Traditionally, most brands have majorly based their branding appeal on Sight alone. For example: a logo design, typeface, color palette etc.

A sensory branding appeal is a blend of five senses using Sight, Sound, Smell, Touch and Taste. The basic thought process is that brands are a microcosm of all the five senses put together in different degrees.

Is Branding Just Visual?

There has always been a long debate among marketers, whether it is enough to present products or services visually in an advertisement. Many of us are now advocating for. brands to deliver a full sensory experience. Hence, today many mainstream brands are already working their way to create a memorable customer experience by engaging themselves in different forms of experiential marketing tactics across the World and even in Nepal. Traditionally, most brands have majorly based their branding appeal on Sight alone. For example: a logo design, typeface, color palette etc. In this regard, a brand identity manual is often evolved first that needs to be rigorously followed by both brand and agency counterparts for all activities related to the brand. But what about the other four senses?

The Other Senses

This is where the Panchatatwa of branding comes in: “Panchatatwa” is a Sanskrit term which describes the five elements which govern the universe. In this context, we are relating it to the five senses of branding appeal. A sensory branding appeal is a blend of five senses using Sight, Sound, Smell, Touch and Taste. The basic thought process is that brands are a microcosm of all the five senses put together in different degrees.

Tickling and engaging these senses with your brand puts it on the pedestal of growth connecting emotionally with the consumers. The blend of five sensory experiences will help your consumers connect better with your product. How?

Well, think about it this way: the five senses are human touch-points, and when you make them brand touch-points, your brand experience becomes more personal, relevant and memorable. Isn’t that great? Full sensory appeal is god gifted and is a regular human appeal. And it can attract people to your brand. Isn’t that nice?

Branding Religiously

As businesses you always seek to create a memorable customer experience so we always pay a lot of attention to our brand. One of the ways to present our brand more attractive to the consumers is by branding based on the five senses or combination of these senses.

Let us discuss how we can create the five-sense brand by discussing possibly the biggest branding success, i.e. religions, because all religions connect emotionally at the highest level. Be it any religion Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, and Christianity, I feel, each of them, are strongest brands in the world with enormous followers. Study of religion can offer a powerful road map as to how branding can evolve over the years to come. All we need to do is look at the ingredients that make up religious followings. In fact, in most cases you will realize that they have powerfully used all the five human senses to appeal to their followers, which is why they have gone beyond being just a brand and become a way of life.

1. Sight:

It is the strongest sense in your sensory branding arsenal, and this means every brand has to pay extra-close attention to your brand identity manual. It has to be distinctive and must stand out. They have to help reinforce your positioning and need absolute consistency across all brand touch-points. Imagine for a moment walking into a monastery, or a temple, a church or a mosque. Each one offers a unique sensory experience and differentiation that is clear to you as soon as you walk inside them. The world of branding can learn a lot from this. 

2. Sound:

Sonic branding can help your brand stand out loud and clear and most mainstream brands have used this in their advertisement very often in terms of memorable jingle or signature tunes. Similarly, all religions have their holy chanting to worship that will fill our mind and our heart with praise of God. They always reinforce our divinity.

3. Smell:

A little air fragrance at your trade show booth can help to drive people to get into your booth and reinforce a key message like “being natural”. Similarly, there are common practices in religion to use incense during the worship. When we smell the incense, it reinforces our prayers to God and hopefully pleasing him. In Nepalese culture, you see the incense burning across monasteries and temples in the morning & evening.

4. Touch:

Not always feasible in case of non-edible products, but distinctive taste also reinforces branding. Most fast-food chains’ branding has “taste” as one of the major branding appeals. Some religions also have a culture of giving Prasad. Prasad is a material of food that is a religious offering in Hinduism and Buddhism, which is consumed by the worshipers. In Theravada Buddhism, there is a practice of providing holy water to drink after Paritrana (Paritta in Pali), the practice of reciting in order to ward off evil fortune.

Therefore, when it comes to your branding, think holistically in terms of utilizing the blend of all five human senses i.e., the panchatatwa of branding. You have five ways to make human connections, and reinforcing their brand perception. Chances are, your competition is still relying on sight alone.

Read at: https://adstocknepal.com/wednesday-wisdom/the-panchatatwa-of-branding/