CONCEPTUAL MAPPING OF SENSORY CUES WITH BRAND ASSOCIATION

Conceptual Mapping of Sensory

Cues with Brand Association†

Balamurugan Annamalai* and Shabana Chandrasekaran**

The review examines the cognitive process of customers on exposure to brands and its associated
meaning-making process. Marketers observe the cognitive process of customers as brand
elements that form the reflective components of the meaning-making process. To understand
the cognitive process better, it is essential to examine the constitutive elements of cognition—
the sensory cues. The work details the interaction between customers and brands that get
initiated through the brand communication made by marketers through online and offline
marketing channels. Furthermore, the transmitted communication gets captured by the human
brain through sensory cues that get decoded. These captured sensory cues and the subsequent
meaning-making process leading to brand image formation have then been explored through
a comprehensive literature review. Finally, a conceptual framework has been developed to
link sensory cues with the brand identity elements that form the brand image. The framework
will enable marketers to engage with customers through sensory marketing effectively.
Key Words: Brand Association, Customer-brand Interaction Process, Constitutive Concept,
Sensory Cues, Sensory Marketing

INTRODUCTION
The ways by which a brand gets related to the consumers’ mind space is an area of
interest for both the researchers and the academicians. This relationship determines
the consumers’ awareness of a given brand, thereby increasing its brand equity as per
cognitive psychology. Previous research works focused on understanding consumer
responses into its parts such as feeling, imagery, and likability (Alba and Hutchinson,
1987; Bettman, 1970; Keller, 2003; Zaltman and Coulter, 1995). The aim of this study
is to conceptually study the customer–brand interaction through sensory cues. Friedman
† An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 7th International Conference on Excellence in Research
and Education 2016 (CERE-2016), organized by and held at Indian Institute of Management Indore (IIMIDR),
Indore, Madhya Pradesh, India, from May 5-8, 2016.

* Assistant Professor, Indian Institute of Management Sambalpur, Jyoti Vihar, Burla, Sambalpur 768019, Odisha,
India. E-mail: bala@iimsambalpur.ac.in
** Assistant Professor, Xavier Institute of Management Bhubaneswar (XIMB), Xavier University Bhubaneswar
(XUB), Xavier Square, Jayadev Vihar, Bhubaneswar 751013, India. E-mail: shabana@ximb.edu.in

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(1992) details that the principles of pure understanding are “constitutive with respect
to experience”. On similar lines, the sensory cues form the constitutive component of
the consumer-brand interaction process because sensory cues captured by the senses
constitute experiential marketing (Schmitt, 1999). On the other hand, the regulatory
principles move from the observable phenomena to measurable concepts. In the case
of consumer-brand interaction, the brand identity elements (measurable concepts)
move beyond sensory cues (observable phenomena) captured to form brand associations
that form the regulative principles. Therefore, brand association is essentially a reflective
component of consumer meaning-making process. We try to capture the process stressing
about sensory cues that are the constitutive elements. When a customer is exposed to
a brand, one or more sensory cues possibly interact in the creation of the brand
association (Schmitt, 2009). Although marketers consider all the relevant sensory
cues for brand communication, not all neural signals are observed to be given due
importance while transmitting to the customers. In a customer–brand interaction
process, the captured sensory messages are substantially the inputs, while the created
brand image is the output with brand identity elements representing parts of that
image. These brand elements tend to capture only the essence but not the complete
picture of band association happening in the consumer’s mind space. The brand identity
elements are possibly the reflective components that are sufficient for practitioners to
focus but may not help in concept development. Therefore, it is imperative for scholars
to look at sensory cues that act as constitutive components of the customer–brand
interaction process.
The influence of sensory cues in consumer decision making is contemporary and
has gained increased interest. In management literature, the two related streams of
studies that focus on decision making are sensory marketing and brand association.
The current work intends to present an in-depth literature review of scientific research
on sensory processing to understand and conceptually link the concept of brand
association with sensory cues. Based on the review, an integrated conceptual model is
built, and some propositions are developed to be empirically tested in future researches.
The paper proceeds first by briefing the concept of brand and its customer-centric
objective. Further linkage is made with the concept of brand association and the
associated cerebral process behind it by conducting a comprehensive review of
literature. The objective measure of such association is then highlighted by looking at
customer-based brand equity following which the decoding process of sensory cues is
captured by examining the customer-brand interaction process. Next, the significance
of each neural signal is explored by studying the existing classification of signals pertinent
to brand association. The imbalance in tapping the customer senses by brand elements
is captured through the sensory mapping of brand elements. Finally, it is proposed that
viewing the concept of the brand through the constitutive customer-centric prism of
sensory cues will help in theory development as against the reflective practitioner-
centric lens of brand elements.

