Sensory Icons

The DNA indicators of a product

What makes a product or brand recognizable? What makes you mindlessly prefer a certain product on the shelf? These are often the Sensory Icons of a product; the sensory properties that represent that product's unique Brand DNA.

The Sensory Icons are more important than people sometimes think. They ensure familiarity with the brand, recognisability and ease of use. All these icons are addressed, consciously or unconsciously, during the 'ritual' of using a product. From the moment of purchase to the moment of consumption and after!

Take the KitKat brand, for example. Senta worked out the 9 most dominant Sensory Icons for this brand. Did you know, for example, that KitKat's 'break' is characteristic of the ritual of use? If you were to replace this item, much of the user experience would be lost. But also the distinctive colour, packaging, logo and font are all dominant Sensory Icons.

What happens if you don't value your Sensory Icons enough? A well-known example is Tropicana. At management level, it was decided that the packaging was too dated. A completely new design was launched, which would better fit in with the style of the time and would be more appealing. This new design was nothing remotely like the old design; almost all Sensory Icons were thrown overboard. What turned out? The new packaging in itself was not badly appreciated, but it was precisely the loyal Tropicana users who gave up. The recognisability of the Sensory Icons had completely disappeared for them. Because of this, Tropicana has decided to withdraw the new packaging and go back to the old design. A miss that could certainly have been prevented.

It is therefore very important to be aware of your Sensory Icons that consciously or unconsciously belong to your product. When introducing a new product, make sure that these Sensory Icons are not lost!

Do you want to map your Sensory Icons and identify the most important ones?

Senta is happy to investigate it for you!