How can brand owners exploit the surprising brand power of multisensory marketing at POS?
The Sappi Blue Couch hosts two experts exploring what multisensory marketing means for brands seeking to gain a competitive advantage with their packaging
More and more brands today, as well as increasingly savvy consumers, are coming to recognise that great packaging is about plenty more than just good product protection, delivery, description and access. It is about something else as well – powerful brand communication.
As Apple, currently the most valuable company in the world, demonstrates so well with its iconic product packaging – when a brand exploits powerful POS brand communication with intelligence and sensitivity, the results can be definitive.
That’s why forward-thinking brands are following Apple’s lead and designing their packaging to take account of both the consumer’s conscious and unconscious perceptions and processes.
This makes sense when we learn that each of us consciously processes about 30 to 40 pieces of information per second – while also processing a staggering 11m bits of information subconsciously.
Enter modern multisensory marketing.
And enter the latest in the Blue Couch series of informative discussions of the latest developments in paper and packaging. This episode finds Olaf Hartmann, CEO of Germany’s Multisense Institute, in lively conversation with Lars Scheidweiler, Head of Packaging Solutions at Sappi.
Hosted by Marianna Evenstein, the conversation ranges from the revelation that over the past 20 years we have learned more about our brain and how it processes signals than we had learnt in the preceding 200 years, to “priming” experiments involving the likes of smooth clipboards, rough clipboards and differing effects on charity donations.
Along the way, the contributors offer a range of fascinating insights – with thoroughly practical applications. For example, when Olaf Hartmann advises brands on maximising the impact of their brand packaging, he begins with looking at how consumers arrive at decisions.
“We do not buy brands, we buy categories – and then we choose a brand within that category”
“So, the first thing we need to ensure is to understand the context within which the brand is perceived by the consumer. You need to understand the patterns of the category – by what signals, colours, shapes etc people understand that what you have to offer belongs to the category. Then the next step is to make your brand promise distinct, so people recognise you quickly… Like how does innovation smell? Or how does freedom feel?”
For Lars Scheidweiler, making the most of multisensory marketing is something that Sappi is well-placed to offer valuable help with.
“We at Sappi are in a unique position – we can really provide solutions and answers with regard to consistencies throughout the entire communication channel. And we are very, very happy to share that experience and that knowledge. All this in the name of “making better packaging in the future”.
