The effect of sensory stimuli on consumer behavior in terms of brand communication: Sensory branding

In today's competitive environment, with the increasing effect of brands on consumer behavior, behavioral patterns of the target audience as they are making their purchase decisions has become extremely important in terms of marketing communications. The brands that appeal to the senses obtain distinctive characteristics, not only giving rise to easy differentiation from their competitors but also creating a strong brand impression. Therefore, the sensory branding model has started to stand out as a model used commonly and universally. This research aims to explain the impact of sensory stimuli on consumer behavior and the importance of the sensory branding during the formation of consumer behavior. Consequently, Nike and Adidas, two commonly preferred brands by the young population, that appear to use the sensory branding models as a marketing technique, were chosen for this research. Participants of the study population are undergraduate and graduate students who recognize and use the mentioned brands. Study population is limited to the residents of Istanbul geographically. The data collected by means of a uniform survey applied to all participants and the results were analyzed using t-test and correlation analysis to investigate the impact of sensory stimuli of the brand on consumer behavior. KeyWords: Perception, memory, sense, brand, branding, sensorybranding, consumer, consumer behavior.