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SensoGram 13: Imagery vs Sensory IS Style vs Substance
Sophisticated marketers realise that they must not confuse a product’s imagery with the product itself. The imagery experience of the product and the actual sensory experience of the product are processed in different ways.
Imagery is ethereal and flighty: it dances across the surface of the mind. Strong though it may seem when a product is hot, imagery is always brittle and susceptible to change.
Sensory experience, on the other hand – especially the sensory experience of food and drink – is fundamental and enduring, anything but flighty. Sensory experience is basic, a product of evolution, and does not change readily. For example, humans are programmed to like sweet things and dislike bitter things. Why? Because the things that are sweet in Nature are of use to us; they supply energy and sustenance. The things that taste bitter are often poisonous and threaten our wellbeing.
The constancy of sensory experience means that if we develop a formulation of food or drink that consumers really like – a formulation that really hits the bliss point – then they will like it for a long, long time. The formulation will not date in the way that its imagery will date.
A good example is Coca-Cola The imagery used in advertising this product is updated every year, to keep it contemporary: The ‘contemporary’ imagery of the 1990s is quite different from the ‘contemporary’ imagery of the 1930’s. The actual product, however, remains very much the same. Human sensory perception works the same today as it did 10, 100, 1000 years ago. A good tasting product remains a good tasting product.
Imagery must be attractive, fashionable and appropriate to invite trial. But only a sensory experience will guarantee a repurchase. Put more bluntly, A WINNING PRODUCT WILL SELL ITSELF BUT NO AMOUNT OF PROMOTION WILL SELL A POOR PRODUCT.
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