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INFLUENCE OF SENSORY CUES ON CUSTOMER-BASED BRAND

EQUITY
The American Marketing Association outlines a brand as a “name, term, sign, symbol,
or design, or a combination of them, intended to identify the goods and services of one
seller and to differentiate them from those of competitors.” The brand element refers
to components such as brand name, logo, related symbol, design of package, or other
characteristics that help in identifying and differentiating a product (Yoo, Donthu,
and Lee, 2000). The brand positioning is a customer-centric output (Kapferer, 2008),
generated by the brand image that is created by brand identity elements that could be
a name, design, symbol, or some combination which signifies differentiated advantage
a product poses substantially (Doyle, 1991).
A brand’s attempt to associate itself with the consumers’ mindset is achieved
through its positioning (during the initial interaction with the consumers) by entering
their consideration set (Urban, Hauser, and Urban, 1993) followed by differentiation
from other brands. The associative positioning of brands can be classified based on
psychological literature as an abstraction—and exemplar-based positioning option (Punj
and Moon, 2002). The study explores further on these choices based on the available
information during consumer’s judgment—evaluation and/or identification based on
product market definition (Srivastava, Alpert, and Shocker, 1984), market structure
(Carpenter, Glazer, and Nakamoto, 1994), and the life cycle stage of product category
(Kardes and Kalyanaram, 1992).
Keller (1993) classifies this association into three categories. The first category
associates the attributes arising out of a product, namely, crucial ingredients and/or
discretionary features and non-product related characteristics such as price, user,
imagery developed on usage, feelings developed, consumption experiences, and brand
personality. The second category is based on the associated brand benefits arising out
of essential functional benefits of the consumed product/service and any related
extrinsic symbolic benefits. While the third and the most abstract level of classification
is the attitude level of brand association.
“Consumers build an image [of a brand] as birds build nests. From the scraps and
straws, they chance upon” (Bullmore, 1984). A brand can exist as an abstract entity in
the mindset of consumers through emotions and beliefs or mainly as visual/verbal
information for product identification (Keller, Apéria, and Georgson, 2008). It can
also be described as the value that is legal, can be monetized, and can provide future
revenue apart from being one of the fundamental consumer behavior elements. These
values together generate benefits that are accumulated as “brand equity” (Keller,
2003). Brand equity can be analyzed from the point of view of a customer or a firm
(Shocker and Weitz, 1988) and the value it bestows on customers is known as “customer-
based brand equity” (Keller, 1993). When a customer experiences high brand awareness
and if the brand is able to attract a favorable and elusive response from the consumers’
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memory, then “customer-based brand equity” occurs. A customer can recall a brand
based on how deeply it is absorbed in their mind. This inherent ability to identify a
brand and its elements such as logo, symbol, packaging, and slogan requires stimulation
of some sensory sources. These brand elements help a customer to associate a product
with the brand. In addition to stimulus, the neural sources should discriminate enough
the various components (picture, slogan, logo, etc.) that had been previously observed.
Hence, any simple clue about a brand like a tune or a package will help differentiate
a brand from others and thereby promoting brand recall and recognition vividly. To
test whether the elements can contribute toward better brand building, the customer
should be able to think about the brand’s product when they see only the logo or any
other brand element (Keller, Apéria, and Georgson, 2008) that are mainly captured by
sensory cues. The study of such neural signals is sensory marketing and is described as
“marketing that engages the consumers’ senses and affects their perception, judgment
and behaviour” (Krishna, 2010).
NEED FOR RESEARCH
Branding literature primarily focused on analytical and cognitive oriented attribute-
driven concepts such as brand equity and brand associations but less on experiential
branding (Schmitt, 2009). The study on consumer brand experiences was earlier
captured as “superficial out-of-profundity” (SOOP branding; Schmitt, 1997). According
