Articles MCB-30806 Sensory Perception and Consumer Preference
Krishna An integrative review of sensory marketing (Lecture 1)
Sensory marketing = marketing that engages the consumers’ senses and affects their perception,
judgement and behaviour → sensory marketing can be used to create subconscious triggers that
characterise consumer perceptions of abstract notions of the product (e.g. sophistication, quality,
elegance, innovativeness) → the brand’s personality. Can also be used to affect the perceived quality
of an abstract attribute like its colour, taste, smell or shape.
Subconscious triggers = appeal to the basic senses and may result in consumers’ self-generation of
desirable brand attributes, rather than those verbally provided by the advertiser.
Sensation = when the stimulus impinges upon the receptor cells of a sensory organ (it is biochemical
and neurological in nature).
Perception = the awareness or understanding of sensory information (apprehension with the mind
or senses)
Conceptual framework of sensory marketing =
Recognise differences between sensation and perception =
● Vision
● Speech
● Visual perception
Theory of aisthesis = our five senses are ordered hierarchically, with touch on top and the other
senses increasing the acuity of the touch sensation
Need for touch scale = individual differences. Two subscales: instrumental (functionality, to buy a
product) and autotelic (compulsive touch or emotional component of touch).
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Krishna An integrative review of sensory marketing (Lecture 1)
Sensory marketing = marketing that engages the consumers’ senses and affects their perception,
judgement and behaviour → sensory marketing can be used to create subconscious triggers that
characterise consumer perceptions of abstract notions of the product (e.g. sophistication, quality,
elegance, innovativeness) → the brand’s personality. Can also be used to affect the perceived quality
of an abstract attribute like its colour, taste, smell or shape.
Subconscious triggers = appeal to the basic senses and may result in consumers’ self-generation of
desirable brand attributes, rather than those verbally provided by the advertiser.
Sensation = when the stimulus impinges upon the receptor cells of a sensory organ (it is biochemical
and neurological in nature).
Perception = the awareness or understanding of sensory information (apprehension with the mind
or senses)
Conceptual framework of sensory marketing =
Recognise differences between sensation and perception =
● Vision
● Speech
● Visual perception
Theory of aisthesis = our five senses are ordered hierarchically, with touch on top and the other
senses increasing the acuity of the touch sensation
Need for touch scale = individual differences. Two subscales: instrumental (functionality, to buy a
product) and autotelic (compulsive touch or emotional component of touch).
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