Selling to the Senses

No matter how much we would like to think otherwise, most of our buying decisions are based on emotion. It’s only after we’ve decided to buy that our logical mind comes forward to rationalize that decision.

Advertising pros know this, which is why most ads don’t talk about product features so much as tell us how the product will make us feel more attractive, sexier, more successful, healthier, etc.

As a gallery owner, you can engage your customers’ emotions by engaging their senses. When our senses — sight, hearing, taste, touch and smell — are involved, we are affected at a visceral level. Here are some sensual selling ideas to encourage customers to make that emotional decision to buy.

Sight

Use color, display and lighting to engage your customers’ sense of sight.

Color can create a feeling of warmth or coolness, an illusion of space or intimacy, an atmosphere of casualness or elegance. It can stimulate or depress, tranquilize or energize, increase concentration or agitate.

Make your gallery come alive by using color on at least some of the walls. Products that fade into oblivion when displayed against white walls can sparkle when placed next to a carefully selected color.

Use color to draw customers through the space and pull them to the back of the gallery. Remember that warm colors push items forward while cool colors make them recede. Use colors that are in keeping with your gallery image and the effect you want to achieve.

The way you arrange your displays controls the way customers move through your gallery. Allow plenty of space for walking, and use color to create movement from one area to another. Create a high-impact display on your back wall to make it a magnet.

Keep displays clean, neat and dust-free. Avoid over-crowded displays. Use themes to pull displays together. Household settings (table settings, bedroom groupings, bath products, etc.), seasonal items, styles (rustic, contemporary), or medium-specific groups are some possibilities.

Use props to enhance, not dominate, your displays. Change displays often so that regular customers always find something new and interesting.

Customers won’t buy what they can’t see. Lighting can be used to emphasize certain products, create mood, and direct traffic flow.

Use the correct lighting for the product. Halogens are best for retail lighting because of their excellent color rendering. Incandescent lights cast a yellow color and are better for mood or some background lighting, while florescent lights typically cast a cold white light and can fade artwork over time.

Sound

Carefully selected background music, played at a low volume, is the easiest way to engage your customers’ sense of hearing. Select music that suits your gallery image and clientele. Pay special attention to tempo — too fast and customers will feel rushed; too slow and they will be bored. Vary the selections to keep it interesting.

Take advantage of the sounds available from the products you sell. If you sell fountains, make sure at least one is operational. The sound of water trickling from a fountain can be mesmerizing. A small fan aimed at wind chimes can create a delightful sound.

Demonstrate products that produce sound such as door harps and drums. (Recently, when I was in a gallery that offered a variety of Asian gongs, the owner struck each to allow me to hear the various sounds. I felt the resonance at a gut level. Although I hadn’t known I needed a gong, I’m now saving my money to buy one.)

Touch

There’s no better place to engage the sense of touch than in a crafts gallery. What can compare with the tactile nature of wood, clay and fiber? Encourage your customers to handle the merchandise. Let them feel not only the texture but the weight and balance of a beautifully designed item.
Let them sit on the furniture, feel the way the coffee mug fits in their hand or the way the necklace curves to the shape of the neck. For products that can be damaged by too much handling, such as a chenille scarf, designate one item for touching.

Related articles

For related articles, see the following articles in The Crafts Report: Discover the New Color of Money, January 2002 Show and Sell, May 2002 The Sound of Sales, November 2002

Smell

The burgeoning interest in aromatherapy is an indication of just how powerful the sense of smell can be. Like sound, scents can relax or energize, elevate or depress mood, and have myriad other physical and psychological effects.

Use scents judiciously. Many people have chemical sensitivities to odors. If you carry scented products such as candles, soaps or potpourri, keep most of them tightly wrapped so the emitted scent is subtle, not overpowering.

You don’t have to carry scented products to engage your customers’ sense of smell. A bouquet of fresh flowers can be a treat for the nose as well as for the eyes. Offer customers hot, spiced cider or coffee on cold winter days, appealing to their senses of smell and taste.

Scents can have a negative effect as well. Food odors wafting from lunches or microwaves can make your customers feel like they’re in a diner instead of a gallery.

Taste

The customers’ sense of taste offers a challenge for the gallery owner, but it can be done. If you sell specialty food products, offer samples. Keep a bowl of individually wrapped candies on the sales counter.

If a piece of pottery comes with a recipe, occasionally prepare the recipe and serve it. It’s a great way to show off the product while engaging your customers’ sense of taste.

Consider creating a “taste” tradition, such as, “Thursday night is cider night,” or always serving bite-size pumpkin tarts on fall weekends.

When a visit to your gallery gives your customers a sensual treat, you have put them in the mood to buy. It makes sense to make the senses help you sell.