First impressions are everything. Whether you’re on a date or in an interview, the very first judgment people make — regarding your style, cadence, or overall appearance — solidifies in a way that is extremely difficult to change. Signage has the same effect: since over half of all customers who enter a business do so because of its signage, every aspect — from the quality of the material to the colors chosen — must be carefully and meticulously considered.
Statistics show that around 3.58 billion people use the Internet worldwide; since digital signage can bridge the gap between your website and your brick-and-mortar store (thereby cementing your brand in the eyes of your customers), you need to incorporate both physical and digital signage in order to establish the farthest-reaching and most successful first impression for anyone who may be interested in your products or services.
The way your website looks and operates contributes to this very first judgment as well: it’s estimated that roughly 81% of consumers research products online before deciding to buy, so the relationship ship between online, digital, and in-store signage is a delicately balanced one. Your online displays should establish your brand, digital signage in your brick-and-mortar store location should reinforce that brand, and your physical signage should be well-designed enough to pull people in off the streets.
So, you’ve made that first impression and captured consumers’ attention — but have you engaged with them? Will that attention hold? In a world of pop-up ads and near-hostile marketing techniques (remember when Snapchat wasn’t inundated with advertisements and you could watch a three-minute video on Youtube without sitting through four minutes of movie trailers?), consumers have begun to unintentionally ignore generic advertisements. As a result, marketing strategies have been forced to adapt; in the realm of digital signage, this means turning to the body’s other senses, most notably smell and touch.
Approximately 64% of people find the customer experience more important than price when it comes to making a purchase. In the days of old, this may have referred to simple customer service; now, however, having a digital sign that releases a certain scent when people pass by it, or encourages tactility by utilizing a touchscreen, can create an unforgettable experience and may nudge potential customers in the spending direction.
With scent so strongly connected to memory and touch so strongly connected to pleasure (think about how satisfying touchscreen haptic responses — those slight vibrations that occur when your finger touches the screen — are), it’s no surprise that companies across the world are putting both to work in their digital signage. For example, an advertisement for the MIXC shopping center placed in the Shanghai subway system featured a complex display of flat-screen cubes with images on all sides that you could walk around. Each side incorporated scents that related to the images: the side showing the ocean smelled of tangy salt water, and the forest side smelled of flowers.
Keeping up with evolving marketing trends is by no means an easy feat. Once you possess the knowledge and set your mind on perfecting your digital and physical signage displays, however, you’ll see a change in the way customers interpret your brand — that first impression will be a positive and long-lasting one.