to this experiential branding approach, SOOP branding focuses on the sensory (sense),
affective (feel) and creative (think) experiences of consumers with brands (Schmitt,
1999). Schmitt contends that brand-consumer relationship gets strengthened through
sensory stimulus, emotional attachments, or remunerations. The work elaborated that
consumers basically experience through their senses and not the cognitively targeted
brand association concepts like ad slogans and messages. Further, brands were
emphasized to focus on consumers’ experiential needs rather than attribute-driven
information processors. The current study strengthens this argument by taking support
of the distinction between reflective concept and constitutive concept as proposed by
Friedman (1991). In the seminal work, the need to observe the constitutive concepts
for theory development is stressed as the reflective concepts, though significant, can
only advance practice is highlighted. In this line, the sensory cues triggered by the
brand and the subsequent brand association made by the consumers are observed as
the constitutive judgement and reflective judgement respectively of consumer decision
making process. Though brand experience is observed to have received significant
attention in the recent past (2011-2017) by Sumbly and Siraj (2019), literature haven’t
attempted to conceptually build a model relating the concepts of sensory cues and
brand association. The linkage of the two foremost branding concepts will provide a
holistic understanding of the consumer-brand interaction process and establish the
need to focus on sensory marketing, forming the constitutive component, for further
theoretical advancement.
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As detailed, extant literature have studied about customer brand-equity via brand
association and sensory marketing. However, to the best of our knowledge, an integrated
model on the customer-brand interaction process detailing the influential process of
sensory cues affecting brand image formation is not attempted comprehensively. An
integrated model will enable in understanding and segregating the brand equity related
concepts as the constitutive and reflective components of consumer-brand interaction
process. In this direction, the current study attempts to conceptually map sensory cues
with brand association. This will enable to emphasize the need for academics to observe
brand-related marketing through the constitutive element of the customer-brand
interaction process.
LITERATURE REVIEW
For the purpose of linking brand association with the sensory cues, and to understand
the associated cerebral functioning, a comprehensive literature review was conducted.
The related keywords of “sensory”, “visual”, “olfaction”, “audio”, “tactile”, and “taste”
were searched in the databases of EBSCO, ProQuest and Google Scholar. The identified
research works were extensively reviewed and cross-referred to build the influence of
each sensory cues on consumer decision making by developing brand associations. A
total of 40 research papers and books across science and management disciplines were
considered to build the conceptual model and develop propositions related to the
influence of sensory cues.
CEREBRAL DECODING OF SENSORY CUES
The human brain perceives the sensory cue by activating different parts of the brain
(Gutman, 1988). Neural message transmission is explained using pattern-coding and
place-coding theories of brain properties. Under pattern-coding, precise information
is represented as a separate pattern by the cells, thus occupying a distinct channel for
the information. While in place-coding the events are discriminated by a specific set
of neurons that respond to an activity (Patton, 1976). Mathematical models are
developed to predict the multisensory attribute using the sensory cues (Ernst and
Bülthoff, 2004). The function of the brain in normal activities is validated through
techniques such as anatomical measurements, recordings of electrical activity, blood-
flow studies, and metabolic studies (Gutman, 1988).
The brain apprehends the external environment by combining information from
various sensory sources. These neural sources (vision, audition, olfaction, tactile, and
gustation) have to be systematic enough to articulate the meaning out of the external
environment. The study on how humans combine these sensory sources to discern the
information out of context identifies two processes: sensory combination and sensory
integration (Ernst and Bülthoff, 2004). Whenever the brain needs to process an
ambiguity, it handles so by collecting as much information as possible through all the
sensory sources. The sensory cues, which these sources emanate, interact with each

