Five-dimensional Branding for Communication Designers: An Application of Sensory Development
Date
2012-11
Authors
Meek, Shawn Christopher
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Abstract
Brands are as personified as the audience for who they are designed. Brands follow users home on the Interstate, shine through screens in their living rooms, cook an audience’s meal, entertain them and tuck them into bed. Despite traditional boundaries, brands are now creating opportunities to create meaningful experiences with their audiences through sensorial exploration. It is the job of the designer to communicate these elements to a specified audience. Sensory branding not only creates synergy, it connects an audience to multiple vehicles of experience, creating multiplied value (Lindstrom, 2005, pp. 31 - 32). Value, therefore, becomes more important than the sensory experience itself.
This research focuses on sensory brand building’s existence and usage. It will be based upon a project-focused initiative founded upon a five-dimensional tool that will be used as an easily processed resource for design students. Undergraduate Communication Design students will be the participants in the research, as the online tool will be administered to them in a classroom setting. Curious students will be given the opportunity to make informative decisions based upon a model of multi-sensory brand building that will create scenarios established by chosen sensory elements for a particular brand. Since the research and project will both be based upon a five-dimensional model, the focus on the interactive tool will be upon the process of aligning cohesive sensory elements in as an application to elevate brand experiences. The online resource will have multi-sensory elements, however it is not intended to be a multi-sensory experience alone.
The process of building multi-sensory elements that inform, educate, and elevate brand experiences is the focus that is explored and defined individually. The conclusion of the tool’s usage will produce data to yield results that can be analyzed to support the objective. The online resource is designed to help elevate a student’s awareness of sensory branding to be used for future clients outside of the classroom.
Description
Keywords
Five-dimensional branding, Sensory branding, Branding
Citation
Meek, S. C. (2012). <i>Five-dimensional branding for communication designers: An application of sensory development</i> (Unpublished thesis). Texas State University-San Marcos, San Marcos, Texas.