Touch marketing – What is it, definition and concept

In other words, touch marketing is a part of sensory marketing that uses the sense of touch to generate sensations that are pleasant. These sensations are about the temperature, shape, size and texture of the products.

Indeed, when people are at the point of sale, they like to touch the products before deciding to buy them. Of course, it doesn’t work on all product categories. But, what is certain is that the fact of touching a product helps the consumer to obtain information about its qualities and functions. The most important qualities may be the texture, size and materials used.

Without a doubt, touch marketing can help companies to consolidate brand identity by allowing users to interact with products. This type of marketing can influence the sensations, perceptions and preferences of people when buying, since it allows for both physical and psychological interaction with the products.

In addition, this type of marketing can be used to establish clear differences between the products offered by a company and the products sold by the competition. This, making products easier to remember and identify. The use of touch marketing is used and maximized when making physical purchases, but is weakened in online purchases.

The marketing of touch and the sense of touch

Naturally, the sense of touch is a very special sense. It is the first sense that a person develops since they are in the womb and it is one of the last that is lost over the years.

Of course, it is better developed at the fingertips. But it is located throughout the skin and helps to better understand the environment in which we move. Therefore, it can be used to evaluate products and the point of sale as such.

Additionally, by directly touching a product, conditions such as texture, hardness, weight, size, temperature, among some that we can mention, can be evaluated. These sensations are sent to the brain where they are evaluated. This evaluation determines the purchase decision by people.

touch marketing applications

Above all, the use and application of touch marketing helps to intensify and strengthen a person’s experiences. Especially when the other senses don’t have as much reach. Thus, through touch you can describe a product and transmit information, sensations and feelings.

For that reason, touch marketing offers novel ways for people to interact with the product and can engage the heart and mind of the consumer. Thus, you can achieve customer loyalty. The experience generated by touch marketing is successful when it produces favorable reactions towards a product, even though the consumer does not have additional information such as price conditions or other particular details.

Some important examples and applications are:

• IKEA: One of the most successful applications of touch marketing took place in 2007 when the furniture brand IKEA allowed its customers to spend a night in the store. The idea was that they choose the bed they considered most appropriate. Thus, they slept in it all night and the purpose was to provide a pleasant experience to their customers, but also to achieve identification with the brand.
• Toblerone, Coca-Cola and Absolut Vodka: Other brands use the shape of their products to create tactile sensations. Among them we can mention unique shapes such as the case of Toblerone chocolate, the Coca Cola bottle or the Absolut Vodka bottle.
• McDonald’s: Also, the example of McDonald’s can be mentioned, which, being a fast food chain, its furniture is designed so that there is a rapid turnover of its consumers.
• iPhone and iPod touch: Another brand that has been successful due to the use of a tactile experience is the iPhone and iPod touch, which produces an interaction of the user’s hands with the product, due to the technology that is incorporated.

Profits

Among the most important benefits of touch marketing, we can mention:

• Satisfies the need to touch: Touch marketing takes advantage of the natural tendency of human beings to want to touch products. This generates sensations and emotions without the need for an intermediary to put you in contact with the product.
• Promotes brand identity: The experience generated by interacting directly with the product produces an identification with the brand. If the interaction generates a favorable perception, it makes the consumer prefer the product and want to buy it.
• You can generate purchases: The sensation generated by touch creates a bridge with a potential customer who intends to buy a product. This, because once the experience is satisfactory, it generates the impulse to buy the merchandise.
• Generates a differentiation advantage: Well-executed touch marketing strategies can create a differentiating advantage over your competitors. The difference can be achieved by the use of shapes, textures, weights, sizes, among some elements to mention.

To conclude, it can be said that touch marketing is key for the user to obtain information about the products and brands offered in the market. This information is then transmitted and evaluated in the brain. Finally, with the evaluation carried out, the purchase action is decided. Best of all, this process is carried out by each person individually and without the need to be assisted by someone, that is, without a third party presenting the product or brand, it is enough to be able to touch it.