Sensory marketing is the deliberate design of what customers see, hear, smell, touch and taste so that a brand is experienced, not just seen. Scent is one part of it, alongside sound, sight, touch and taste. It matters because most brands pour almost all their effort into what people see, leaving the other senses to chance. Sensory branding practitioner Simon Faure-Field has estimated that around 83% of marketing budgets are spent on sight alone.
The five senses in marketing
Sight
Logos, colour, lighting, layout and design. Essential, but crowded: every competitor is also competing for the eye.
Sound
Music, sonic logos and the acoustics of a space. In a well-known supermarket study, French wine outsold German wine when French music played, and the reverse happened with German music (North, Hargreaves and McKendrick, Nature, 1997). Slower background music has been linked to shoppers moving more slowly and buying more (Milliman, Journal of Marketing, 1982).
Smell
Signature scents and ambient scenting. Smell is closely tied to emotion and memory, and research has linked ambient scent to better store evaluations and brand recall. See our guide to ambient scenting.
Touch
Materials, textures, weight and temperature. Research on the “need for touch” shows many shoppers judge products more confidently when they can handle them.
Taste
Most relevant to food and hospitality, but also used in welcome drinks, sampling and events.
Why the senses work best together
Researchers such as Aradhna Krishna, whose review of sensory marketing in the Journal of Consumer Psychology (2012) helped define the field, have shown that sensory cues shape perception, memory and choice, often without people noticing. Cues that fit together reinforce each other; cues that clash create confusion. Research on scent and music found the best results when the two matched (Mattila and Wirtz, Journal of Retailing, 2001).
Examples
- Singapore Airlines refreshed its sonic signature and its signature scent within months of each other in 2021. See Singapore Airlines’ signature scents.
- DBS paired a Ginger Flower signature scent with a music programme that changed through the day. Read the case study.
- Le Méridien designed its arrival around artwork, scent, a soundtrack and artist-designed key cards. See hotel sensory branding.
How to start
- Define the brand in a few words, and what it is not.
- Audit each sense in your space: what do people see, hear, smell and touch today, and is any of it chosen?
- Fix what works against the brand first, such as noise, stale air or clashing music.
- Add the cues that matter most, usually scent and sound, designed to fit together.
- Keep them consistent across every location.
For the scent side, see our scent branding and commercial scenting services, and what is a scent identity.
Frequently asked questions
What is sensory marketing?
Designing what customers see, hear, smell, touch and taste so the brand is experienced through every sense.
What is the difference between sensory marketing and scent marketing?
Scent marketing is one part of sensory marketing, focused on smell.
Which sense matters most after sight?
For most physical spaces, sound and scent, because they fill the whole space and shape mood.
