In a world increasingly dominated by screens, something powerful is being overlooked: how the human brain actually processes experience.
Recent neuroscience studies continue to validate what many marketers in the physically branded goods space have long understood. Print and tactile experiences activate the brain differently. Research from the Temple University Center for Neural Decision Making found that physical media requires 21% less cognitive effort to process than digital media while also producing stronger emotional engagement and memory encoding.
When something is held, felt, or experienced physically, it becomes more memorable, more meaningful, and ultimately more effective.
This insight goes far beyond print.
It applies to every physically branded interaction, from packaging to promotional products, apparel to curated brand environments. When someone engages with something tactile, they are not just seeing your brand. They are experiencing it.
And that distinction matters.
Neuroscience-informed marketing studies also show that physical materials generate stronger brand recall than digital-only exposure. In some environments, physical media has improved brand recall by up to 20% compared to digital formats alone.
Today’s most effective organizations are no longer thinking in terms of digital versus physical. Instead, they are designing integrated experiences where tactile engagement reinforces recognition, strengthens trust, and supports consistency across locations, teams, and customer touch points.
This shift becomes especially important for organizations operating at scale, where ensuring teams across multiple markets can access consistent resources and execute against the brand quickly remains a persistent operational challenge.
Benson developed its Centralized Marketing Platform (CMP) to specifically solve this issue in the multifamily space and today, organizations implementing centralized marketing platforms are also seeing measurable financial and operational benefits at the portfolio level. According to Benson’s CMP research, a 100-community operator can realize approximately $500,000 in annual NOI improvement, translating to more than an $8 million increase in enterprise-level value at typical multifamily cap rates.
These gains reflect improvements in purchasing efficiency, rollout speed, and coordination across communities, enabling marketing teams to support onsite teams more effectively at scale.
As one Benson client shared:
“The Centralized Marketing Platform has streamlined our workflows, enabling Marketing to more effectively support our onsite teams with high-quality marketing and promotional resources that help make their communities successful.”
— Jaclyn Hudson, Director of Centralized Marketing Operations, Asset Living
Physical brand moments cut through environments where attention is limited, and digital messages are easily overlooked. Tactile engagement strengthens emotional processing and memory formation, reinforcing why physical touch points remain essential inside integrated marketing strategies.
This is where tactile engagement becomes strategic.
“At Benson, we believe the future of marketing is not about more communication. It is about more meaningful communication. Not mass distribution, but intentional, curated, sensory-driven experiences that support both execution and brand perception across the customer journey.”
— Brian Benson
“It was an honor to serve as Conference Committee Chair and Trail Guide at Dscoop Edge Rockies and to join conversations with marketing leaders from more than 22,000 members across 96 countries. Across industries, one message stood out clearly: forward-thinking organizations are integrating physical engagement as a core component of their strategy."
- Brian Benson
CEO, Benson Integrated Marketing Solutions
The brands that win are the ones customers can feel.
Sources: Temple University Center for Neural Decision Making; USPS Office of Inspector General Neuromarketing Study Enhancing the Value of Mail.