This is installment 3 of the importance of using the 5 senses to create successful events. We’ve discussed music (sound) and smell and now we’re going to talk about taste.

Taste is a very complex sense. It’s actually significantly affected by sight, sound and smell. I remember when I was a little girl going to the Toronto Science Center. They had an exhibit in which a whole bunch of different colored jelly beans laid out for kids to taste by color grouping. The twist was that they had switched up the flavors so an orange flavored jelly bean wasn’t orange it was pink and the grape colored jelly bean was orange, and so on. So the goal was to eat the jelly bean and say what flavor it was. Simple right? Not so much. It was really tough to guess flavors when you didn’t have the sense of sight to back you up.

I can’t stress how much time is spent by manufacturers on getting just the right shade of orange for Nacho flavored tortilla chips or how much r&d goes into getting just the right crunch for a brand of pickles. After all, “as all new cooks are told, the first bite is with the eye. The second is probably with the ears, finger or tongue.” Good marketers recognize that taste is not a stand alone sense.

In the same way that sight & smell affect taste, other senses can suggest taste. Just look at my post about a children’s library in China. The use of bright, punchy colors feels candy-like. The words fruity, decadent, savory, smokey, and citric are not used to describe food alone. They can be used in reference to colors. If looking to go decadent, use rich, dark, foodie colors like chocolate browns and wine reds. If looking to go citric, use bright oranges, lemon yellows and lime greens. So think outside of just food when looking to dial up taste. Furniture and decor can go a long way in increasing taste appeal.

Summary:
- Emphasize the taste of food by assessing color, crunch, texture, and design
- Understand the meaning of colors. A resource like ICA can help you choose foodie colors that are relevant to your event.
- Use more than just food to tap into taste – use decor, furniture, flowers and other design elements

Reference: Making sense of taste

Hire Lara to Build Your Business
Hire Lara to Speak
Subscribe to our Newsletter
The best way to get in touch with me is hello@ready2spark.com

Tags: Corporate Branding

A few posts back I spoke about the importance of creating an emotional connection with your guests by engaging the 5 senses. I was so excited when I came across Life Design Event’s blog about Scent Events. This is a system, specifically designed for events, that projects a range of scents throughout a room. Think mangoes for a tropical themed event, peppermint for a winter event, pumpkin for a Thanksgiving event…and they even do custom scents.

I really can’t believe that I missed them at the Special Event show. My only excuse is that I hadn’t started my blog yet.

So, here are some details from their website:
- can be used indoors or out
- can scent areas up to 2,000 square feet, using a single scent cartridge that is only slightly larger than a can of soup
- the system uses a small scent player measuring only 7 inches wide by 9 1/2 inches tall by 10 inches deep
- the substances used to create the scents are environmentally safe, easy to use, and simple to control
- each scent player requires less than 1 amp of power and plugs into any 110 V outlet
- planners can rent or purchase scent players and cartridges
- rental programs start at less than $300

Hire Lara to Build Your Business
Hire Lara to Speak
Subscribe to our Newsletter
The best way to get in touch with me is hello@ready2spark.com

Tags: Corporate Branding

When I was doing brand strategy for my clients, it was our undeniable mandate to develop brand elements that connected with consumers on an emotional level. After all, that’s what good brands do. Long gone are the days when consumers purchase based on features and benefits. Now it’s all about how the brand makes me feel, makes me look and what consuming it says about me. So, imagine trying to convince a room full of 50-something male corporate executives that the package design we created for their new feminine itch brand would convey “total peace of mind”, “freedom”, and “power”. I mean really? A package??

So you can imagine my delight when I moved into the world of events. Events by nature allow the the brand to connect with the consumer through all 5 senses: sight, smell, sound, taste, and touch and in turn the consumer is able to experience the brand . Now, why did I jump from “emotion” to “senses”? There’s a strong link between the two. We’ve all been somewhere and smelled a scent that catapaulted us back to an amazing childhood memory, or heard a sound that made the hairs on the back of our neck stand up or tasted something that made our eyes close and our toes curl. Some of the 5 senses are more strongly linked to memory and emotion than others…and I’ll likely get into the other 4 senses another day, but I’m hear to talk to you today about sound. Or more specifically music.

Music is such an important element of the corporate event. Imagine an event without it…do you hear the crickets? But music isn’t just about filling the air with great songs. It should be as strategic a selection as where to hold the event. Music has to connect with the guests, it has to be relevant to the brand and depending upon its objective it either needs to recede into the background or push its way to the foreground. Either way, there is one question that will unlock the secret to creating a relevant connection: “What does your brand sound like?”.

Expect when you do ask this question to hear dead silence. 90% of the time I have to repeat myself. Most marketers have never thought of their brand in this way. Yet “Sound stimuli can provide needed cues in memory retrieval. If, for example, you listen to a certain type of music every time you studied history, you would have a better chance of remembering the facts you learned if you were hearing the same music as when you learned them”. This is HUGE from a marketing standpoint. You mean I can create a stronger connection between my brand and memory by playing music?? Sure, just think of how music/sound elevated the brand experience for Intel, Disney, Coke or any other brand that has a successful sound imprint or jingle. While I’m not suggesting that you create 4 hours of jingles to fill the audio space of the event, I am suggesting this…
Clearly define what your client’s brand sounds like, find a music engineer / DJ who understands the importance of branding through sound, and work cohesively to develop a strategic sound for your event to leave a lasting imprint in the hearts and minds of your guests.

Sources for music branding:
DJ Dave Campbell – PressPlay (Toronto)
Song Seekers (UK)

Hire Lara to Build Your Business
Hire Lara to Speak
Subscribe to our Newsletter
The best way to get in touch with me is hello@ready2spark.com

Tags: Corporate Branding

I came from an industry where mergers & acquisitions were an every day occurrence. This created a very uneven playing field – small, privately owned companies were vying for business against huge, multi-national firms. This David vs Goliath challenge isn’t specific only to the branding industry…it blankets just about every industry out there. And, unfortunately, time after time the little guy loses. Why? Because they try to go head to head on price, resources, and speed.

In a competitive marketplace differentiation is King. In the linked article which appeared in September’s issue of Financial Post Business Magazine, they illustrate a case study that we can all relate to.

Taylor Studios is a small photography firm in Kingston, Ont. Founder Robert Taylor built his business on portraits, weddings and corporate head shots. In
recent years, however, he has become increasingly reliant on contracts from the nearby university, especially its student yearbook committee. Shooting portraits for that project accounts for some 60% of his company’s annual revenue.

Taylor has an excellent business relationship with the school’s yearbook committee. But his current three-year contract is coming to an end and he’ll have to compete for renewal – this time against Lifetouch Inc., a colossus in the portrait photography industry. Unable to match Lifetouch on price and speed, Taylor needs a compelling pitch to ensure the university’s yearbook business stays local.

Find out what Expert: Elspeth Murray of Queen’s School of Business had to say and find out what Taylor did to win the business back from photography-giant Lifetouch Inc.

Hire Lara to Build Your Business
Hire Lara to Speak
Subscribe to our Newsletter
The best way to get in touch with me is hello@ready2spark.com

Tags: Corporate Branding