ORGANIC APPEAL: Greenery at Bengaluru airport
| Picture Credit score:
Shivendu Jauhari
Is it attainable that the common-or-garden fruit in Apple’s emblem is a part of what makes its prospects among the many most loyal on the earth? May the plush gardens and open inexperienced areas on the new Bengaluru airport be doing greater than beautifying the terminal — maybe easing stress and making flyers really feel relaxed lengthy earlier than takeoff? May Jaguar’s new identification with nature-inspired types, to sign an all-electric model, as an alternative of the controversial minimalist design have led to extra constructive on-line buzz? As shocking as it could sound, the solutions lie within the human intuition to attach with nature — an intuition manufacturers are more and more tapping, knowingly or in any other case. As sustainability beneficial properties centre stage and customers search deeper, extra significant experiences, a bigger query for entrepreneurs and CMOs alike is: Can connecting with nature be a strategic benefit for manufacturers?
Why nature works
Our analysis through the years, spanning service environments (servicescapes) and visible model identities, finds that nature-based design parts improve model experiences and constructive buyer perceptions.
Manufacturers are now not constructed solely via merchandise or promoting. They’re sculpted via immersive experiences and visible cues. In our work revealed within the Journal of Companies Advertising and Journal of Model Administration, we’ve explored how servicescapes and visible identities can infuse biophilic ideas to raise shopper engagement and model picture. Our arguments are grounded in consideration restoration and temper restoration theories, supported by empirical proof in a sequence of experiments. This physique of labor means that biophilic designs operate as a cognitive and emotional catalyst that may elevate model picture and expertise.
Biophilia in motion
Take Amazon, for instance. Its Seattle headquarters, the Spheres, is full of over 40,000 vegetation that function extra than simply an architectural marvel. It creates a piece atmosphere that reduces worker burnout and fosters creativity. Google, too, has embraced biophilic design throughout its world workplaces with pure lighting, inexperienced partitions, and water options, contributing to worker satisfaction and productiveness.
Retail manufacturers like IKEA and hospitality manufacturers have lengthy invested in pure textures, indoor greenery, and natural structure flows that really feel intuitive and calming. Such selections are strategic instruments that construct buyer pull and stickiness.
Apple’s emblem — a minimalist, natural form of a bitten apple — stands in distinction to the extra geometric or summary logos of its rivals
| Picture Credit score: PhillDanze
Airports around the globe have begun to grasp this. Singapore’s Changi airport — constantly ranked among the many world’s finest — gives verdant indoor gardens, waterfalls, and butterfly sanctuaries. The brand new Terminal 2 at Bengaluru’s Kempegowda Worldwide Airport follows go well with with expansive indoor gardens, pure lighting and open areas.
These environments do greater than entertain; they calm, delight, and imprint a constructive model affiliation with the airport, and even the nation it represents. For service entrepreneurs, the implication is obvious: biophilic servicescapes are now not a luxurious however a lever for buyer choice.
Biomorphism
Visible identification is one other area the place biophilic design performs a refined however highly effective function. Apple’s emblem — a minimalist, natural form of a bitten apple — stands in distinction to the extra geometric or summary logos of Samsung or Google. Our analysis means that such biomorphic types — mimicking shapes and patterns of nature — can evoke familiarity and heat, aiding memorability and emotional connection. Indian manufacturers are starting to recognise this. Corporations like Fabindia, Forest Necessities, and Nicobar incorporate pure motifs and plant-based narratives into their branding, aligning custom with trendy sustainability.
Biomorphism — not the identical as biophilia — attracts on the unconscious choice for curved traces, pure symmetry, and types paying homage to leaves, waves, or dwelling beings. Even when precise nature is absent, mimicking its essence can form a robust model expertise.
Biophilic design
In a world saturated with screens and stress, nature is quietly making a comeback. As we immerse ourselves within the comfort and experiential advantages of the digital world, technostress and anxiousness have emerged as important issues. Sarcastically, as individuals change into more and more disconnected from nature, firms like Amazon, Apple, and Fb — which partially fuelled this disconnect — are adopting extra pure parts of their model advertising and marketing.
For CMOs, model managers, and expertise designers, the implication is obvious: biophilia will not be merely an architectural or design selection — it’s a branding crucial. Our analysis signifies that manufacturers that root themselves in nature can develop stronger emotional bonds, improve memorability, and ship extra humane experiences.
(The writers are college members at The Indian Institute of Administration, Kozhikode)
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Printed on June 15, 2025
