Cadbury customers come to their senses

Did a good wee exercise this morning with a good group of students, looking at the role of the senses in an organisation's identity. I then came across this little flyer from Cadbury, encouraging customers to taste with their eyes, their nose and a tune. They then ask the rather intriguing question 'what word best describes the taste of Cadbury Dairy Milk'. So on a tiny piece of promotional literature (given away recently with a free bar in a train station-based campaign) there's taste, sight, smell and tune and word. Senses working overtime.

Not the first brand to play to our senses of course. From the soap fragrances in Lush to coconut aromas in Thomas Cook through to the role of the aroma of baked bread in selling houses, and that's just smell, brands have cajoled us and tempted us, seduced us and persuaded us. Of course Cadbury plays it smartly with the colour purple, and in this case chocolate brown too. The gorilla on the drums ad was about the moment of joy, the crashing drums mimicking that instant when chocolate passes our lips.

Clever stuff from Cadbury, and fairly consistent with kids with eyebrows and the assorted classic brand ads, mostly with jingles, the role of audio and of the tune to the fore. And historically their marketing communications has been smart, going back centuries let alone decades. 'Proper' advertising is the phrase I use, describing in one word the brands that just get it right, in a field where getting it wrong has such huge consequences. Get it right though, get it proper like Cadbury, and a brand can be sustained for hundreds of years.