Something Smells in Marketing’s Future
For a company like Starbucks, scent is naturally associated with the product it sells. Walk into a Starbucks location and you’ll immediately be greeted with the warm, inviting scent of freshly brewed coffee. You can say the same for Cinnabon, where the aroma of fresh-baked cinnamon buns is a powerful lure for customers.
For other companies, scent has nothing to do with their products, but some have still strategically incorporated scent into their marketing and branding activities to create a unique impression.
Clothing retailer Abercrombie & Fitch, for instance, has long been known for using a strong, woody scent in its stores, creating immediate customer recognition and aligning the sense of smell with its brand.
Scent has been used in other settings as well. In stores, casinos, hotels and other hospitality venues, gyms, healthcare settings, and a wide range of other places, scent has been used for decades to impact the customer experience.
Laurence Minsky, a professor and director of graduate programs in the communication department of the School of Media Arts at Columbia College Chicago and author of numerous books and articles on marketing and scent marketing, even recalls attending a Broadway show in which, during a kitchen scene, the theater smelled like bacon.
Scent marketing might not be new in the physical marketing environment. But it is gaining new traction as companies extend the scent experience from physical environments to other settings.
What Is Scent Marketing?
Scent marketing is the use of aromas or fragrances to evoke emotions and create powerful and memorable brand experiences. The sense of smell is the strongest of the five senses and is closely tied to memory and emotion.
“Smell is more powerful than any other sensory element that we have,” says Nathan Green, CEO of New Level Radio and an expert on sensory marketing, including the use of scent in marketing. And yet, he says, it’s a sensory element that has been very underutilized. “Historically, marketing has always been so focused on the visual elements of the brand—the colors, the fonts, the imagery.”
Caroline Fabrigas, CEO of Scent Marketing, agrees. She inherited Scent Marketing in 2010 when her husband, Harald Vogt, suddenly passed away. Vogt was a well-known and respected advocate, educator, and pioneer in the field of scent marketing. Fabrigas’ own experience includes leadership roles in the cosmetics industry. “Scent is very, very important because it becomes endemic to the brand,” she says. “It becomes very associated with it.”
Scent, Fabrigas says, “is an invisible influencer.” Using scent as part of the marketing mix, she says, “is like putting your logo in the air.”
There’s science behind the power of smell, says Emily McCue, product manager at Spectrio, a digital engagement company. “Smell is processed in the brain in the limbic system, which is the part of the brain that also processes memory and emotion,” she says. But smell is processed differently, she adds. “It’s processed immediately by the brain, so there is no interpretation step. We don’t take time to question it.”
Companies can use the power of smell to immerse consumers in an experience—like Starbucks does with its coffee aroma. But that strong aroma that so many associate with its retail settings isn’t just coming from the actual coffee being brewed. Starbucks infuses a coffee scent in its stores for an even stronger impact—like the aromas of pumpkin spice latte during the holidays.
And it’s not just the pumpkin spice lattes that create memorable aromas. Starbucks has worked with EcoScent, a scent marketing solutions company, to enhance the customer experience in the St. Pancras underground in London. For that project, the company used its Luna Pro scent machines to diffuse the aroma of the brown sugar syrup formulated specifically for the project, strategically placed around the venue. It makes people feel as though “they’re in the heart of a bustling coffee shop,” the company says. More importantly, though, it makes consumers crave a cup of freshly brewed Starbucks coffee.
Hotels and healthcare settings often use relaxing scents, like lavender or peppermint, to improve mood and reduce stress. Today, though, the use of scent is expanding into virtual and digital spaces. For instance, gaming companies are using virtual reality devices to deliver targeted fragrances that align with gamers’ experiences. So if a gamer’s avatar is exploring a wooded setting, a technology like Aroma Shooter can be used to target specific fragrances, providing a very immersive experience.
The possibilities are just emerging, but marketers believe scent will play an increasingly important and increasingly prevalent role in brand marketing.
