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NUSA DUA – Bali boasts some of the
world’s most exotic resorts and a suite of famously atmospheric
lounges and restaurants featuring stunning design, spectacular
views, luxurious materials and excellent food. These properties
are renowned for stimulating our senses of sight, touch and taste.
Now, when the island’s tourism
industry is bracing for the impact of the global financial crisis,
Bali’s hospitality providers are learning how to gain a long-term
market advantage by further enhancing the sensory experience of
their clients to promote customer satisfaction and loyalty – and
company profit.
Singapore-based branding specialist
Simon Faure-Field, CEO of Equal Strategy, says marketers have
traditionally overlooked the significant sensory triggers of scent
and sound. He offers personalized and integrated use of music and
fragrance to make “people fall deeply in love with your brand.”
“Branding is multi sensory. It’s
not just a logo or a string of ads in the mainstream media,” he
told Bali Times.
In Bali to meet clients The Westin
and Club Med, and talk to potentials such as Ku De Ta restaurant
and The Samaya in Seminyak, he sees Bali as “a very creative,
resilient and dynamic market ready to embrace the new wave of how
business is operating in hospitality.”
Big names already using Equal
Strategy’s sensory methodology and technology include Mercedes
Benz, Citroen, Microsoft, Changi Airport, several banks, retailer
Courts (Singapore), Raffles, Marriott, Shangri-La, Millennium &
Copthorne and Pan Pacific resorts and a string of boutique hotels.
Equal Strategy uses a collaborative
approach with its clients to find out about corporate culture and
the purpose of an environment – what the client wants to create
and what it wants its guests to do. Simon says it’s a bonus if he
can work with a client at the design of premises stage to
influence details such as placement of speakers.
His substantial research shows the
power of music to subconsciously influence customers – and staff.
Too many operators rely on staff to select music, which is often
inappropriate and can alienate customers. “Sound should work for
you and be conducive to its space, rather than work against it.”
In a retail environment, all
components of music such as relevant content, tempo and volume may
change, automatically and subtly, tens of times each day to
reflect branding as well as desired activity and outcomes. Simon
takes responsibility for the whole package, including any
licensing requirements, and can adjust the music remotely from
anywhere in the world.
In a resort, music can be
consistent with overall branding but adjusted for individual areas
to create the right atmosphere and guest environment. Light music
on guest floors can mask sounds from guest rooms and give privacy.
Simon is passionate about the
importance of “on hold” telephone messages. “Businesses can spend
millions of dollars on advertising to make people pick up the
phone and call them, only to be put through a chamber of torture.
Time on hold needs to be engaging and comfortable for the caller
and it needs to work for our client.”
Equal Strategy has developed a
systematic approach to creating and managing on-hold content which
includes script writing and recording, sourcing voice talent and
music, mixing and recording and managing the product. Important
considerations include details such as oral accent. “It may be
counterproductive for young Asian investors in a British-owned
bank in Hong Kong to be addressed on-hold by a plum-in-mouth Englishman,” said Simon.
In a quest for maximum flexibility
and efficiency, Equal Strategy partners with quality specialists
around the world. “If you need a New York voice, you will get a
recording in New York, from a talented New Yorker at a reputable
studio,” Simon said.
There’s little doubt the sounds you
are tuned into in any environment can be a turn-off or turn-on.
Sound and smell together, says Simon, make a really powerful
marketing tool.
“Smell is the only sense directly
connected to the brain cells. Around 80 percent of our decisions
are based on smell, which can evoke emotions and memories.”
Equal Strategy says it applies
research, technology and its partnerships with fragrance companies
to offer a “bespoke approach to fragrance” that gives clients an
infinite choice from existing fragrances and a capacity to create
their own aromas.
Many businesses, says Simon,
recognizing the power of scent, have been using centuries-old
aromatherapy candles and press-button fragrance dispensers that
may present safety issues and don’t service large spaces.
By turning a liquid fragrance into
a dry vapor and introducing it into air-conditioning ducts, an
environment can be evenly fragranced all day, he says. Intensity
and delivery can be controlled. A client may choose to adopt, say,
a pine scent for the Christmas period.
A unique ginger and lime scent was
developed for a boutique Singapore hotel, Naumi, to reflect the
ultra-hip property’s cool vibe. “Like music, scents must be
appropriate to the environment and audience. In a sports store,
the fragrance should be refreshing and vitalizing, with a citrus
base. Peppermint has high arousal, which is great for
productivity. Lavender is calming.”
Simon Faure-Field, 38, founded
Equal Strategy in the middle of the Asian crisis in 1998 and now,
during a global financial melt down, wants more Bali operators to
develop sensory plans within their branding strategies.
“I really loved those first years,”
he says. “They were a challenge, which gives me a buzz, and they
were a real test of our service, support and pricing. In
challenging times you can really identify the market leaders who
are open-minded about branding disciplines and who want to prepare
for the future.
“Good-times clients may not be all
that committed but we enjoy 98-percent client loyalty.” In Bali,
where many hospitality areas are open to the air, portable units
can be developed to deliver scent and sound.
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