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other to fill the incompleteness and provide reliable information for discerning the
ambiguity. When the non-redundant sensory cues communicate, they form sensory
combination and, in turn, integrate to create a redundant sensory cue called “sensory
integration.” These integrated sensory cues provide new information to answer the
ambiguity.
Holbrook and Hirschman (1982) noted that individuals not only receive experiences
in a multisensory mode but also they react to them. The individuals react based on
values obtained from sensory meaning via sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell associated
with the experience (Schmitt, 1999). Hence, it is of prime interest to explore each
one of the perceived sensation arising out of visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory, tactile,
and related sensory input (Cohen, 1999) at the fundamental level and the associated
heuristics for sense-making of the incoming cues to understand its significance (see
Figure 1).
Figure 1: Heuristics Associated with Sensory Cues

VISUAL CUES
The visual imagery is much pronounced than any other senses in a certain segment of
people that it overrules other sensory cues and distorts the perception process (Ahsen,
1981). Further study about the relationship between sensory sources and the brands
(Lindstrom, 2005) revealed that sight is the most predominantly used sense followed
by smell to evaluate a brand. As aesthetics of a product is considered to be one of the
key elements in product design, a holistic view of an object may alter the behavioral

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response in a way that it might lead to the acquisition of the product (Bloch, 1995). It
is a known fact that the aesthetic characteristics of a product can overshadow the
practical uses of a product and drive customers toward purchasing the product. Many
impulsive buying behaviors are stimulated by the aesthetics of a product (Rook, 1987).
Along with other decision-making criteria for product purchase, the appearance of
the product plays a vital role. Any sensory experience of a product usually begins with
product appearance and the purchase decision follows that (Bloch, Brunel, and Arnold,
2003). Consumer behavior psychology has attributed a number of image processing
facets (image vividness, style, and control) toward a positive reaction of an event
(Ernest, 1977). Hence:
P1: Visual cues influence consumer brand image development.
The cognitive response, which is based on product appearance, is categorized as
the aesthetic impression, semantic interpretation, and symbolic association (Lewalski,
1988; Crozier, 1994; Cupchik, 1999; and Norman, 2004). The aesthetic impression
refers to the sensation developed based on the perception of the attractiveness of the
product. Thus, visual cues are dominant of all the cues in the brand image formation,
and the aesthetic impression is the initial cognitive response. Hence,
P2: Initial influence of brand image development is triggered by the aesthetic impression
of visual cues.
The semantic association refers to the functional specification and qualities, and
the symbolic association refers to the derived perception created by the product about
the user. However, the aesthetic impression is the initial response, and we posit:
P3: Aesthetic impression influences the semantic interpretation of cognitive responses.
OLFACTORY CUES
Olfaction is one sense that cannot be turned off as it is a part of the air that we inhale.
Research have classified the olfactory sense in different verticals. While studying the
role of olfactory cues in affecting consumer evaluations and behaviors, scents were
differentiated along three different lines, namely, affective quality of the scent
(pleasantness), its arousing nature (evoking physical response), and its intensity
(strength) (Spangenberg, Crowley, and Henderson, 1996). The pleasantness and arousal
feeling positively impact money spent, while the arousal level influences the time
spent (Sherman, Mathur, and Smith, 1997). The overall shopping experience is generally
observed as a function of money and time spent by the customer. Hence,
P4: Overall shopping experience is influenced by the arousing nature of the scent.
P5: Overall shopping experience is unaffected by the intensity of the scent.
The Yerkes–Dodson law is an empirical relationship between arousal and
performance with increased performance at an optimal arousal level. A minor change
in the environment, such as adding some scent, will increase the perceived novelty

