Marketing by Aroma: The Brand that Ruled my Nose
The sense of smell is a crucial part of the brand persona, it can attract customers and intrigue many emotions towards a brand and such is being adopted by international well known brands who built memories for their customers and guaranteed repeated visitation by such a technique.
I was walking in the mall, when it hit me! A sweet scent with a touch of bitterness and a gingery smell with a touch of lime, I went inside the store and asked the guy what that perfume is coming from the store – he told me that is the smell of the store, and it’s not a perfume. The brand had its own smell, that much of a branding that this store was doing – creating more than a shopping experience to the customers, but a lingering relation that connects the brand with a specific smell.
What was really intriguing that the brand did not offer just a smell, it was a combination of smells that made up the brand – it was marketing by aroma, creating a brand identity, and a marketing message which targets a specific audience with a fragrance that amplified these branding aspects – which allowed the brand to standout among the cluttered mall.
Brands in the malls are not the only ones that create such techniques of marketing by Aroma or as others term it “Scent Marketing” – hotels do it too. Try going to a hotel a pay a close attention to the Aroma’s you smell. At the lobby, there will be lavender which is as marketing researchers say that it relaxes the customers, allow them to feel at home, and arouses feelings of security and comfort. In the rooms, you will smell the clean bed sheets which make the bed look even more comfortable! You know you are at the movies when you smell that combination of popcorn, soft drinks, and other deserts which people line-up to get before going to the movie.
The Holiday Inn hotels chain has been using scents combined with the right kind of music to invite you to stay longer in their rooms, lobbies and bars. The company uses a rose scent for weddings and a leather-based scent for business meetings and similar functions. Even the chlorine pool smell comes from a bucket of powder that is added to the air system in the mornings! MacDonald’s use aggressive tactics to sell you their fries and other products. Focusing on ‘hot’ times in the day (lunch time for example) the company throws adverts out that are specifically aimed at those driving a car.
The major problem is that most brands are underestimating the power of the nose. There are many companies who consider scent marketing as part of their strategic campaigns to attract customers, but other brands overlook this great marketing tool. Though, the smell is more sophisticated than any other sense as scent receptors in the nose that connects directly to the section of the brain responsible for memory and emotion.
So powerful, in fact, the nose is believed to affect 75% of our daily emotions. It is the close connection of the olfactory gland, which registers smell, and the limbic system, that governs emotion and memories that is said to be responsible for the power behind the sense of smell.