Sensory research
thepeoplepartnership believes strongly in the value of thinking about all of the senses when building a brand experience. The senses are especially important now that people increasingly want positive experiences in all areas of their lives, regardless of whether they are doing the supermarket shop, dealing with their finances or are involved in leisure pursuits like clothes shopping or keeping fit. We have examined the sensual brand experience from a multitude of angles, including music, aroma, touch and communication, as well as form and function.
A flavour of the kinds of projects we have conducted in this area....
a) Retail outlets
Organisations are endeavouring to match the nature and siting of their retail formats against the way their different target audiences live their lives. Hence banks and libraries are introducing coffee shops and children's facilities; supermarkets are segmenting their format offer and introducing music to help brand them and put their customers in the right mood.
We have conducted a lot of projects which take the way people live their lives as the startpoint in order to derive product/service offers from this.
Methodologically, this often means spending time with people leading their lives and getting them to take us to experiences they enjoy. In this way, the optimal brand mix can be analysed and developed in terms of a holistic sensual experience.
The delivery of outputs varies enormously but have often taken the form of workshops, where the researchers present customer-derived multi-sensual 'ideal experiences' (in one instance this was done by presenting a vignette involving music, materials, colours and aromas for each format to be developed) and the client, together with relevant creatives, responds by generating possible brand manifestations of the experience themselves.
b) Brands and music
Music is critical to the fundamental branding of many things, from products and services to retail environments and political parties. We have conducted research looking at the potential of music not only to reflect established brand values but to help contemporise and evolve them.
We have shown through past research for a major fashion brand that the conscious choice of the right music can not only operate at the soft level of brand perceptions and engagement but also at the level of hard sales.
For this project we used a combination of methodologies including high street trawls, on-the-spot observation and interviews, creative music mixing sessions and responses to pre-prepared candidate tapes to elicit insight. This led to the development of a music signature which was then tested in store: the resultant sales/brand perceptions showed a positive shift.
c) Category management
We have conducted research for a number of manufacturers and across a range of supermarkets/DIY chains/retail outlets looking at the optimum range, display, merchandising, promotions and offers relevant to specific categories. These have spanned tea, yoghurts, chicken, books and spoken word products, mobile phones, DIY and paint.
In these instances much of the insight has derived from analysing and developing the holistic in situ experience rather than focusing too much on one element of the mix.
Outputs from this kind of research can also be very tangible, as fixtures/outlets can be adjusted and sales directly monitored as a result of the changes. In several instances there have been significant sales increases as a result of the research findings. Interestingly the experiential 'solution' can often vary by region and type of outlet.