Sensory marketing - how sound and smell in the salon affect your customers' satisfaction.
Sensory marketing - sound, smell and customer experience
Sound, pervasive smell and visual stimuli have a great impact on brand value. In beauty salons, spas and other entities in the beauty industry, this is already an everyday occurrence. In an increasingly competitive market, where digitalisation is the arena, it is worthwhile to ensure innovative methods of retaining, or acquiring, customers. For the spa and cosmetics sector, sensory marketing is a particularly interesting solution.
How does sensory marketing work?
How does sensory marketing work in the context of customers' senses? It reinforces the brand through channels theoretically not included in the advertising strategy: it is the integration of impressions on several levels. This way of influencing audiences was already pointed out in the mid-1970s. Philip Kotler - a scientist recognised as a kind of marketing vision guru.
Sensory stimuli make a brand - a place, a person, an activity - start to evoke associations, memories, images in the minds of customers. As a result, it has a clear positive impact on the process of differentiating the brand from the competition in the - how competitive! - market in the beauty industry. In other words: if sensory marketing is used in an interesting way, a beauty salon or an exclusive spa can effectively generate a positive feeling in the recipient and, as a result, stand out in the scale of the recipient's perception.
Sensory marketing - methods and types
If one were to try to define sensory marketing, it could be considered a compilation of mechanisms affecting sight, smell, hearing, touch and taste. If we go deeper, it is worthwhile - especially in the spa or cosmetology industry - to focus on two levels. It is sound and smell - key stimuli for positive brand recognition.
Marketing that utilises the potential of audio cannot be limited to the music that accompanies beauty salon customers. It must influence the atmosphere: build a sense of intimacy, create a sensual ambience - not coincidentally, the body produces more endorphins under the influence of the right rhythm. These “happy hormones” translate into a degree of satisfaction with the service provided - and it is this that is crucial for a possible return.
In contrast, the most commonly cited example of marketing based on olfactory stimuli happens to be a simple air freshener - particularly popular with franchise outlets. However, this is only a piece of the iceberg - it is worth noting, for example, that premium spa salons use not standard fragrances, but their own compositions so that customers identify it with one chosen brand.
Examples of sensory marketing implementation
Aromamarketing, focusing on the fragrance composition results - as research conducted in the United States shows - in a wide range being implemented by beauty salons. AromaCorp, a brand specialising in fragrance strategies for beauty salons, provides - depending on their specialisation - variants ranging from fruit to oriental woods to combinations of different variants.
A true champion - though not in the spa industry - of such a mechanism is Singapore Airlines, which has commissioned the development of a fragrance line for aircraft on its long-haul routes. The result is the unique - and above all now famous - smell associated with this airline.
What solutions are worth considering in addition?
Although sensory marketing mainly focuses on smell and hearing, for the beauty industry it is worth exploring other options.
Touch marketing:
- the question of the right texture, the softness of the materials conveyed to customers during treatments, which is worth emphasising, for example on social media, by bringing the two details closer together,
- shape - the perfect fit of an item to the hand can reinforce the recipient's satisfaction - this has been proven with Coca Cola designed to fit the average hand,
- temperature - a pre-warmed towel in the beauty salon will evoke a far better feeling than a cool towel just taken out of the cabinet.
Taste marketing:
- a body scrub made from brown sugar or a chocolate-scented foot cream will definitely stimulate the power of the sensory experience; however, the tastings that are often used are no less interesting - one American cosmetic clinic offers each guest a spoonful of selected acacia honey for its calming effect,
- a drink is not just about flavoured water - the cucumbers commonly associated with spas are sometimes an interesting product in Europe to enhance a beverage.
Visual marketing:
- appropriate colour projection - depending on the sunlight in the room, it is worth taking care to regulate the colours and make them neutral,
- chromotherapy - the play of colours, their automatic projection so as to influence the customer's mood, a mechanism successfully used, for example, in spas.
Solutions using sensory marketing are numerous. The limit here is the imagination of the owners of the spa, aesthetic medicine clinic or beauty salon. Only one thing is certain: where there are no stimuli, it is difficult to generate emotions - and these, if positive, provide a natural gateway to encourage the customer to return.