Scent Marketing’s Possibilities
Patty Pavia, a marketing strategist at biöm, a personal care e-commerce company, has always been fascinated by scent marketing because it bridges the emotional gap between companies and consumers. At biöm, she says, “we’ve explored analog scent marketing through product samples infused with subtle, calming fragrances that reflect our commitment to wellness.” The company included lavender-scented packaging in a campaign promoting oral care products, which encouraged mindfulness during daily routines.
Scent can also be incorporated into the unboxing experience. It could, for example, be incorporated into tissue paper or other wrapping materials to provide unique and brand-supportive olfactory experiences as customers open products that they’ve ordered.
Scent marketing has appeal across a wide range of companies across many industries, including some that might not immediately come to mind.
On any given day, “I could be working with a real estate developer, a hotelier, a medical group, a transportation authority, a theme park, a fitness studio,” Fabrigas says. “You can absolutely scent any environment to enhance it and to make the overall brand proposition more compelling.”
As technology has evolved, companies have a much broader array of options to incorporate the sense of smell into their marketing efforts in unique ways. For instance, modern heating/ventilation/air-conditioning systems and localized diffusers allow companies to deliver very precise scent dispersion that is designed specifically to not overwhelm consumers.
Digital technology like Aroma Shooter and others allow companies to digitally transmit scent for virtual reality and online experiences. Companies can also create their own personalized fragrances to align with and reinforce brand identities. Artificial intelligence (AI) can be used to tailor scents based on consumer preferences and other customer data.
Scent marketing can be divided into three uses in both B2C and B2B settings, says Huib Maat, an in-house perfumer at Pairfum London:
- Creating a signature scent.This, he says, can be used to give a location or brand a unique identity. “For example, hotels often use bespoke fragrances to become instantly recognizable to guests,” he says.
- Enhancing the atmosphere.“A carefully chosen scent can evoke emotions, such as calm or excitement, to set the right mood in a space of a retail location, hotel lobby, and even a home,” Maat notes.
- Enhancing an experience. “By varying a scent depending on the situation, scent can elevate a movie, event, product launch, retail location, and also a computer game to make it more immersive and real, creating a multi-sensorial experience.”
“Scent marketing works by connecting directly to the consumer’s emotions and memories,” Maat states. “Brands and event organizers can incorporate it into their strategies through partnerships with fragrance experts to carefully integrate the space, event, game, etc., with a computer-controlled scent experience.” The benefits, he says, “include deeper engagement and better products for businesses and a richer, multi-sensory experience for consumers.”
Minsky and Fabrigas have also noted that scents have been used to reduce typos made by office workers; to improve the perception of product quality; to keep consumers in locations longer and increase their purchases; and even to make consumers more comfortable paying more for a product.
Interestingly, Spectrio’s McCue says, scent isn’t used to influence only consumers; it can also play a role with animals. For instance, she notes, scents can be used to keep animals calm in veterinarians’ offices. But whether it’s for humans or their nonhuman friends, scent offers just one more way for companies to curate unique customer experiences, McCue says.
The bottom line is that smell sells. Today’s technology is making it easier than ever for companies to create a unique scent experience for consumers, one that will serve as a powerful reminder of the brand.
The Impact of Technology on Scent Marketing
“In digital spaces, the evolution of scent technology is exciting,” Pavia says. “While scent delivery devices for VR and AR environments are still emerging, they open opportunities for sensory immersion in campaigns.”
Technology can also be used to create and disseminate a specific scent in a specific area, even at specific times, Green says. Digital control points, he says, can be used to release scent on a specific schedule or in a specific setting. For instance, retail spaces might adjust scent intensity based on store traffic. Spas might coordinate scent with specific treatments.
Special devices are required to diffuse fragrances into spaces, Maat explains. “Similar to inkjet printers, these machines have different containers for each scent that is to be diffused, and computers control when the scent is released and whether it is combined with another scent,” he says. But, he adds, “the complexity of perfumes currently limits varying the scent in an immersive to about 5 to 10 different fragrances.”
Some companies are beginning to experiment with scent in digital settings. Gaming is likely the best example, Minsky says. In the digital realm, he points out, a physical delivery device, such as a gaming console, would be required. You could then load the device to create the type of scent a specific gaming experience might require—“the smell of race cars, the smell of storms, the smell of gunfire.”
