Page 48 - Unlock Sensory Power
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Think about going to the cinema.        What these examples teach us is
                                                                                           You swear the actor’s voice is          that we don’t actually experience
                                                                                           coming from their lips. It isn’t.       the world around us. Rather, we
                                                                                           It’s actually coming from               experience a representation of the
          MAKING SENSE                                                                     auditorium.                             ourselves.
                                                                                           loudspeakers arranged around the
                                                                                                                                   world that we create for


                                                                                           Think about wine tasting. A white
                                                                                                                                   can of Red Bull or bar of Hershey’s
                                                                                           wine is expertly reviewed using         This isn’t to say that your next
          OF THE HUMAN                                                                     ‘honeydew’. If we were to secretly  a representation, created from
                                                                                                                                   Chocolate is an illusion – but it is
                                                                                           words like ‘fruity’, ‘floral’ and
                                                                                           add a red food dye, the ‘expert’
                                                                                                                                   sensory inputs arising from the
                                                                                                                                   branding, the packaging and the
                                                                                           vocabulary dramatically changes.
                                                                                                                                   product.
                                                                                           Imagine a video recording of a
                           SENSES                                                          man saying ‘vaa-vaa-vaa’. Strange,
                                                                                           but stay with us! We think we hear
                                                                                           ‘vaa-vaa-vaa’. However, when the
                                                                                           movement of his lips changes as
                                                                                           if to say ‘baa-baa-baa’, we are
       Seeing does not always amount to believing. Discuss!                                convinced we are hearing ‘baa-
                                                                                           baa-baa’ – even if the soundtrack
       This article, based on the work of Professor David Thompson, MMR’s                  remains ‘vaa-vaa-vaa’.
       Chairman and Founder, illustrates why it’s important for brand owners to
       better understand how people make sense of the world around them.
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