Elevating or creating sensorial experiences has emerged as a powerful strategy to create lasting impressions on your guests and customers.
To transform the guest experience through sensory enhancement, hotels, restaurants, and other hospitality brands must first understand the profound impact of multi-sensory stimulation. Sight, sound, touch, smell, and taste — plus our addition of feel and say — all play an important role in forming a connection between your business and your guests.
Sight
Visual appeal remains a cornerstone of sensory marketing, but hotels and restaurants who have their finger on the pulse of technology are pushing boundaries beyond having a nice logo. Incorporating dynamic, intelligent lighting that regulates and changes based on the environment, utilizing interactive displays for menus and check out procedures, and providing augmented reality to display room features or a 3D model of a food dish before ordering are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to intensifying your guests’ visual experience.
Sound
Sound design can significantly influence behavior or help your audience remember your brand. From carefully curated playlists based on your hotel or restaurant’s vibe, mood, or values to signature audio logos or jingles, auditory elements can enhance the overall atmosphere or reinforce your brand identity either on the property or in your audio and video marketing.
Taste
Unless your business is a restaurant or food product, taste can be easily overlooked as a marketing strategy. Incorporating custom or on theme food or drink offerings at your events, partnering with a gourmet food brand to include a sample in your packaging, or including coupons or gift cards for restaurants or food products are a delicious way to interact with your customers and guests that they won’t soon forget. After all, the best way to someone’s heart is truly through their stomach.
Smell
Scent marketing can enhance and form memories around the guest experience. For a hotel, developing a signature scent that is used throughout the property creates a cohesive experience and will remind them of their stay when they smell something similar out in the world. It’s also a great revenue boosting opportunity to sell your scent in the gift shop so guests can take a little piece of their stay or vacation home with them. Incorporating signature scents in product packaging or mailings is another strategy to remind customers or guests of the luxury service you provide.
Touch
Tactile features are a significant way to create memorable and impactful experiences. Utilizing luxurious textures like embossing or soft-touch coating on your business cards, stationery, or product packaging gives your guest or customer a glimpse into the luxury experience your brand encapsulates. Similarly, using high-quality materials on your displays like polished wood or elegant fabric enhances the perceived value of your product or service. IKEA makes some solid budget bookcases, but using them in your high-end hotel or store may not accurately reflect the luxury service you’re trying to sell.
Feel
The sense of feel is evident in the emotions and feelings you invoke from your guests and customers. By thoroughly training each and every staff member in the art of excellent customer service, your audience will leave interactions with your brand knowing they were truly heard or cared for. Through holiday campaigns or vintage elements in your marketing, brands can invoke a sense of nostalgia, cultivating a feeling of fondness towards your brand.
Say
What your guests and customers have to say about your business or brand can be incredibly valuable to your marketing. Showcasing testimonials and reviews give your audience real-life proof of other guests and customers experiencing your brand, and responding to reviews is crucial to showing both the guest who wrote the review or the potential customers reading the review that you’re actively listening and working towards providing excellent service in all areas of your business.