Blog 4 Techies Scent Marketing
Why is the taste for life literally lost with scents? How do brands such as Lancôme or portals that allow you to find the best Canadian online casinos use scents to entice customers to buy or to emphasize the status of an event? But what happens if a person suddenly loses their sense of smell? A while ago this question could be treated philosophically, but in today’s reality, many people have experienced what it is like.
Food ceases to be tasty and resembles paper, a person ceases to feel the difference between an unleavened porridge and a sweet dessert. Because of this, many people lose weight, because, with the loss of the sense of smell, food ceases to be enjoyable. Some experience problems with sexual attraction because they can no longer smell their chosen one.
Table of Contents
Why Does Scent Evoke Emotion?
Olfactory stimuli are more powerful than visual or musical stimuli. In other words, such marketing has a better chance of success than traditional multimedia methods.
Information that is transmitted through the other senses is processed in a brain area called the thalamus, which culminates in conscious perception.
The olfactory bulb is an element of the limbic system of the brain, connected to the amygdala and the hippocampus. The amygdala is involved in the process of emotion formation. It is the hippocampus that is responsible for memory.
Smell is considered the most vulnerable human sense because smells have a direct influence on emotion and imagination. They affect the work of memory. In children, it is the sense of smell that is activated first, not sight or taste. In addition, smell has a direct impact on decision-making. It can be called a kind of storytelling tool.
Brands often use the sense of smell to communicate with their audiences. But it’s a fairly new phenomenon, even though aroma marketing first appeared in the last century.
In the 1970s, psychiatrist and psychologist Donald Laird conducted studies on patients in order to provoke memories through sensory channels of communication.
In the end, the study showed that in 92% of women and 80% of men scents triggered memories: 76% of women and 47% of men described them as bright and colorful. The following factors influence how a person perceives different scents:
Olfactory Experience
Past experiences create current perceptions: when something bad happens and a person smells something, it will disgust that person in the future, and vice versa, a scent that a person smelled during a happy event will evoke positive emotions in the future.
Often people do not even remember the origin of such associations.
Expectations (Marketing)
People guess the image of a fragrance by its appearance and the general opinion of a brand.
Individual receptor characteristics. Genetics influences the susceptibility to certain odors. The olfactory perception is also influenced by the conditions under which testing was conducted.
Ambivalence of Molecules
The same scent molecules can be present in a wide variety of items, from flowers to food. Different factors influence how a person evaluates an odor. Therefore, it is not easy to say which association is closer to a certain individual: for one, the smell of tobacco smoke will cause negative associations, while for another, it will remind him of his favorite perfume.
Scent marketing uses the sense of smell as a new channel of communication, much more powerful than sight or sound, to evoke emotions and feelings. Olfactory marketing is a trending method of stimulation that can communicate value. Now that you have your marketing plan template, let’s go over some basics before diving into more advanced aspects of marketing planning.
It is an effective way to showcase a company’s brand identity and the messages they represent and connect them with scent. The technique of combining scents with other sensory cues, such as using sound and lighting, can be very effective in creating a strong emotional connection with customers.
Aroma Marketing for Business Promotion
Aroma marketing is used for improving the company’s recognition and image. This method not only adds value to the business but also helps to increase sales. In addition to the stores mentioned above, there are many companies that use a particular fragrance as a tool to increase sales.
For example, Massimo Dutti has its own exclusive leather fragrance despite the fact that not all items of this brand are made of genuine leather.
The smell of cinnamon is one of the most powerful when it comes to sales. Whether a person likes it or not, it’s a scent that everyone knows and is associated with certain values.
Havas has travel destination scents used in the office to introduce travelers to the trip.
To improve loyalty and continued cooperation. The Shiseido brand introduced a complete fragrance kit to customers: in the morning, diffusers spray a citrus fragrance to promote concentration, followed by a floral scent – to increase performance.
How to Choose a Scent for Business
- It is important to understand where and when the fragrance will be used.
- The consumer should consider design, colors, and music. Everything needs to be in harmony with each other.
- The fragrance should evoke an emotional response. Even the simplest scent can take a person to the most remote corners of their memory.
The Process of Creating a Fragrance for a Brand
A focus group is formed (CA brand), on which a variety of fragrances are tested. As a result, the brand compiles a ranking of the best choices. The selected fragrance helps evoke the desired reaction in consumers.
Special equipment is also used to track conscious and unconscious reactions to scents.
Interesting Facts About Scent Marketing
There are studies that show that fragrances retain about 30% more customers compared to brands that don’t have them. Thus, the customer not only comes and buys but comes back again after a while.
Scents can influence perceptions in a variety of ways. There was an experiment with Nike in which customers evaluated two pairs of identical shoes. One was in a room with a pleasant scent and the other was in a room with no scent. 84% of shoppers rated the sneakers as excellent in a room that smelled pleasant.
The Rolls Royce brand uses the smell of leather and wood to scent the interiors of its luxury cars. Buyers get the feel of a new car and a unique brand experience. All aspects of neuromarketing work on the same basis.
But olfactory tools can be combined with others: with auditory stimuli such as music. However, it is important to emphasize the creation of harmony between the two, since many uncoordinated stimuli can have the opposite effect, saturating and causing customer rejection.
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