It's no secret that our five senses -- sight, touch, taste, smell, and sound -- exert a powerful influence on our everyday purchase decisions. Such is the argument made by Martin Lindstrom in "Brand Sense," which stresses that retailers that deliver a multi-sensory experience achieve greater sales and higher levels of brand awareness in the minds of customers. Here are a few findings that illustrate how important it is for companies to appeal to consumers' senses to shape their behavior: In a study published in the Journal of Consumer Research , Ronald E. Millman showed that the pace of music playing in the background of restaurants and stores had a considerable effect on spending, traffic flow, and service. The slower the music, the more people shop. The faster the music, the less money people fork over. Related studies have demonstrated that the slower the music at restaurants, the longer people stay wining and dining. In fact, the average bill for diners was 2...

I'm currently reading a book titled "Brand Sense" by Martin Lindstrom. Once I finish the book, I will post an entry highlighting the many interesting insights I gleaned from the book. In the interim, though, I wanted to share one of the most interesting findings I've come across in the book thus far, and it relates to women and cars. Did you know that women respond more to the feel and texture of a car's interior than they do to its external features? I couldn't help but compare this to the manner in which women supposedly become attracted to a man. We've all heard it time and time again: That women are mostly attracted to what's inside -- they don't get as hung up on looks as men do. (Meanwhile, men do seem to make a bigger fuss about a car's exterior features -- from rims to the grille.) As it turns out, women place a great deal of importance on how the car smells (ah, nothing like that new car scent, right?), the feel of the upho...