Examining the potential of the non-visual senses in place marketing and management

Disciplines such as geography have a long-established understanding of how people experience space through the non-visual senses (Hetherington 2002; Porteous 1990; Tuan, 1974). However, place marketing and management is only beginning to acknowledge multi-sensory perspectives (Henshaw, et al., 2015; Medway, 2015). This project will examine the potential of the non-visual senses in place marketing and management.

Aims and objectives

Place marketing activity is currently a predominantly visual phenomenon. Previous literature identifies that distinctive natural features, along with iconic built structures, are commonplace in place brand communication, logos and even typography (Warnaby and Medway, 2008; 2010), where the choice of visual feature used to represent can often serve as metaphorical shorthand for the marketer’s vision of the place in question. This dominance of the visual in such place promotion is indicative of how we primarily navigate and consume space and place; indeed Porteous (1990) suggests that sight is the ‘common sense’, providing 80% of our knowledge of the world around us. Similarly, Drobnick notes that although: ‘[m]any theorists of spatial experience gesture toward the necessity of understanding places via all of the senses, noting that something like synaesthesia or “simultaneous perception” is required’, most ‘neglect to follow through and explore the ramifications of such statements, only to reiterate, ultimately, a methodology centred on visualist and discursive modes’ (2002, p. 32-3). Accordingly, it has been argued that our ability to process more holistic spatial information has been desensitised, and we have lost what Berger (1987) refers to as the ability of ‘concentrated looking’. Put otherwise, the non-seeing senses provide important information about the space around us that is often crowded out by the visual. In such situations landscapes can become ‘blandscapes’ (Porteous, 1990), in which the all-pervasive nature of what can be seen masks more intricate and affectively experienced spatial topographies of sound, smell, taste and texture.

However, the non-seeing senses provide us with different, and often crucial information about our environment. It has been shown that sound that, as heard, profoundly influences human perceptions (see for example, Schafer, 1977; Truax, 1978, 1984; Davies et al. 2007; Payne, 2008) and behaviour in particular service contexts (see for example, Hui et al., 1997; Milliman, 1986; Oakes and North, 2008; Yalch and Spangenburg, 1990). Equally, smell has been shown to have strong links to memory and nostalgic associations with places (Porteous, 1985, 1990; Rodaway, 1994; Henshaw, 2013). Taste and touch also have a role to play in how we navigate, understand and appreciate place. Thus, the non-seeing senses can provide an immersive and experiential impression of the environment (Drobnick, 2002; Zardini, 2005; Pallasmaa, 2005; Henshaw and Mould, 2013), and are suggested by Porteous (1985) to evoke more emotional as opposed to rational associations. Despite this, relatively little research has explored the relationship between place and the other senses, particularly from a place marketing and place management perspective. As Porteous states:

‘Vision distances us from the landscape: it is easy to be disengaged. Such is not the case for other sensory modes, particularly smell and touch. Yet, except for hearing, these other senses are increasingly neglected in urban civilisation. While visual landscapes have been analysed to death, non-visual sensory modes have been paid little attention in studies of ‘landscape appreciation’’ (1990, p. 5).

This PhD aims to examine the role the non-visual senses play, or could play, in the way places are marketed and managed, and in doing so moves beyond the notion of landscape as a primarily visual construct to incorporate a wider sensory appreciation and understanding of places. This fits with notions of place branding and ‘otherscapes’, or more specifically ‘smellscapes’, ‘soundscapes’, ‘tastescapes’ and ‘touchscapes’ (Porteous, 1990).

The supervisory team for this project will be Prof Dominic Medway, Prof Gary Warnaby, and Prof Catherine Parker

The closing date for applications is 31st January 2017.
To apply, please use the form on our web page: http://www2.mmu.ac.uk/study/postgraduate/apply/postgraduate-research-course/ - please note, CVs alone will not be accepted.

For informal enquiries, please contact: [Email Address Removed]
Please quote the Project Reference in all correspondence.