Everyone structures their experience of the world through the five senses — seeing, hearing, feeling, tasting and smelling.
The most powerful senses are visual, auditory and kinesthetic (touch).
Although we use all senses, most people have a strong bias for one only. You can often tell this by the language we use.
“I see what you mean.” (visual). “That sounds great”. (auditory). “I’ve got a good feeling about this”. (kinesthetic).
You’re going to be a lot more successful if you’re a brand that appeals to all senses, as opposed to the brand that concentrates on one or two only.
When you see that distinctive purple colour, you think of Cadbury chocolate. When you hear this bass guitar, you think of Seinfeld. And what about your iphone? The shape of it in your hands, the feel of it, the sound of it when you click through the menu – this is a kinesthetic brand.
It’s easy for brands to appeal to one or two senses but appealing to all the senses can be extremely difficult. This is another reason why sponsorship exists. Sponsorship can hijack or borrow a sensory asset of an athlete or sporting event.
This is why you’ll find banking and financial companies (very little kinesthetic appeal) sponsoring the naming rights to some of Australia’s best sporting venues. This gives the ANZ’s or Telstra’s an emotive element to their brand.
Athletes are not alone when it comes to reaching consumers using the senses. The more an athlete can use the better. A good example is tennis player Leyton Hewitt.
VISUAL – baseball cap back to front.
AUDITORY – “C’mon!!”
KINESTHETIC – openly display’s his emotions, and plays on the patriotism factor – a strong kinesthetic influencer.
If you’re an athlete, figure out how you can use all senses to appeal to more fans and sponsors. If you’re a brand, look at which sense you’re ignoring and figure out how you can fill the gap through sport sponsorship.
