Brand Sense Lindstrom\'s Brand Sense

Brand Sense

Lindstrom's brand sense theory posts that branding should incorporate all of our senses, not just the visual. He argues that because most branding is focused on visual elements such as logos, designs and the rendering of names, the brand is not fully optimized. Only by incorporating touch, smell, taste and sound to the brand does a brand become fully established with the consumer.

The underlying theory is that consumers interact with the world using all five senses. Each of the different senses has an impact on our emotions. Branding is in large part about creating emotions with the brand, or at the very least positive associations. Since these feelings can be stimulated using any of the different senses, branding can be effective using any sense. Consider the use of sound for Intel in their television ads. Consider the smell when you walk past certain fast food outlets -- artificial smells piped to the exterior trigger things in the consumer passing by. An example of a company that utilizes the sense of touch would be Apple.

Apple has long valued the brand over all other elements of its offering. The objective of this is not to downplay the product, but rather to create customers that Apple customers first and customers of a specific product second. Anything Apple, it stands to reason, should be viewed the same by the consumer as any other thing Apple. The same attributes and positive sentiments that the consumer feels for one Apple product should be shared by all Apple products. To that end, Apple has focused on the name and the visual elements of the brand, but also touch.

Apple aims for its products to have visual appeal. The company wants its products to look sleek and ultramodern, because this fits with the company's desired brand image as an innovator. Lindstrom points out that most branding is based on the visual, but he does not argue against this. He simply notes that as useful as visual branding is, it should not be the sum total of the branding effort. Visual branding efforts remain critical and that is how they are approached by Apple as well.

Touch goes along with this. The sleek and ultramodern image should be shared with a touch experience that matches. The extensive use of touch screens and unique controls on Apple's handheld products in particular conveys a specific image of the company and its products. Because these traits are shared across multiple products, they become associated with the company Apple rather than the individual products. This allows the sentiments created by the touch to be carried over to other Apple products, even if the touch sensations are different.

Apple does not use smell or taste as important elements in its sensory experience. The company recognizes that there are limits to the use of multisensory branding. The branding must, after all, remain relevant to the product. For consumer electronics, taste and smell are relatively irrelevant, just as for a fast food chain they are critical and touch becomes largely irrelevant. So while touch, sound and sight are all relevant to Apple's branding, the other two senses are not and therefore do not play a role in the branding.

Apple also makes use of sound as part of its branding. As with many companies today, Apple has recognized the appeal of music in creating a brand image. The company prefers to bolster its image as an innovator and a brand for creative people by using fresh sounds from relatively unknown performers. Snippets of the songs are used to create an emotional state during the relevant advertisements. The emotional state created is the one that the company wants consumers to associate with its brand. For this reason, it is unlikely that Apple will use a major, generic-sounding rock band, a death metal act or even a country artist in its commercials -- these sounds do not convey the brand image that Apple is trying to build.

Lindstrom argues that building a brand is a lifelong dialogue with the consumer. As such, the multisensory branding strategy should be built over years, and remain consistent throughout this period. Since at least the early 2000s when Apple first launched the iPod, it has produced a relatively consistent slate of advertisements that supports its particular brand image. There has been very little deviation with respect to the sounds that support Apple's image, just as there has been little deviation in the company's visual and touch presentation to the consumer as well.