Sensory Marketing in Hospitality

Probably many of you have gone to a hotel where you have never been, but you feel familiar, and something is connecting you with it; it is hard for you to identify why you feel like that, why you feel so comfortable, well, let me tell you that you have been sensory attacked. 

 In the hotel industry, sensory marketing encompasses a deep study of the atmosphere we want to create, along with the concept of the hotel we want to develop. Assertive strategic decisions surely are going to be crucial in the hard way of guest engagement. 

 Many brands are including different elements in their strategy, creating a corporate image that guests will remember and want to repeat often. 

 The Greats 

 Sensory marketing involves all the human senses; every marketing strategy should appeal to the guest's five senses: sight, smell, sound, taste and touch. In my experience, the implementation of the strategy should be based on the customer travel journey, putting an extra effort to create the best sense of arrival, knowing that we don’t have a second chance to place a good first impression; that´s why we always keep the lobbies of the hotels neat, with music that matches the atmosphere, a good ambiance scent and a glass of champagne. 

"In the hotel industry sensory marketing encompasses a deep study of the atmosphere we want to create, along with the concept of hotel we want to develop."

 Creating and ensuring a positive sensory marketing strategy is a must to hire the best-specialized companies in those different fields; there's so much more at stake than we can imagine; we have to do whatever is in our hands to captive as many customers as we can, at the end is cheaper to bring loyal customers that convince new ones.

 Brand identity 

 Lately, sensorial strategies for smell, sound, sight, taste, and touch have been recognized by most hotel companies as a magnificent tool in expressing brand identity and value; most CEOs agree with it, but what they don't agree on is defining which of the great 5´s is the most important one, the true is that all of them are really vital and their importance will lie in whether we analyze them within the sales process, or having the guests already at the hotel, in the first option the sight will be the most significant, I would say that the eyes do 70 or 80 percent of purchasing a product.

 In conclusion, the next time you go to a hotel and feel better than at home, just enjoy it and let yourself go, thanking the brand manager for his good work.