Ever since the launch of Apple?s iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, the global demand for the new phones has set new records. Both models will launch in India on October 17, and already the pre-booking orders show that it may be the most popular iPhone yet. The response to the launch of a new Apple product continues to baffle the competition. Apple products have great software, eye-catching design and a powerful ecosystem of content, apps and services which power the company?s success. However, there are other models of mobile phones and tablets that offer similar levels of software, apps and design, and are also cheaper, yet they lack the kind of market response that greets an Apple product. What makes it so desirable across gender, age and cultures?
Brand developers put it down to something called ?Sensory Branding.? Brands forge emotional associations in the customers? minds by appealing to their senses. A multi-sensory brand experience generates certain beliefs, feelings, thoughts and opinions to create a brand image in the consumer?s mind, more personal and intimate than traditional mass marketing. Although sensory techniques are used in relation to food and drink, it can also have a significant effect in other sectors. It can do what traditional forms of advertising cannot?appeal to two or more of the five senses. Brands like Ferrari and Moet & Chandon meet the criteria of multi-sensory branding, but for a consumer product like a phone, tablet or music player, it is unusual. Sensory marketing builds on the experiences lived by the consumers and his feelings in the process. These experiences have sensorial, emotional, cognitive, behavioural and relational dimensions, not just functional. What Apple does is stimulate the senses, to do with sight, hearing, touch and sound, and thereby create an image of Apple as ?state-of-the-art? lifestyle.