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and pleasantness of the environment (Berlyne, 1971). The other classification is based
on the source of scent as ambient scent (physical environment) and nonambient scent
(originating from a particular object) (Mattila and Wirtz, 2001). A study revealed
that the subjects exhibited more positive evaluation and behavior in the scented as
against unscented environment although the type of scent had no role in perception
enhancement (Spangenberg, Crowley and Henderson, 1996). Other empirical studies
(on the amount spent under an ambient scented environment) have concluded that
gamblers spent more money in slot machines in a pleasantly scented casino (Hirsch,
1995) and subjects involved in catalogue-shopping task spent more time in scented
than in unscented rooms (Bone and Ellen, 1998). Furthermore, scents that were not
consistent with the product showed a negative effect on evaluation (Bone and Ellen,
1999). Hence,
P6: Olfactory cues influence consumer brand image development.
AUDITORY CUES
In the effects of words in the conversations of Cratylus, Plato talks about the use of the
sound of a word to deliver cues about the word’s meaning (sound symbolism) (Yorkston
and Menon, 2004). As conveyed by sound symbolism, the aural frequencies from the
sound created by human beings depend on the position and curvature of tongue in
the mouth. The generated frequency out of this sound ranges from high-front to low-
back position where high-front vowels (e.g., i in fry) are associated with smaller size
and less power than low-back vowels (e.g., oo in foot). Two aspects of sound symbolism
had been deliberated, namely, the variety of the effect – universality (Huang,
Pratoomaraj, and Johnson, 1969) and the facets of meaning the sound effects (Klink,
2000). Consumers infer meaning about unfamiliar brands based on sound symbolism,
where a brand name is built of individual sound units called phonemes, and for some
products (e.g., entertainment systems), sound is an important factor for brand loyalty
(Lindstorm, 2005). The phonemes serve a dual purpose by acting as the building block
of language in syllable formation and for providing meaning by themselves through
sound symbolism (Yorkston and Menon, 2004). The findings further suggest that
consumers collect and process information from brand names in an instinctive way.
The study supports that the sound symbolism of the brand name affects attribute
perceptions when moderated by the perceived analysis of the brand name. Therefore,
it is of critical importance to consider the phonetic meanings and utilizing the attribute
associations while developing a new brand name to communicate an appropriate brand
image. The auditory system in the body receives the auditory cues as stimuli from the
external environment. Once the cues are received, the human body activates the
heuristics for the auditory sensory system capturing the sound and processing it. These
heuristics are based on onset time, location, timbre, and pitch (Bregman and Campbell,
1971) and the continuity of the sound (Warren, Obusek, and Ackroff, 1972). Hence:
P7: Auditory cues influence consumer brand image development.
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TACTILE CUES
Touch is the first sense to develop in infants (Atkinson, Braddick, and Pimm-Smith,
1982); a crucial link between the skin and the brain is explained by the large possession
of skin elements in the cortex (Lindstrom, 2005). This tactile experience is classified
based on macro-geometric (shape) and micro-geometric (surface feel) stimulus
properties (Gallace and Spence, 2008). It has been shown that both stimuli impact
product evaluation by customers. A quantitative assessment on the importance of
sensory modality over product evaluation identifies that the familiarity with a given
product is heavily based on its tactile attributes (Schifferstein and Desmet, 2007).
When the feel of a product is blocked, the subjects tend to report a stronger feeling of
“alienation” as against the denial of sight. In fact, when texture discrepancies were
measured using vision and touch separately, the statistical weight for the tactual
information was found to be nearly equal to the visual information (Fishkin, Pishkin,
and Stahl, 1975). Aging leads to reduced tactile sensitivity (Nusbaum, 1999), and
with the rapidly growing aging population (Spence and Gallace, 2011), it is of utmost
importance for the marketers to adapt and use the tactile experience to reach them.
Hence,
P8: Tactile cues influence consumer brand image formation.
GUSTATORY CUES
Apart from the survival and physical requirement, the sensory source for taste plays a
critical role in the social and emotional components of an experience. The taste buds
in the tongue signal the brain about the chemical components of the food. This signal
to the brain, the taste sensation, is captured by all the areas of the tongue which
consists of 50-100 taste cells in each bud as opposed to the widely believed proposition
that the tongue has specific demarcations for each different taste (Huang, Chen,
Hoon, Chandrashekar, Guo, W., Tränkner, Ryba, and Zuker, 2006). When the brain
receives the taste signal from the tongue, there is an interaction of pleasurable and
aversive stimuli in the brain during a decision-making process. This invokes the
components that determine the intensity of pleasure experienced by a consumer while
tasting a product, and it drives the preference of the product (Metcalfe and Mischel,
1999). Although specificity of chemicals that trigger different taste receptors is not
completely mapped, psychophysiological and neurophysiologic studies have identified
at least 13 possible or probable chemical receptors in the taste cells which are grouped
into five general categories called the primary sensations of taste, namely, sour, salty,
sweet, bitter, and “umami” (Hall, 2015). All other tastes that are perceived are
combinations of the elementary taste sensations. Hence:
P9: Gustatory cues influence consumer brand image development.
The brain consists of an affective component that identifies the emotional reactions
(e.g., pleasure) and an informational component that identifies the sensory experiences
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Source: Authors’ Analysis

