There's a question I like to ask in brand workshops: "Why are there water droplets on a Coca-Cola bottle when cola doesn't literally promise freshness?"
The answer most people give immediately is: "Well, because it makes it look fresh."
Exactly. And that's the genius of it.
Martin Lindstrom argues in his book Brandwashed and his fMRI-based neuromarketing research that around 85% of buying decisions are made unconsciously, driven by sensory cues, emotional associations, and neurological shortcuts. The rational mind comes in afterward to justify a decision the brain has already made.
The water-droplet effect: sensory priming
Water droplets on a bottle immediately trigger a chain of associations: cool, clear, clean, fresh, natural. These associations are deeply ingrained. Water means life. Freshness signals safety.
Coca-Cola deliberately taps into these mental shortcuts.
This is known as sensory priming: a visual cue triggers emotional associations before conscious evaluation begins. That emotional response helps determine whether a product feels appealing or unappealing before you've even picked it up.
Lindstrom conducted a study involving 2,000 participants and fMRI scanners to examine which brand cues activated brain regions associated with religious experiences. The results suggested that brands such as Apple, Harley-Davidson, and Coca-Cola activated similar regions to those associated with faith.
Brands aren't just evaluated cognitively. They're felt.
Not just Coke: how other brands use sensory cues
Color as a silent language
Red Bull uses blue and silver, colors that communicate energy, technology, and dominance. Not red, which would be more aggressive and visually closer to Coca-Cola.
Heineken uses deep green, a color associated with nature, freshness, and premium quality.
These color choices aren't purely aesthetic. They're strategic.
Sound as a brand element
Intel has four notes. McDonald's has "ba da ba ba ba." The sound of a Coca-Cola can opening is a registered trademark.
Sound activates the limbic system 10 to 15% faster than visual cues because auditory processing is evolutionarily older.
Lindstrom calls this "sensory branding": the more senses a brand engages, the more deeply it can become embedded in memory.
Smell: the most direct route to the brain
Singapore Airlines has a signature scent called "Stefan Floridian Waters," used in its cabins and on hot towels. Nike scents its stores with a sport-inspired fragrance.
Smell is the only sense that reaches the limbic system without first passing through the thalamus, giving it a particularly direct connection to emotional processing.
What smells good can influence how trustworthy something feels.
Why knowing about it doesn't make us immune
The uncomfortable part of Lindstrom's findings is that awareness doesn't necessarily protect us.
Even when you know that the water droplets on a Coke bottle were a deliberate marketing decision, your brain still responds to the sensory cue automatically.
"Brands aren't what a company says. They're what the customer's brain feels when it hears the name." — Martin Lindstrom, Brandwashed
That has significant implications. If you think of brand management purely in terms of visual identity, such as logos, colors, and fonts, you're using only part of the available toolkit.
Effective brand management is a multisensory system that can build trust, desire, and loyalty at an emotional level.
What B2B companies can learn from this
"That's all fine for Coca-Cola. But we sell industrial machinery."
I hear that objection in almost every brand workshop. And it misses the point.
B2B buying decisions are still made by people, people with memories, emotions, and sensory responses. The question isn't whether sensory branding works in B2B. It's how to use it effectively:
- Product photography: an industrial product photographed against a white background versus in a real production environment sends two completely different emotional signals. One says "catalog." The other says "solution."
- Trade show design: materials, lighting, scent, and ambient sound influence perceptions of quality and trust long before a sales conversation begins.
- Packaging and unboxing: this matters in B2B too. What does opening the product feel like? What does a machine smell like the first time it's powered on? That's part of the brand experience.
- Language and tone: sensory language in copy can evoke an experience more strongly than generic claims. "Precision-machined, noticeably robust" communicates something different from simply saying "high quality."
- Color in the product itself: why is a Dyson vacuum transparent? So you can see the dirt. That creates immediate visual feedback. What does your customer see when they use your product?
The real risk: inconsistent sensory signals
The opposite of good sensory branding isn't bad branding. It's inconsistent branding.
An expensive machine in cheap cardboard packaging. A premium SaaS product with a UI from 2012. A consulting engagement priced at CHF 5,000 a day, delivered in a Word document with no design system.
The brain makes rapid judgments about whether price and perceived quality match. When they don't, cognitive dissonance follows. And cognitive dissonance can quickly lead to buyer's remorse, lost trust, and price negotiations.
Your brand is always sending sensory signals. The only question is whether you've designed them deliberately.