What exactly is sensory marketing?
The Swedish grocery retail chain, ICA Sverige AB, has recently decided to adopt more sensory labels for their produce section. They feel that more sensory labels (e.g., juicy oranges rather than Florida oranges; succulent seabass rather than seabass filet) would inspire their consumers to eat more food and vegetables. This move is wholeheartedly backed by the Swedish government (author's correspondence with Swedish Knowledge Foundation). In the U.S., many food manufacturers are emphasizing how their product appeals to the different senses. For instance, Lindt chocolate's recent ad discusses the art of chocolate tasting and tells the reader exactly how to employ all five senses in tasting their chocolate. Many upscale hotel chains have adopted signature scents with the hope that the scents will helps their customers better remember other features of their hotel that they loved, and bring them back. For instance, the Westin hotel chain has the signature scent of white tea with geranium and Freesia. Intel, NBC, MGM, and many other brands have signature sounds which announce that it is indeed their brand that the consumer is listening to. Bottles like those for Orangina have adopted shapes and textures that resemble the raw material of the product itself, in this case the orange, to stand out from other products, and also to appeal to consumers' haptic sense.