 CONCEPTUAL MAPPING OF SENSORY CUES WITH BRAND ASSOCIATION

(e.g., sweetness) associated with the product being tasted. However, an experience
that is pleasurable involves more informational components than emotional, thus making
it remember-able and hence a stronger preference toward the experience. Although
all the sensory experiences play a vital role in brand loyalty, for certain product categories
(e.g., edible products) sense of taste influences brand loyalty than other senses like
smell and sight (Lindstorm, 2005).
CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
The brand communication is processed by the consumer in similar lines to a primary
communication system comprising of source, transmitter, channel, receiver, and
destination (Crilly, Moultrie, and Clarkson, 2004). The reference to brand communication
is the brand itself, which is developed during the product development process and
modified later. The encoded, transmitted signal across channels is the marketing
communication of the offered product, which is desired by the company. “Meaning-
making” occurs when the receiver decodes the signal through sensory cues. The desired
outcome is the cognitive response developed based on sensory cues (see Figure 2).
Thus, each of the senses plays a critical role in the sensory combination process at
the cognitive level, and viewing them as brand elements is more of a brand-centric

Table 1: Sensory Mapping of Brand Identity Elements

Source: Authors’ Analysis

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approach and less about the consumer’s involvement. In addition, a subjectively assigned
sensory mapping based on the above discussed literature shows that the brand elements
are centered more on vision and less on other senses (see Table 1).

CONSTITUTIVE CONCEPTS OF BRAND IMAGE

A determinative judgment is associated with constitutive concepts as against reflective
judgment for regulative concepts. The constitutive concepts are derived objectively
and are understood as a whole and not in parts as in regulative concepts. When an
empirical concept is viewed through the prism of constitutive concept, it satisfies two
conditions, namely, “strict universality and necessity,” to claim itself as a decree. These
decrees will then be viewed through the reflective prism to bring in classificatory and
hierarchical systems (Friedman, 1992). On similar lines, when a new brand is exposed
to a consumer, an association happens through the cues that are captured by the
consumers’ sensory system. The impact of each of these senses on the overall association
depends on the product category (Lindstrom, 2005) and the consumers’ sensory exposure
and cognitive process. Subsequent exposure may either modify or recreate a new brand
association. On sufficient exposure, the consumer may and mostly retrieve through
the regulative concepts of this association such as brand name and logo (brand
elements). However, the constitutive concepts that are captured by sensory cues will
play a significant role during initial exposures and need to be clearly understood.
When there is a significant undesirable mismatch between the projected brand
image by the company and the constructed association, there is a disruptive dissonance
in the consumers’ mind leading to customer dissatisfaction, thereby affecting the
concept of customer satisfaction. To avoid or handle this dissonance, concepts such as
customer service and customer relationship come into picture. Thus, integrating the
generic traits of life and society, namely, customer satisfaction, customer service, and
customer relationship, with general marketing theory.

