Sensory Branding Leading to Sensory Overload: A Survey Based Study

Abstract

The study aimed to determine if the sensory branding strategy leads to sensory overload in the customers using a self-designed questionnaire. 100 people who were regular visitors to the shopping mall were selected to be a part of this research. A self-designed questionnaire was administered by each one of them. The questionnaire comprised of questions relating to the effects of sensory branding on their shopping experience. Results revealed that when a third sensory element was added to advertising, it lead to an increase in perceived arousal and decrease in pleasantness/ attractiveness to the product. As the ROLs suggest, sensory branding establishes both a physical and a psychological connection between the customers and the product. But the store atmospherics can negatively or positively alter the perception and attention of mall customers. Though sensory branding is being used tremendously as a marketing strategy, but large amounts of it can lead to sensory overload & thus the customer’s aversiveness to the product. The study concluded that limited use of sensory cues can be effective in attracting the customers to the product whereas adding more elements of sensory cues to the audio visual advertising can lead to sensory overload. Malls make people feel overwhelmed which is associated with the phenomena of sensory overload.