COVID-19 has created a physical void in our lives. We are missing physical social connection, touch, and closeness. Our recent article in The Marketing Society’s Empower magazine “How brands can help the human mind adapt to our new, more physically disconnected world” explores the role of multi-sensory experiences and the opportunities for brands to bring sensory effects to the digital platform and rebuild the human connection.
Part one looks at bridging the physical void in social interactions. We review, using a behavioural science lens, why multi-sensory experiences are so engaging, along with the upcoming sensory technological advancements that will help compensate in the absences of the physical sales environment and how they may even make them more immersive.
Part two looks at how insights from behavioural science can help fill the multi-sensory online void. We take a look at the challenges in markets where consumers currently lack the confidence to purchase in the absence of touch, exploring research which identifies ways in which brands can compensate for the loss of touch that helps to augment our overall experiences such as evocative language or video. We examine how brands have applied sensory compensating techniques in the fashion, furniture, property and car markets.
This pandemic will fast track digital evolution such that we will soon find what came before limited and unsatisfying at a sensory level.
You can read our article here.