THEORETICAL CONTRIBUTION
In this paper, we have presented a conceptual model on “Consumer-Brand Interaction
Process”, building on judgment theory (Friedman, 1992), arguing that “constitutive”
use of faculties is essential for knowledge creation, and emphasizing the need to focus
on sensory cues study for further academic advancements. This is a significant departure
from the branding literature focusing on brand image concept through brand identity
elements, which details the analytical and cognitive oriented attribute-driven concepts.
Furthermore, the work argued that sensory cues represent the “constitutive” use of
faculties for brand image formation, which enable knowledge creation. In doing so,
the work supports Schmitt’s (2009) claim to focus on consumer brand experience
through senses and further emphasize the need to focus on sensory cues for further
academic advancements.

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CONCLUSION, LIMITATIONS AND SCOPE FOR FURTHER

RESEARCH
By taking supports from the research works in various fields, the article attempts to
unravel the meaning-making process of consumers about a brand. The work attempts
to share significant insight into the brand image development process from sensory
cues captured by the sensory systems. The brand identity elements are possibly the
fragments of brand image created in the consumer's mind space that forms the reflective
component of the cognitive process. Though intuitive, further research are required
to establish the reflective nature of brand association. It is, therefore, beneficial for
the researchers to explore brand association through the constitutive concept of sensory
cues for theory development. Since the work attempted to study the consumer-brand
interaction process at the macro level, the study did not consider the differences at
product level as sensory cues may or may not work in tandem for all product category.
Hence, the model must be applied prudently depending on the product category. The
study captures brand association at a macro-level and does not account for category-
specific differences and would be an interesting area for future research. The literature
review is limited that the conceptual model and the propositions developed are not
empirically supported by primary research. In this direction, the study provides scope
for developing an experimental research design to test the shared propositions by
converting to the appropriate hypothesis. Furthermore, similar to any theoretical review,
the study is subject to the author biases in the mapping of brand identity elements
with sensory cues. The study attempted to address this by referring to literary works
across disciplines. The study acknowledges the need to empirically test the mapping
of brand identity elements with sensory cues. The study limits to brand-oriented
literature and does not cover the sensory stimulations by services. It would be interesting
to develop and test the mapping of service-related elements with sensory cues. Thus,
the conceptual work attempted to establish and enable marketers to map brand elements
with sensory cues. Notwithstanding the limitations, the study intended to build a
conceptual model that provides a holistic view including the constitutive and reflective
components of the consumer decision-making process, for which, the work provides a
valid and definitive treatment.
Acknowledgment: We thank SAJM Editor Prof. Mathew J. Manimala, Associate Editor,
Dr. K. Poornima Wasdani, Assistant Editor, Mr. Abhishek Vijaygopal and the anonymous
reviewer for the constructive feedback and support. The paper was presented in the CERE-
2016 conference at Indian Institute of Management Indore (IIMIDR). We are also grateful
to Prof. Pingali Venugopal and Prof. Debasis Pradhan from XLRI Jamshedpur for their valuable
inputs in the initial stages of this work. We also acknowledge the contribution of our fellow
scholars Raja R. R. Singareddy and Pratyush Ranjan for their intellectual inputs on this paper.

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