Sensory Marketing : The Ultimate Tool for Beauty Brands

Have you noticed that some of your favorite beauty brands appeal to you through taste, smell, or even sound? When brands do this, it is called sensory marketing, also known as the "IT girl" of marketing.

Sensory marketing approaches branding by engaging all human senses to create an emotional connection to a brand or product, a powerful tool to influence consumer perception. She is a world-building tool for brands and works cross-functionally to incorporate elements such as packaging, design, environment, and experience.

It Just Makes Sense ✨

Branding is one of the most important things to establish for your company because it not only gets your audience to choose you but also to remember you.

Sensory marketing hits the sweet spot because it enhances that emotional association, leading to brand trust and loyalty, ultimately fostering a deeper emotional bond.​

Brands that use a multisensory approach to marketing create unique experiences for their customers that lead to brand recognition and, overall, a positive association with the brand. In fact, brands that implement a multisensory approach have a 70% chance of brand recall as compared to single-sense marketing.

Why might this be important? Because now more than ever, audiences want to feel immersed in the world their brand has created. In fact, VML Intelligence has shared that 63% of audiences want to experience a multisensory journey with their favorite brand.

Sensory marketing is fun and memorable… everything your brand wants to stand for! Some of the most iconic beauty brands regularly implement sensory marketing into their business model. Let’s explore some of these iconic brands and their​

Glossier : Immersive world

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When it comes to sensory marketing, Glossier has really done an amazing job creating a multisensory world IRL. Glossier is best known for its brand activations, creating customer-centric experiences that lead to meaningful connections with its guests.

When you walk into one of their flagship stores, you are immediately brought into the world that is Glossier: feminine, soft, and effortlessly modern. What Glossier did right was to create a beautiful environment and design that elevated their guests' shopping experience. 

In London, Glossier’s flagship store turned a historic building into an immersive world with art installations, retro-florals, and secret passageways.

You forget about the shopping experience itself and end up engaging with a soft, inviting world that tells a story and invites guests to share, both in person and online. In fact, when a brand creates an immersive world such as Glossier, it can lead to a 10% increase in sales and 6 minute increase  in-store swell time. 

Their Soho, New York, location is the perfect combination of New York infrastructure and glossier chic, with its industrial finishes, mosaic tiles, and barrel-vaulted doors. Another perfectly curated space that brings the brand to life.

The store also offers many interactive stations, such as their swatching tables, that make you want to use the product, and if you explore enough, you might find their secret Room with a “you look good” mural, perfect for sharing the experience as a photo-up.

Rare Beauty’s Gourmand Scratch-and-Sniff Campaign

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A promotional out-of-home (OOH) campaign that hit the Streets of Manhattan during late July of 2025. Rare Beauty ran an interactive promotional ad for its new fragrance, Rare eau de parfum.

​For the ad, the beauty company partnered with Shop, a Shopify app, to bring a one-of-a-kind experience to New York, a scratch-and-sniff campaign to the public. Fans could scratch the billboard and instantly be met with sweet notes of caramel and pistachio, with hints of vanilla and ginger.​

To make the ad more interactive, the OOH campaign also included a tactile element. Fans could request a mail-in rollerball sample of the perfume by scanning the QR code on the billboard.

Why was this so innovative? Digital marketing alone is not enough for a product, especially when scent is the main element.

With this billboard, Rare Beauty targeted its core Gen Z audience, knowing that by appealing to them through a sensory experience, they were more likely to share it on their social media platforms.

Their use of sensory marketing to create a real experience of the scent immersed Rare beauty fans in the campaign, getting them excited for its Sephora launch in August of 2025.

This Campaign was a fun twist on real-life curiosity and digital convenience, making it a memorable experience. 

Rhode- products that make you HUNGRY for more

The most iconic company to use sensory marketing is Rhode. Hailey Bieber has become a marketing innovator you can almost taste.

A simple peptide lip treatment went from being boring to being toasted, glazed, and sweet & salty. These are edible, appealing to the senses. Although you cannot physically taste these products, their taste characteristics influence consumers to want to “try” them! 

From a psychological perspective - what rhode does is trigger a release of dopamine with all its “sweet” food-centric content.

Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that is involved in motivation and reward. So everytime Rhode serves a new edible name for their product just know they are scientifically triggering you to want to indulge. 

What’s most iconic about Rhode is that this type of food-centric marketing is now THE blueprint for sensory marketing, with more and more brands eager to jump onto this trend and use it within their own launches.​

This type of food-centric sensory marketing is powerful because people love tasty things and will want to have a taste of this experience even if they can’t eat it.  It also feels inclusive and nostalgic because when you attach the scents and tastes the product mimics, you are curating a whole mood for it that increases brand loyalty by up to 40%.

Finishing Touches ✨

​In a time when catching your audience’s attention is getting harder by the day, sensory marketing is not just a useful marketing tool but an essential one to know and implement. It’s engaging, it's memorable, it's fun, and ultimately leads your audience to be not just a passive member of your brand but an active one.​

And remember, ladies, for brand recognition, it is important to give the people what they want: something unique and interesting. Sensory marketing helps a brand curate a unique experience that will leave a lasting impression.​

Engaging your audience through their senses leaves them feeling happy and satisfied, reinforcing a positive association with your brand. Making a lasting impression now goes just beyond a simple campaign… It needs to be a sensory experience, one that is tasty, decadent, and loud!

🪽 Written by Marianella Grajales