Abstract:

This presentation will highlight the relevance of sensory branding as a means for enhancing brand uniqueness and simultaneously adding other layers to the elements that help create brand equity. Brands are carriers of symbolic and non-symbolic meaning, and these meanings today and tomorrow should be coherent in order to build a holistic brand experience. ?In the past (1980s), brand elements were often created and selected independently and without checking how these would "resonate" together. Today, and in the future, the need for coherence and meaning will require that every single element participates in telling the brand story, in highlighting the brand journey and ambition. ?Examples of the sensory elements will be supplied (audio, visual, tactile, taste, and olfactory) and the focus of the presentation will be on the type of research methods that are required to work, with specific regards to a brand olfactory signature. ?These methods belong to both the Consumer and Sensory practices, and therefore the presentation will underlie how these disciplines need to be able to work together so that existing synergies can be leveraged upon or new synergies can be created.