While décor and music can influence how much individuals spend, a study has shown that specific scents can also influence how much they spend. Here’s everything you need to know about the subtle art that scent marketing is.
What is Scent Marketing?
Scent/Aroma Marketing is a sort of sensory marketing that focuses solely on the olfactory receptors of the customer. Scent branding and scent/aroma marketing are pretty much the same things. Scent branding entails more than simply placing a pleasant scent at a specified location. It’s all about developing a brand’s characteristic aroma, which helps to build a better link with customers and thus becomes part of the company’s brand identity. Each company and brand has its own distinct aroma. Consider scent marketing to be the company’s olfactory logo, similar to a company’s design logo but aimed at customers’ noses.
Various kinds of companies have been using Scent Marketing and the science of smell in their favour for numerous years, enabling them to establish brand loyalty and greater profits. Nike, Apple, and Starbucks profit from this by actively disseminating specific, carefully manufactured aromas across their stores and even in their products. These scents have been used to elicit a particular feeling in potential customers, encouraging them to not only associate a smell with their brand but also to spend a bit more time in their stores or places of work (customer experience), while also forming pleasant memories with those aromas that will keep them returning to the product or service.
Ambient Scent
Ambient Scent is fairly similar to scent marketing, although it is not as focused on brands and affiliations. The aroma in the ambient selling area has nothing to do with the brand or the company. Ambient scent enhances the experience of customers for a variety of reasons, however, scent branding incorporates aromas that are specific to each brand’s identity. Lavender, for instance, is employed in healthcare to induce calmness and a sense of trust. Some smells have also been shown to benefit the work environment, enhancing worker productivity.
The Science behind Scent Marketing
Adults can detect 10,000 different scents, believe it or not. Every few weeks, our bodies produce fragrant neurons. In fact, one out of every 50 of our genes is devoted entirely to the sense of smell.
Smell, unlike other senses like vision and hearing, travels straight to various sections of the brain without being digested beforehand. Because smell developed before our other senses, it travels directly to other parts of the brain, which can then cause you to flee or fight, remember information, or make your mouth salivate. Scent and memory are inextricably intertwined. A cologne can conjure up images of the person who wore it, like your mother, or events that took place when you were donning it, such as a holiday. This is why: When you smell your morning cup of coffee, the fragrance of those freshly brewed coffee beans travels to parts of your brain that process pleasure and memory. That’s why smelling coffee, holding a hot mug, or taking your first taste might jog your recollection of a joyful or pleasurable experience faster than hearing it brew.
However, the fragrance isn’t enough: context is needed. Smells are important because they have a direct connection to our brain, but our visual aspect and auditory cues can also affect how we respond to scents. When subjects were instructed to sniff cheese in research, they reacted positively when the box was labelled cheese. Even though the ingredients were the same, they were disgusted when it was called vomit
Why Are Retailers Using Scent Marketing?
Scent marketing is used by shops to create a good guest experience since our physiology and psychology place a high value on the sense of smell and swiftly relate fragrances to happy and unpleasant memories. Nike discovered that implementing aroma marketing in its brick-and-mortar stores resulted in an 80 per cent boost in buy intent. In another trial, the smell of freshly brewed coffee generated a 300 percent boost in coffee sales in a gas station.
Of course, the aroma of freshly cooked cinnamon rolls or coffee would be expected to increase sales. What about other, less prominent uses of fragrances in advertising? Some stores use aromas to entice customers to stay longer, such as the pia colada scent in children’s shops to encourage parents to stay longer, or candy in candy shops to ensure that their products smell sweet even if they are pre-packaged. Other retailers take a more transparent stance in their business.
Scent marketing is used by many retail outlets to create an inviting atmosphere that keeps shoppers in the store longer. It’s effective. It makes individuals feel better about their shopping experience and, as a result, makes them spend extra money. Are you thinking about how scent marketing might benefit you in the long run? People may identify aromas with memories with up to 65 per cent accuracy within a year of the initial experience, according to studies. Your brand will, without a doubt, stay in the minds of your buyers long after they’ve purchased your product.
What can you do to Make your Brand Smell Amazing?
Scent marketing can be used in a variety of ways in your business. For instance, Hyatt Place has been using aroma marketing for years. The goal for Hyatt, like other businesses that use scent marketing, is to identify the hotel with a pleasant aroma and elicit a subconscious connection with the brand. Scent marketing and branding science have progressed to the point that businesses may be very particular about the expected sensation. The odour of leather is the way to go if the business wants to project a high-end image. Cleanliness, good health, and springtime are all conjured up by linen and cotton.
All companies who wish to sell their products or services strive to influence the way their customers think and act. Scent marketing is just another tool to add to your marketing arsenal. You can probably get whatever mood you want by using a fragrance or a mix of fragrances.
Conclusion
Scent Marketing, with its more delicate approach, is discreet and gives the customer undetectable access to the “driver’s seat” on a subconscious level. The smell is the most powerful of the five senses, and it is linked to memories and feelings. This provides aroma marketing with an amazing platform to captivate customers by shifting perceptions and creating an atmosphere for maximum impact. It aids in the exploration of new business opportunities and the advancement of a business’s brand identity.
Source: The Subtle Art of Scent Marketing – All You Need to Know! – Daily Hawker
