Sifting through the pages of media commentary from last night’s political TV debate – the output of furrow-browed hacks furiously trying to predict the political ramifications of every stutter, smirk and sneer – I stumbled across a brilliantly quirky piece of analysis on The Guardian’s website…..

[James Wannerton, 51, is president of the UK Synaesthesia Association. He experiences words as tastes and textures, a neurological condition known as lexical-gustatory synaesthesia.]

Gordon Brown’s name tastes horrible, and his flavour was nasty – like soil mixed with Marmite. That said, he was good on education, when he tasted of peaches, sliced potato and bacon.

Nick Clegg tastes of a pickled onion yet he kept turning soft, mushy and warm. Immigration was good for him. His speech reminded me of sweets I had as a kid – fruit pastilles, Spangles and liquorice.

David Cameron’s flavour was best. He gave me a taste of ink, which I find comforting. His name tastes of macaroons, but he said sorry so frequently it covered the macaroons with condensed milk

Wouldn’t it be fascinating to apply the same test on brands? If you invited some synesthetes to a focus group, you would be able to explore what a brand tasted like, smelt like, looked like. It would take visualising brand identity to a whole new level. What would Staropramen look like?  How would Vodafone smell? What would the taste of Ikea be? We can only hope a bit better than “soil mixed with Marmite”.