Smell, Touch, and Taste: Sensory Words as Stimuli to Influence Customer Engagement in Digital Contexts

This research aims to analyze whether sensory stimuli such as words associated with smell, touch, and taste enhance customer engagement. We conducted five A/B experiments to analyze the relationship. Experiment 1 evaluates sensory words related to smell using a handmade soap. Experiments 2 and 3, which were related to touch with two different books, and experiments 4 and 5, which were related to the sense of taste with ice cream and artisan bread. In version A of the experiments, the content integrated sensory words related to smell, touch, and taste. In version B, the content included words related to other characteristics of the product that were not related to sensory aspects. The findings show that sensory words increase customer engagement. Analysis of consumer engagement metrics revealed significant improvements in the percentage of people interacting with contents, for example, with increases ranging from 15.3 to 21.5 points across experiments. These findings underscore the efficacy of sensory words in capturing consumer attention and fostering deeper levels of customer engagement.