WHISPERS OF PERCEPTION

In my article Sound Effects, I talked about how sound can influence our perceptions. I quoted BMW’s audio designer, Emar Vegt, who said: ‘The sound of a door closing is an important factor in the purchase decision’. Experience had shown him that the noise a car door makes when it closes greatly influences consumers when they’re judging the sturdiness and quality of a possible purchase.

So in this article, I want to look at how some consumers make emotional judgments about brands and products through the signals they receive from their five senses. And what we, as designers, can do to make use of them.

Solid and traditional

The RtB (Reason to Believe) is the factor that convinces consumers of a brand or product's superiority over its competitors. And traditionally, RtBs have been seen as rational, quantifiable elements: technical specifications, scientific superiority, unique materials, methods, ingredients. An all-aluminium monocoque structure serves as an RtB for a car's robustness; a slim non-filter for a ventilation fan's strength; cyclone technology for a vacuum cleaner's suction power. 

Such RtBs are rational. They can be demonstrated to potential buyers. They’re ‘solid’. Visible. But then there are the RtBs that work on another level.

The emotional.

The emotional response

Emotional RtBs are vague, illogical, and intuitive. In psychologist Daniel Kahneman’s 2-sytem model of decision-making (where System 1 is automatic, and intuitive and System 2 is deliberate and conscious), emotional RtBs very much belong to System 1. And consumers, often unconsciously, very much rely on them.

For instance, there are those who believe that the volume of a vacuum cleaner or fan is an indicator of its power and effectiveness. If it’s loud, they argue, then it must also be strong. If it's too quiet, they say, you can't feel its performance. Now, this isn’t a logical judgement; volume is no indicator of quality. But it is, for many potential consumers, an RtB in the product's performance. An emotional RtB.

So understanding emotional RtBs and conveying them effectively to consumers can be as important, if not more so, than rational RtBs. Which is why I believe that further exploration, and a deeper understanding, of the five senses are crucial to unlocking their potential.

The five senses

It would take too long to discuss all five (touch, sight, hearing, smell and taste), so I’ll confine myself here to just two: sight, and how it can affect our sense of taste. In tests conducted by Lawrence Rosenblum, a psychology professor at the University of California, Riverside, he found that subjects perceived dark-coloured drinks as having a stronger taste than lighter ones. In Japan, Professor Makoto Ichikawa from the Graduate School of Psychology at Chiba University found that the colour of a drink container can affect taste perception. Pink, for example, may intensify the perception of saltiness.

So, taking a cue from Rosenblum’s research, we could approach the selling of reduced-salt soy sauce – often thought to be less strong and tasty than its regular counterpart – by making its bottle darker. This would enhance the emotional RtB of taste despite the reduced salt content. Or, working from Ichikawa’s observations, we could package potato chips in pink packets to emphasize their saltiness.

An Rtb to believe

This often unnoticed influence of the senses needs further investigation. There are many sensory elements that we are still unaware of, and uncovering these could be crucial to developing an emotional RtB that appeals to unexpected intuitions. It’s not a quick process though: crafting an effective emotional RtB requires time, insight, and creative exploration. But that’s no reason to avoid it.

It’s the brands that can decode the science behind our sensory experiences and raise awareness about it that will have found a way to strengthen and more effectively communicate their value proposition. They’ll be able to increase their credibility, enhance their customer satisfaction, and encourage their targeted customers to choose their products.