Touch and go: merely grasping a product facilitates brand perception and choice

Consumers often touch products, and such haptic exploration can improve consumers’ evaluations of the product. We tested whether cross-modal priming might contribute to this effect. Under the guise of a weight judgment task, which served as a haptic prime, we had blindfolded participants grasp familiar products (e.g., a Coca Cola bottle). We then had participants visually identify the brand name as quickly as possible (Experiments 1 and 2), list the first beverage brands that come to mind (Experiment 3), or choose between beverage brands as reward for participation (Experiment 4). Haptic exposure facilitated visual recognition of the given brand, and increased participants’ consideration and choice of that brand. Moreover, this haptic priming was brand-specific and occurred even among participants who did not consciously identify the prime brand. These results demonstrate that haptic brand identities can facilitate recognition, consideration, and brand choice, regardless of consumers’ conscious awareness of this haptic priming