Sensory marketing from a global perspective [Sophia University Associate Professor Taku Togawa series, Part 1]

This series features Associate Professor Taku Togawa of the Department of Business Administration, Faculty of Economics, Sophia University, who researches “sensory marketing.” The theme of the first event was “Sensory Marketing from a Global Perspective.” Students will be asked to consider the senses that are common throughout the world, such as “sound symbols,” as well as cultural differences in colors, shapes, scents, etc.

For example, regardless of culture or country, many people tend to prefer the color blue. This is said to be influenced by the evolutionary process of humankind and our instinctive senses. On the other hand, while the menthol-based “wintergreen scent” has a positive impression in the United States, it can be unpleasant in the English-speaking United Kingdom. The reason for this phenomenon is said to be the “cultural differences” between the two countries.

Cultural differences are an important point to consider for marketing professionals responsible for global strategy.

Let’s look for hints about what kind of impression sensory elements make and how they are received in markets of different cultures.

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Introduction

Sensory marketing refers to methods that influence customer perception, evaluation, and behavior through experiences through the five senses (sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch).

Whether we are aware of it or not, we are influenced by our five senses when we watch advertisements, shop in stores, and use products at home.

Many leading companies are aware of this and are using it strategically. Apple uses a unified, sophisticated visual design across all customer touchpoints, including advertising, its official website, packaging, products, and store décor, which plays a core role in the company’s brand values. Fulfilling. Many luxury car brands, such as Bentley, invite acoustic experts to their development teams to design unique engine sounds (
Lindstrom, 2005
). In South Korea, a donut shop successfully increased sales by broadcasting an audio advertisement on a bus with the scent of coffee in the air (
Krishna, 2013
).

The author usually works at a university and studies marketing and consumer psychology from an academic perspective. When you hear the word “academic research,” some people may have an image of something out of this world, but just as there are trends that come and go in fashion and hairstyles, there are “trends” in academic research as well. Since around 2010, the theme of sensory marketing has become a trend, and many researchers around the world have been elucidating its effects.

Research has shown that all kinds of sensory experiences influence customer behavior, including the visual design of advertisements and packaging, the background music that plays in stores, the feel and weight of products when you touch them at the store, and the warmth or cold of the outside temperature. It has been shown that giving. For an overview of sensory marketing and various research results, please refer to the book “
Sensory Marketing
” and the article “

Sensory Appeal in Marketing

.”

In this article, I would like to consider cultural differences in sensory marketing. It is generally said that many of the effects of sensory marketing are universal to some extent, regardless of country or culture. However, some strategies may have different effects depending on culture. We hope that this article can provide useful hints to those involved in marketing who are aware of global strategies regarding the effects of cultural differences.

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What is common between cultures

As mentioned above, sensory marketing also has effects that are reported to be consistent across cultures. Before we get into cultural differences, let’s first look at the opposite, that is, what trends are common across cultures.

A typical example is a phenomenon called sound symbolism. For example, consider the following case.

An outdoor equipment manufacturer is planning to release a new camping table. The selling point of this new product is that it is slightly larger than a typical camping table and has ample space.

Let’s say you are currently considering a name for your product, and the two candidates are “MIL” and “MAL.” Which name would you choose if you wanted to convey to consumers that “bigness” is the selling point?

I ask the same question in university lectures, and

the overwhelming majority of students consistently choose “MAL” every time. Many readers probably chose “MAL” as well.

So why do I feel that MAL is more suitable than MIL for expressing size? Some readers may think that this is due to the influence of English words. This is a sharp point. Indeed, when I look at the spellings of words such as max, which means maximum, and minimum, which means minimum, I tend to think that they are the result of associations from these English words. However, some research results have been reported that cannot be explained by this alone. One study

reported that the same effect occurred even in ethnic groups unfamiliar with English words

.