Such physical devices would also need to be refillable, Minsky says. You might think of this as, basically, “a fancy Febreeze kind of delivery system,” he says. GameScent is one example of how this technology is already being used. The company offers a device that is compatible with all gaming consoles and streaming platforms and powered by artificial intelligence to automatically release scents that correspond to in-game events.
Digital scent technology uses devices like scent generators or olfactory displays that can release a combination of odor molecules to generate specific smells. Some of the leading companies in this space include the following:
- OVR Technology, which allows developers to program scents into digital environments using its Architecture of Scent technology.
- Aryballe Technologies, which specializes in digital olfaction and can detect and categorize scents for use in industries like automotive, food and beverage, and healthcare.
- Olorama, which was inspired by Smell-O-Vision and uses a patented solution to stimulate the sense of smell with more than 200 scents. The company offers scented VR and voice-activated scents.
- Inhalio, which provides a digital scent AI platform to large corporations through its Digital Scent AI Platform.
“Platforms like VR, AR, and even scent-enabled digital advertising units are promising channels,” Pavia says. “They engage users on a multisensory level, creating memorable experiences.”
While technology is driving some innovative new ways to deliver scent experiences in digital environments, successful scent marketing, like any other form of marketing, must start with a deep understanding of the brand and a carefully devised strategy.
Making Scent Marketing Work for You
“To integrate scent marketing, businesses should start by identifying how fragrance complements their brand’s emotional narrative,” Pavia says. “For instance, calming scents can enhance wellness products, while invigorating scents might pair well with fitness gear.”
Green agrees that brand strategy needs to drive the effective use of scene marketing. “Just like anything else, it’s really important to have a strategy behind your use of scent,” he says. It’s critically important, he continues, to target and understand the audience as well as the experience you wish to create, noting that in a hotel or casino, the scent strategy targeting a 55-and-older audience will be very different than the strategy used in a cosmopolitan setting where guests are in their mid-30s.
An issue of concern for some brands might be the impact of allergens for people with sensitivities. It’s a valid question, but Fabrigas says that “incidences of allergy in our work are truly rare.” Noting that she can speak only for her company’s practices and policies, she says: “We take special care to recommend the right scent for a space and precisely calibrate the diffusion equipment to release an appropriate amount of aroma to be enhancing. When delivered with the right expertise, scent is invisible, dry, and unobtrusive, pleasing and safe.” Raw materials, says Fabrigas, undergo rigorous safety and toxicology checking, and her company follows industry regulatory standards from the International Fragrance Association (IFRA) and the Research Institute for Fragrance Materials (RIFM).
It’s also important to ensure that the scent marketing strategy is aligned with the overall brand strategy and that the scent is deployed in a way that is consistent with the overall brand strategy. The most successful companies in this area, Green says, seamlessly integrate every sensory aspect of the consumer experience across all of their touchpoints.
Successful scent marketing, Green says further, requires the following:
- a clear understanding of target demographics;
- integration with overall brand strategy;
- coordination with other sensory elements;
- careful consideration of space and timing;
- appropriate technological implementation; and
- regular monitoring and adjustment.
Importantly, Green stresses, scent marketing should never be implemented as a stand-alone solution, but as part of a comprehensive, well-planned marketing strategy that aligns with brand identity and target audience preferences.
And brand managers don’t need to go it alone when thinking about how scent might be incorporated into their brand messaging. “Partnering with tech vendors specializing in scent diffusion technology, such as digital scent delivery systems, is key to making this possible,” Pavia says.
“The time of scent marketing and branding really has arrived,” Fabrigas adds. “If you haven’t thought about scent as a part of your marketing mix, or you’ve thought that maybe it wasn’t for you, or that it’s something you could do later, now really is the time.”
Linda Pophal is a freelance business journalist and content marketer who writes for various business and trade publications. Pophal does content marketing for Fortune 500 companies, small businesses, and individuals on a wide range of subjects, from human resource management and employee relations to marketing, technology, healthcare industry trends, and more.