The smell of coffee. Smokey, sweet, spicy and rich. Just one whiff of it can have us running to the nearest cafe or our own barista machine ( I had to grab a cup in the middle of writing this). Seoul is known as Coffee City, where there are over 200 coffee chains as well as independent cafes. Dunkin' Donuts wasn't doing well because consumers associated their brand with donuts, rather than coffee, despite Dunkin's being originally a cafe. Responding to this challenge, they turned to “sensory marketing”- marketing using the five senses of touch, taste, smell, hearing and sight.

Dunkin's had devices fitted to commuter buses that released the aroma of coffee every time the Dunkin's jingle was played over the radio. Dunkin's reached over 350,000 commuters and amazingly increased sales by just under 30%. But guess where – only in branches that were close to bus stops! Additionally, surveys revealed consumer perception had changed to viewing Dunkin's as a coffee expert.

In a previous article, I discussed how our marketing needs to focus on reaching the hearts of our customers. It needs to be emotionally rich because this is how customers first make their decisions when considering our products or services. One way to reach them is through story telling but its not the only way. By appealing to one or more of the five senses we can evoke a response that will associate our product or service with the emotions generated by that response.

The above example associated the smell of coffee with Dunkin's jingle (and remember, emotions themselves will stir a call to action, that's why consumers went straight to Dunkin's cafe when they got off the bus). Other familiar examples are the “new car” smell in second hand vehicles, the smell of Kentucky Fried Chicken, the smell sprayed on most tomatoes and of course the fresh bread smell from Bakers Delight.

There are five senses to appeal to and by using more than one amplifies the effect. Sight can be appealed to by the use of lighting, patterns and colours. Touch can appealed to through packaging, product design and even promotional material like business cards and flyers.

So review your own products and services and see how you can use the sensory marketing approach to enhance your own sales and you will see a difference.

And, yes, I'm now heading out to buy some donuts.