This phenomenon is explained by an effect called sound symbolism. As you can see, the difference between the two lies in the vowels (A and I). A (/a/), u (/u/), o (/o/), etc. are called back vowels because they are pronounced with the mouth wide open and from the back of the tongue. . For the opposite reason, /i/ and /e/ are called front vowels. One of the mechanisms currently being considered is that the act of “opening the mouth wide” in the back vowel may be associated with “size”, resulting in the aforementioned selection tendency. .

It is also known that the smallness of front vowels (i and e) suggests agility and sharpness. On the other hand, back vowels (a, u, o) are associated with size and power.

According to a study, the brand names of sports cars that demand speed performance use front vowels that are associated with “speed,” while the brand names of SUVs that require powerfulness use “size” and “powerful” sounds. When a back vowel reminiscent of “sa” was used, consumer evaluations increased (

Shrum et al., 2012

).

Back vowels such as a, u, and o require the mouth to be opened wider than front vowels such as i and e. This remains true no matter who pronounces it, when or where. Therefore, the effect has been confirmed regardless of culture, and a similar trend was confirmed in an experiment in Japan (

Motoki & Iseki, 2022

).

When considering names for products, services, websites, etc., using vowels that match their characteristics (big or small, fast or slow, tough or delicate, etc.) increases the sense of compatibility and helps consumers It is possible to improve the evaluation of These strategies appear to be consistently effective across cultures.

Meanings of colors and cultural differences

Color is an essential element in sensory marketing, especially when considering visual effects. Color effects can be used in a variety of situations, including not only product colors, but also fonts used in advertising, logos, and packaging.

Many research results have been reported regarding the influence of color on people’s impressions and behavior. According to them, there are some common trends that have been confirmed across cultures to some extent. For example,

many people prefer the color blue, regardless of culture or country

(

Madden et al., 2000

). This is said to be due to environmental adaptation and survival instinct during the evolutionary process. In other words, the explanation is that blue is generally seen in many objects that are beneficial to survival, such as stable weather and clean water, and that humans have come to prefer these colors through the process of evolution (see the paper for details). (See “
Intersection between aesthetic perception and consumer behavior
.”)

On the other hand, there are also points about cultural differences. For example, in Japan, China, and South Korea, purple was associated with luxury, but in the United States, it was associated with cheap goods (

Jacobs et al., 1991

).

Colors can be associated with specific industries or companies, and these associations can have cultural differences. For example, in the UK, the color orange tends to be associated with telecommunications companies and airlines (
Krishna, 2013
). This kind of association probably does not exist in America or Japan.

Cultural differences tend to arise when certain colors are symbols of holidays. For example, on St. Patrick’s Day, people in the United States often wear green and hold masses and parades. Therefore, in one experiment, when American participants were asked to imagine a gift to give to their family on St. Patrick’s Day, they tended to choose green wrapping paper. On the other hand, in China, red is the symbolic color of the Lunar New Year, so when Chinese participants were asked to imagine what a Lunar New Year gift would look like, many chose red wrapping paper (

Chattopadhyay et al., 2009

).

Another study conducted in the United States analyzed supermarket sales data. According to this study, sales of orange-colored products increased in the period just before Halloween compared to after it (

Berger et al., 2008

). In America, before Halloween, orange decorations increase in streets and stores. People tend to like things they are exposed to often, so just before Halloween, people’s preference for orange things increased.

With this in mind, colors are often associated with specific holidays. When using color in marketing, it is important to carefully check what events the color evokes in the culture of the target customer.

Cultural differences in shape preferences

When you go to a supermarket or drugstore, you will notice that there are packages of various shapes. When you look at shampoo bottles, some are slim and angular, while others are rounded and cute.

Which do people prefer: angular or rounded shapes? There are cultural differences in this too. According to one study, in general, Eastern cultures prefer rounded shapes, whereas Western cultures prefer angular shapes (

Zhang et al., 2006

).

