Effects of consumer sensory perception on brand performance

Purpose: Sensory perception is an important factor to understand and effectively appeal to consumers. As consumers process information consciously and subconsciously, both perception levels (explicit and implicit) are essential to investigate. This paper aims to analyze the effects of explicit and implicit sensory perception on brand experience and brand-related performance indicators and then investigate the correlations between the senses and experience dimensions. Design/methodology/approach: The authors conducted a field experiment in a coffee house. For data collection, the authors used a questionnaire for explicit measures and a response latency measurement for implicit measures. For data analysis, structural equation modeling and a correlation analysis were conducted. Findings: The results reveal positive relationships between explicit and implicit sensory perception, brand experience and brand performance in the context of gastronomy. Furthermore, implicit perception acts through explicit perception, and brand experience plays a major role as a mediator between sensory perception and consumer responses. Moreover, visual and haptic perception reveal the highest weights in the structural model and the strongest correlations with the experience dimensions. Originality/value: This paper contributes to consumer research by providing empirical evidence for the importance of both the explicit and implicit sensory perception to effectively appeal to consumers. The results give valuable insights on the effectiveness of sensory marketing in generating memorable brand experiences and positive brand performance. Furthermore, the findings provide new knowledge on which senses (explicit and implicit) are related to different types of experiences.