On the Trail of Scent marketing
Scent marketing is a quickly expanding area of marketing. Continued advancements in this type of marketing has shown can benefit many different types of product and service. It’s been proven that this type of experiential marketing can not only increase a strong sense of loyalty for brands and branding, but also increase average amounts of time customers spend browsing products. Further benefits also are noted to be an improved perception of quality, and notably higher buying rates. This should all obviously be taken seriously, but with a pinch of salt. Scent alone isn’t enough to have a successful marketing campaign, but as part of a bigger strategy can lead to a very effective campaign.
These are over stimulated times, customers are barraged from everywhere by traditional forms and new methods of advertising. As consumers become more and more indifferent to traditional marketing systems, scent outlines opportunities that are much less aggressive. Flowing around an area ubiquitously yet sometimes unnoticeably increasing familiarity and more importantly confidence with a brand. An ever increasing number of companies are adapting their marketing campaigns to make the use of modern scent thinking. Some marketers are already seeing strong results, and there are likely possibilities
Ambient scents refer to any scent that do not emanate from the products themselves but from the surrounding environment. Studies have shown that with other senses, we think before we respond, but with scent, we respond before we think. Our sense of smell is closely related to our emotional reactions. As such, scent has an immediate good or bad effect on our emotional state; this affects our impression of the product/ services; which essentially determines our spending behaviours.
There is a key difference between scent and visual / aural, scent cannot be simply closed off and ignored. It stays constant and it prompts for instant involuntary subconscious reactions. Studies have shown that in many cases scent can enhance a person’s memory of association; we are 100% more likely to remember a scented product than a non-scented one. Although these scents are often impossible to describe, it lodges itself somewhere in the primal part of the human brain.
The use of scent applies not only to experiential marketing; research has shown that we are more productive and active in the workplace when exposed to a pleasant scent than a non pleasant one. Other benefits of exposing workers to scent is increased self-efficacy, setting higher goals and employing more efficient strategies to perform their work.
Before we rejoice over the persuasiveness of scent and discover our own scent to affect others, there are several considerations that are crucial to note. Different scents trigger different psychological reactions in the human mind. For example, fruity and floral noted scents encourage shoppers to browse for much longer periods in the shop and spend more on average. And “baked goods” smell is associated with the propensity to purchase a home. Societal formulas of scents offer great variety too. Further, scents can be associative; any scent can trigger contextual memories in the consumers of the same scent that he/she smelt somewhere else. These emotions can obviously go either way, whether the association is a positive or negative one is largely not within the control of marketers. Another consideration is the association between the scent and your product/service, be sure that the scent you choose matches the overall image of your product. Marketers need to be clear of what they want the scent to say of them. This can be done by accurate assessing the target audience, brand identity and values that adequately define your produce are key to captivating the market with scent.
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