Assault on the Senses - Destinations of the World

From signature hotel scents to lift music, Beth Davie discovers what really goes into seducing the hotel guest
By: ES Media
 
May 14, 2010 - PRLog -- Influencing behaviours and creating suggestions at both the conscious and unconscious levels can be the right stimulus for Consumer Arousal.

Think back to your last hotel stay. What did the lobby smell like? Do you recall the music being played or was it the tune in the lift that stuck in your mind?

The use of sensory design and marketing to enhance a hotel's brand and the guest's experience is becoming an increasingly popular tool among hoteliers, but what is it exactly and how do hotels manage to not only activate our five senses, but use those senses to increase guest loyalty and even get guests to pay extra for the experience?

"Our experiences are formed from our five senses," says Simon A Faure-Field, CEO of
Equal Strategy, a customer experience consultancy.

"If you manage the elements of your guest experience more effectively, the output is more likely to be consistently on target."

Julian Treasure, author of Sound Business and chairman of the Sound Agency agrees.

"Great hotels - and I'm not just thinking top of the market here - have always intuitively understood that their success is based on consistent and congruent customer experience, which is always multi-sensory. It would seem crazy for such a multi-dimensional brand category to ignore those senses that have deeper emotional connections, such as sound and scent."

In short, our senses are there to be manipulated, and hotels are the perfect setting for complete immersion.

This move away from the visual to the sensory has led to a string of hotels infusing their lobbies with fragrances and playing customised soundtracks, all in a bid to create a memorable experience that guests can smell, hear and touch.

HOW HOTELS SEDUCE YOU

Starwood's Westin brand uses a white tea fragrance in all its lobbies worldwide. Omni Hotels infuses its lobbies with a lemongrass and green tea scent and Shangri-La also uses its own exclusive 'signature' fragrance. These 'signature' fragrances have been developed specially for the brand, are used exclusively by those clients, and will be associated with the hotel brand over the long term. And all of them are designed to evoke specific emotions from their guests.

"The "Essence of Shangri-La" was developed with the aim to express Shangri-La's brand.

The scent adds another sensory layer of welcome to all who enter, conveying a safe and comforting haven as soon as guests walk through our doors," says Sari Yong, media relations manager, Hong Kong/Southeast Asia, Shangri-La Hotels & Resorts.

"It is said to evoke serenity and calm." Realising the potential for increasing guest satisfaction and, ergo, loyalty, Omni took its sensory branding initiative beyond the lobby, and added scented stickers to newspapers distributed to guests and outfitting some hotels with in-room "sensation bars".

Like many hotels, Omni is also paying more attention to the music played in public spaces, developing playlists that are customised for each property, as well as the time of day.

"We realised that when business travellers are getting out the door in the morning, we need to be putting a little bit of beat in their step," says Caryn Kboudi, a spokesperson for Omni Hotels, explaining that this has led to a move away from classical music or jazz during the morning shift. "At night, then we go into something that's a little bit softer and slower."

Allen Klevens, chief executive of Prescriptive Music, a consulting business that helps clients develop these types of soundtracks, said hotels are looking to distinguish themselves by shunning the ubiquitous sound of jazz and even playing tunes guests do not necessarily recognise.

"If you hear music such as Sheryl Crow or Dave Matthews Band, that's a familiar sound to people," says Klevens. "But to really create a vibe or that feeling of being different, you're not going to know that artist, you're not going to know that sound, but you're going to say, 'Wow, where can I get that CD?' "

One hotel chain offering something else to sniff at is Starwood's Le Meridian.

As soon as you enter any of their hotels a waft of old books and parchment hits you. The smell isn't there to take you back to your school days, but instead to get you in the "right frame of mind" and in sync with the hotel chain's positioning as a destination for "guests who seek out a new perspective and cultural discovery in their travel experience".
Once through the lobby and check-in, you step into the lift and hear "horses galloping in water", instead of the usual monotonous sounds of piano keys or something equally forgettable.

Starwood's approach, both to its music and scent, is very different and certainly distinctive, which makes it all the more memorable.

For complete article:
http://www.equalstrategy.com/News/Destinations_Of_The_Wor...

For more information:
http://www.equalstrategy.com/

# # #

Equal Strategy delivers music, fragrance and "recorded telephone messages on hold" to businesses in a scientific way that enhances the overall customer experience of the brand and causes the customer to stay longer and buy more!

Equal Strategy is the only company in Asia that specialises in deploying music and fragrance solutions to business where the two senses are stimulated in synergy with each other.
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Source:ES Media
Email:***@equalstrategy.com Email Verified
Tags:Sensory Branding, Scent, Music
Industry:Business
Location:All Areas - Singapore - Singapore
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