Multi Sensory Reference in Communication
You may have heard me say that I want you to have a really potent message that packs a punch for the amount of time and space that you have. We’re going to talk about multi-sensory reference so that you can be much more powerful in your branding communication in a much shorter amount of time. The brain is the computer where everything gets a calculated process in a nanosecond based on previous experience which you have no understanding of, even if you know the person. Well, you don’t know their history. You don’t know, and when you’re talking to many, many, many target audience clients, ideal clients hopefully, you have a huge audience that you’re reaching. If you speak in metaphor, you will not lose that audience in the conversation.
Why You Should Use Metaphors
The reason why is that metaphor triggers a memory in their human computer. When you reference the five senses, you’ll just communicate the concept in a very strong way, in a very visual, visceral way. People talk in metaphor all the time. When they use the word like, “Oh my God, I went to Trader Joe’s today and it was like the day before Thanksgiving.” It’s like, dot, dot, dot. A picture is worth a thousand words. A metaphor is worth a thousand memories. If you remember anything, remember that from what I say today. “It looks like a bomb went off in here,” looks like. “This smells like gasoline.” “It taste like soap.” “It feels like velvet.” “It sounds like there’s dogs in the background; that business is a home office and it’s just a hobby business.”
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Everything that goes into this computer, a meaning is assigned. It’s not necessarily conscious. In fact, it’s not. It’s just immediate. Its adjacency, it’s a lot that’s going on here. We won’t go into the neuroscience of it but what you just need to know is that if you’re working and all these signals are being communicated, the brain is going to put a meaning on that. If your dog is barking or if your phone is going off, people will instantly identify what kind of phone it is because of auditory signals.
Very successful campaigns and graphics and symbol photography in particular is really excellent at this. Remember print, print advertising? Sorry to everybody who’s doing print advertising. I love magazines. I love looking at the photography. I love Cartier and Hugo Boss ads. My favorite are the ones that are quiet visually and there’s a gorgeous photo and then they say a metaphorical tagline. I’m going to talk about two examples here. When you know how to do this, it actually is very simple to do. But let me teach it to you.
Great Examples of Metaphor in Print Advertising
Donna Karan, DKNY had an excellent ad when they were launching the fragrance, DKNY. They had a beautiful photo of the perfume bottle and it said, “The scent of luxury.” The name of the product was Cashmere. Cashmere is something that you use kinesthetically. It feels like cashmere. Cashmere hopefully doesn’t have a smell, right? But it has a texture and it has a temperature, a warmth to it. Listen to my voice. Listen to everything that changes when I start to imagine Cashmere.
When you say it’s a scent of Cashmere, what happens in the human brain is the memory of smell of touch of cashmere is forwarded to the nose, the sensory, “Oh, that might smell so nice.” Everything that we think about cashmere, I have a positive idea of cashmere personally. Everything I think about the texture and the feel of cashmere and the temperature of cashmere, I’m going to now assign because you just told me to to the scent of that fragrance that’s now available by DKNY and I’m going to potentially like it. Got it?
The second example I have here is really an old example at this point but when I was teaching at Parson School of Design and teaching our clients like 10 years ago about this concept and why it’s so powerful, it’s so little words, so much meaning. Everything you’re doing is just conveying meaning and value. Guinness had this fabulous campaign years ago that they just showed the pint. Again, a beautiful photo of a glass that had condensation on the outside so you could say, “Oh, I know what that must feel like,” temperature wise. There will be a little bit of dew or moist, mist on your fingers. Gorgeous photo and lighting of the product and then it said, “Guinness, like drinking your favorite song.”
Transferring the sound of your favorite song to how this is going to taste for you. It’s very, very individual. Another concept as well is we’re talking to all of you at once. We’re talking to each of you individually. When you use the word, “It’s like,” you’re going to have a much bigger pound for your messaging. This applies to website copy, advertising, print advertising, your brochure. Just be careful on how many times you say it’s like, it’s like. That’s not what I’m suggesting you do. But get really clear about what your brand experience is like metaphorically, multi-sensorily and then go ahead and communicate it. Use that. Being clear allows you to be bold.