Perception of a brand is as good as reality. Whether the consumer perceives the long waiting time on the internet reflects the long lines in the branches, or if wine tastes better sealed with a cork, or a Rolls Royce rides more smoothly with a leathery smell, it is important that a brand's sensory touch points be kept alive. These touch points should be maintained and enhanced since they are what gives the brand its unique blueprint.

If you want consumers to access more dimensions of your brand, it is essential that you move from a 2-D model to a 5-D model. The too-hard basket has to be opened. Every sense opportunity should be explored. Don't hesitate to venture into the worlds of taste, touch and smell, because the purpose of sensory branding is to ensure a systematic integration of the senses in your communication, your product and your services. This will stimulate the imagination, enhance your product and bond your consumers to your brand.

A branded stimulus motivates impulsive behavior, and directly connects emotions to the brand. It is one of the most difficult aspects of a sensory relationship to establish. It's not intuitive, and takes time to form. It requires constant reinforcement between need and specific brand. Branded stimuli create long-term loyalty.

A branded enhancement will distinguish and differentiate your product from all the others on the shelf. Sensory bonding is the ultimate level a brand can achieve seen from a sensory branding point of view. What your brand should be aiming for is sensory excellence. In order to achieve this, it is essential for you to carefully evaluate the following criteria.

1. Leveraging existing sensory touch points.
2. Synergy across sensory touch points.
3. Innovative sensory thinking ahead of competitors.
4. Sensory consistency.
5. Sensory authenticity.
6. Positive sensory ownership.
7. Constant progress across sensory touch points.

If you want to understand the dynamics of sensory brand building this chapter summarizes every element of it. It takes you through fascinating statistics from the BRAND sense study and present aspects of branding you most never have noticed before now.

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Learn more about the BRAND sense Symposium - the world's biggest branding conference - exploring the world of sensory branding. Or click here to learn more about Lindstrom's latest BRAND sense DVD program on sensory branding taking you through the steps required to implement 5D branding in your organization.