• by Larry Dobrow , Featured Columnist, May 1, 2009

FEELING IT

In media, touch tends to be the most neglected of the five senses. The reason for this is obvious: It's kinda tough to squeeze the Charmin through your car-stereo speakers or television screen. That said: It's not as if marketers have ignored touch completely.

Kiewiet of BrandKiwi notes that there's plenty of precedent for incorporating a touch component into programs that primarily appeal to other senses. The perfume industry is built around scent, clearly, but Kiewiet says that the shape of the container determines "more than half" of brand purchases. He points back even further, to the design of the iconic contoured Coca-Cola bottle. "The head of the company said 'Design a bottle that a blind person could find,'?" Kiewiet said. "They took something that was taste-related, then added touch and vision to it. You can't do a better job of cross-pollinating the senses than that."

The question many marketers are wrestling with is the role of touch-related components within programs going forward. Most are foaming at the mouth about working up applications for touchpad-driven iPhones, BlackBerrys and other handheld devices. The real opportunity, however, might be adding touch elements to programs that already tap two or three other senses.

In 2007, Lionsgate Home Entertainment hyped the dvd release of blow-'em-up epic The Condemned in Maxim with an ad printed on supposedly rip-proof synthetic paper. The thinking behind it: Take your best shot, tough guy. Lotion makers have followed their scent-errific peers onto the pages of magazines like Vogue, attaching thin, hermetically sealed samples to their print ads.

Still, there's plenty of room for innovation, according to Rainforest Café and T-Rex restaurant prexy Schussler. He cautions marketers not to stop with customers' hands; they ought to be concerning themselves with their feet as well. "We're constantly experimenting with floor surfaces, like anybody with in-store traffic should," he says. "We have carpet at T-Rex in certain places, which feels good on your feet and helps from a sound standpoint. We also have colored concrete; we find that people like the way it feels. These are things nobody thinks about, but they make a difference."

As for the aforementioned squeezing and groping the Charmin, would-be bathroom tissue purchasers can finally get a feel for the product based on an actual sensory experience, as opposed to taking some clever copywriter's word for it. Displays popping up in grocery aisles overseas allow shoppers to run their fingers over tissues, toothbrushes and comb bristles before dropping them into their carts. In-store devices that dispense, say, a thimbleful of shaving cream can't be far behind.

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