laura mendes
BRAND EXPERIENCE STRATEGIST
Most brand analysis start at the door.
Mine start before your clients arrive.
And stay with them long after they’ve left.
PORTO | IBERIAN PENINSULA | EUROPE
I work with premium hospitality & gastronomy brands to identify the specific disconnects between what a brand promises and what a client actually perceives.The deliverable is a Sensory Friction Audit — a dense diagnostic document mapping the full perception journey.
From the first pixel to the last impression — and what happens after the client leaves.Three weeks. Five layers. One document that names what's costing you perceived value.
most spaces invest only in the visible.
the friction lives elsewhere.
In the acoustic frequency of a dining room.
In the narrative gap between a booking email and a lobby.
In the texture that contradicts the price point.
In the follow-up message that erases what the experience built.This is what I map: from the first digital touchpoint to the last impression a client carries away.
a stunning minimalist redesign somehow emptied the hotel’s top-performing wine bar
The redesign had replaced original textiles with polished stone and glass. These 'clean' surfaces created a high-frequency shimmer that made conversation mentally taxing. Guests didn't notice the noise. They just felt unexplained fatigue.The problem was the physics of the redesign. I identified the invisible friction and provided the diagnostic for sensory restoration.The second-bottle orders returned.
The above is a composite illustration of the type of diagnostic this method produces. Client details are not disclosed.
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