When you are drafting your creative strategy, one of the sections you have to create is your five senses. This sections tells the reader more detail of your brand whcih includes its:
But how do I develop these? What can a brand ‘feel’ like? The 5 brand associations need to fit with your overall brand to convey to the reader effectively what you want to achieve. In this blog post, I will help you develop each section to drive creativity and properly address your brand clearly to the reader. Before we begin, I would recommend developing your brand colors first and you can read my other blog about some tools that can help you! If you have your colors already then let's move on!
I will also be including my 5 sense brand associations as a resource/example to help you create your own !
When you think of ‘looks’, the first thing is typically physical but you need to think outside of the box. Using my brand association “Light peeking through clear glass”, how does that represent my brand? I wanted my overall brand to feel bright, comforting, relaxing, which is represented in my brand association. If you are feeling lost in this section, go through your camera roll and locate some pictures or images that make you feel good. This can give you a clear image of what you like and think of easy ways to convey that to the reader.
When I was crafting this section, I considered smells that I enjoy. Some examples were fresh gasoline, nail polish, flowers, but how many of those fit with my brand? I landed on “a stationary store in summer” which had a fresh, clean smell. I selected this because years ago I loved stationary and would spend lots of my time in those types of stores. If you are having trouble with this section, think of nostalgic smells. Something from kindergarten? A snack you ate as a kid? Maybe even a family member's car? What evokes a reaction out of you?
An instant place that people go to when thinking of sound is music, which is a great start but how can we expand this more? There are so many sounds besides just music that we tend to forget about. For example, the sound of keys jangling, pens clicking, keyboard tapping, kids running on a rocky beach, it's infinite. For now, let's start with music and start to think of genres that you enjoy. If you like emo, what type of emotion is that? Angry? Sad? But what if my brand is like yours? Soft? Break it down, what do you like about the music? Think of the elements.
My first thought when I was creating my ‘taste’ section was “what does clean taste like?”. It all comes back to how your overbrand perception is presented to the reader. A great place to start is asking yourself “What does ____ taste like?” Don’t just put your brand in that filler spot, that's what we want to describe. For example, if your brand is more dark focused, what does that taste like? When I think of dark, I think of black coffee or tobacco. Is that what you want your brand to convey? Can the reader properly taste that?
Feel could mean different things. Emotional feeling? Physical feeling? Sensation? In the check list it is described as “the tactile experience that best evokes the image the brand wishes to convey”. So it could be any feeling which,I personally decided to go the physical route, but let's talk generally. If you are struggling with this section, ask yourself “what do I FEEL looking at my brand?” asking this question can jumpstart your thinking to properly convey what you want to accomplish. Is your brand kind of crazy? Thrilling? Maybe perhaps your feeling could be your stomach dropping on a rollercoaster. If you go with the physical, what is crazy/thrilling? Maybe getting a static shock on your fingertips?
Developing your five senses brand associations isn’t just a checklist—it’s where your brand comes to life in the mind of your audience. By properly conveying what your brand means, you are inviting others to experience and FEEL it on a deeper emotional and sensory level. How can you go outside of the box?
If you felt like this blog was helpful to you, check out my last blog about how to adapt to change and how staying agile is beneficial!
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