. Seeing. Touching/feeling. Smelling. Tasting. Hearing. Add the extra-dimensional sixth sense to it all! The brand is about all these senses. Each one of them experienced at the individual level and each of them experienced separately, collectively and at the level of cumulative collective impact.

This perception game of the brand is a complex one. Take the name `Enamor'! The brand hits the market through the Pink Press. A press conference announces the impending launch. The name is all you have as a consumer. The name is enough to create that first sense of perception. That first sensory experience is happening right now as you hear the name of the brand itself!

You think of the brand as a name. A name is enough to set the perception-path moving. You think the name is American, maybe. It is spelt that way without a `u'! You think it is mysterious. It could be a perfume. It has to be expensive. Enamor cannot be a glucose biscuit! It needs to be cosmetic. You can't be eating an Enamor!

Note, however, that every consumer mind that has this name thrust on its psyche will perceive it differently. The game of the brand is to get through a set of salient name associations that are positive to its appreciation as an offering of repute amidst its target segment. Remember, as well, that the perception of the brand in the non-target segment is not as important at all! As we get into the complex marketing future ahead of us, with markets getting more and more heterogeneous in their wants, needs and desires, this truth is going to get more and more apparent!

The name is a sound, really. The first sensory experience with the brand has been done with at the level of the sense of hearing. As one hears it again and again, the perception of the brand at the level of hearing will consolidate. This consolidation could be positive or negative. And that is yet another complexity to grapple with!

The brand is seen then. Screaming back at you from the face of a hoarding at Chowringhee, Chetpet or Chikpet or whatever location you as a consumer pass by. You suddenly realise Enamor is a bra. A bra that screams USPs of every kind. A bra that desires to stand out from the clutter of other offerings. A bra that wants its place in the sun!

This level of visual, sensory experience is pretty critical to create and embed the visual in the mind of the consumer. Every small facet of visual imagery and design is important here. God is indeed in the detailing. One small dissonant burr is enough to put the consumer off!

The level of visual imagery and sensory brand experience is a tricky arena as well. The product itself, the branding on it and of course the model in choice are all critical parameters that will put on or put off the consumer. The consumer acceptance of visual cues is a quick toggle switch of On and Off. This is a sensitive toggle. Only the sensitive marketer can handle this sensitively enough.

The visual imagery will mix itself actively with aural imagery when the 30-second spot of television will be viewed. Radio will offer aural imagery alone, but a sensitive mix of radio and television in the brand media plan will offer a recall of the visual imagery from television as residue for sure.

The intelligent brand manager of the future will use television just at the point of launch and let his brand live on memory-residue visual perception for many months thereafter, till it is time again to give yet another dose of the visual Valium! Print will play its own role. Every medium will. A clever use of each of these sense-specific mediums will be the science in practice. Only the not-so-intelligent will spend on television alone!

The sense of touch comes in then. Enamor will be touched and felt at the point of purchase. And guess what! This touching and feeling of the brand will happen at non-store locations as well. It will happen in the drawing and dining rooms of the consumer. It will happen through product touch/feel-centric television commercials. It will happen through the Net and it will happen through product demos in-home!

The sense of touch and feel will be critical to the purchase of any and every brand. This sensory experience is possibly the one experience that brings brand hype attained and achieved through the use of the other senses down to earth. This is the moment of truth for the brand.

This sensory occasion could be heightened for sure by the ambience at the purchase location, by the décor, the lighting, the music and the power of merchandising. But all said and done, this is the point where reality meets brand fiction.

The touch and feel sensory brand experience is one that a consumer will go through every day of use of brand. In the case of Enamor it is on every-wear occasion. In the case of Society tea, it is every occasion of either drinking or serving the hot brew!

Just two of the mundane senses left then. The sensory experience of smell and that of taste! Can you taste a brassiere? Can you smell one as well? Yes, you can. This is not the physical articulation of these two senses, but it is indeed the emotional articulation at play.

Think of it. Don't you need the right smell to buy? Don't you need the right taste to buy?

The brand needs to focus very carefully on each of these sensory experiences. All five of them. The sixth one is a big one. The sixth sense of a brand is a philosophy all its own.....and that is the story of the next Brand Beat!

(The author is a brand-domain specialist and CEO, Harish Bijoor Consults Inc.)

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