Buying and smelling?

You heard me right. Buying and smelling. I recently read an article where Marketers are tapping into our senses to boost sales. Makes sense, right (no pun intended). Brand futurist Martin Lindstrom says that our shopping journey is "not stimulating and the sensory experience is generic... shoppers are bored." He's right. In a recent study, he concluded that what we hear and what we smell are more powerful than what we see. Yikes! That freaks out most marketers who focus on creating only visual campaigns. Lindstrom says that our emotional brain overrides our rational brain when we are triggered by sound and smell. I'd bet that you have gone grocery shopping on an empty stomach and passed the bakery counter. You know what happens next. You've got a dozen hot buns in the cart and you're dying to eat them! Lindstrom predicts that the grocery stores of the future will be highly seductive zones that stimulate all the senses - smell, sight, touch, sound and taste. To all the marketers and designers out there - remember to think beyond the easy. Think about the brain being a multi-sensory unit that needs all kinds of stimulation. Make sure your designs and your programs stimulate all the senses. And, check out the book, Buyology by Martin Lindstrom. Georgia Mouka