Introduction: What Is Sensory Marketing?

Abstract

In 1990 the Ross School of Business in Ann Arbor faced a miniature crisis. After the library announced that many journals and books would be available only in electronic form, the faculty rose up in protest. When asked to explain their reasoning in opposing the switch, faculty members found it difficult to express their opinions. They came up with such responses as “I like to feel the paper,” “I love the smell of libraries,” or “It’s just not the same thing!” They knew that such seemingly feeble reasons could not prevent the change to electronic media, so they tried to rephrase their sentiments in ways that would sound more logical and appropriate for professors in a business school. The responses they came up with included that the atmosphere was conducive to work and that the physical nature of the journals led them to peruse related articles in the same publication.