This difference is explained by the concept of “cultural self-view” in social psychology. People from Eastern cultures have a “mutually cooperative self-view” that values ​​cooperative relationships and harmony between themselves and others, while people from Western cultures separate themselves from others and value their individuality and uniqueness. emphasizing gender (

Kitayama, 1998

). According to the above-mentioned research, people who have a mutually independent view of self (predominant in Western culture) seek to resolve conflicts through confrontation between the two parties, so angular shapes that are associated with “conflict” are preferred. On the other hand, people with an oriental self-view of mutual cooperation, where things are resolved through compromise and compromise on both sides, prefer rounded shapes that are reminiscent of those images.

Since we are only discussing general trends, there may actually be differences due to individual differences and product characteristics. However, when compared under the same conditions, it has been confirmed that there are cultural differences in preferences for angular and rounded shapes. For brands and products that operate globally, the shapes used in logos, packaging, and product design may need to be carefully selected depending on the cultural background of the target customer.

Whether a fragrance is good or bad is learned through culture.

There are cultural differences not only in visual factors such as color and shape, but also in olfactory responses. Scents are used as marketing tools in retail and service industries, as they have the effect of promoting purchases and evoking positive memories of the past when played inside a store.

First of all, how do we decide what smells good and what smells bad? One of the characteristics of the sense of smell is that “the meaning of whether a smell is good or bad is mostly acquired.” For example, when we smell rotten food or excrement, we reflexively turn away and feel disgusted. Interestingly, however, such reactions are rarely seen when infants are exposed to the same odor (
Krishna, 2013
). Adults avoid these smells because they know that they are “dirty smells,” but infants do not have this knowledge and therefore do not exhibit an aversion reaction. In other words, many “good smells” and “unpleasant smells” are not determined at birth, but are acquired.

A prime example of this is the experience of feeling negative just by smelling the smell of a dentist’s office. When people have the experience of enduring the pain of treatment while smelling the pungent smell of disinfectant, they learn that the smell is unpleasant.

Therefore

, what people associate with a particular scent differs greatly depending on the cultural background in which they were born, raised, and have had various experiences.

For example,

wintergreen is

also used as an aromatic oil, giving off

a refreshing menthol-based scent

.

People in the United States rated this scent as favorable, while people in the United Kingdom found it unpleasant

(

Herz, 2009

). The reason for this is cultural differences regarding past events.

In Britain, during World War II, hospitals used a drug that smelled like wintergreen.

For this reason, it is thought that when people smell this scent, they are immediately associated with negative images from wartime. On the other hand,

in the United States, there was no such association; in fact, it reminded people of a refreshing peppermint-like scent and candy, resulting in positive reviews.

For many readers, when they smell the scent of wood coming from firewood, they associate it with camping or forest bathing, and it gives them a pleasant feeling. However, this trend is not universal.

For Hindus, the scent of trees is reminiscent of funeral pyres and can evoke feelings of sadness

(for more information, see
Krishna, 2013
).

Of course, there are some trends that are common around the world to some extent, such as the scent of coffee being liked in most countries, and the scent of lemon associated with cleanliness. However, it is not uncommon for people’s preferred scents and the things they associate with them to differ from culture to culture. When using scents at stores or in service settings,

it is necessary to carefully check what the scent means to local customers.

Toiletries giant P&G has launched a lavender-scented household detergent aimed at the U.S. Hispanic market.

For Hispanics, the scent of lavender evokes homely and favorable associations

(
Krishna, 2013
). By learning the meanings of scents in each culture, it may be possible to utilize them in marketing.

lastly

Colors and scents that are considered desirable in Japan can sometimes be associated with completely unintended meanings (sometimes the exact opposite) in other cultures. When expanding sensory marketing globally, it is necessary to carefully conduct impression tests and surveys on-site to avoid these risks. On the other hand, it is also possible to consider strategies that take advantage of these differences. As in the case of P&G mentioned above, it is also possible to enhance marketing effectiveness by analyzing the preferences and associations of target customers and using sensory elements that are appropriate for them.