Scent Marketing Blog

Fragrance triggers all kinds of emotions—not just because it is the invention of poets or perfume-makers, but because the body’s olfactory receptors are directly connected to the limbic system, the most ancient and primitive part of the brain, which is thought to be the seat of emotion and the part of the brain that allows you to smell. Smell sensations are relayed to the cortex, where “cognitive” recognition occurs, only after the deepest parts of our brains have been stimulated. When the brain processes a smell, it is also processing the event or the emotion that goes with it. Thus, by the time we correctly name a particular scent, such as vanilla for example, the scent has already activated the limbic system, triggering more deep-seated emotional responses.

Perfume goes back to the ancient Egyptians, who used perfumed balms as part of religious ceremonies and later as part of pre-love making preparations and rituals. Gums and resins from trees were used to scent the atmosphere and other plants such as rose and peppermint were steeped in oils until a perfumed unguent formed. The unguent was then rubbed into the skin. It is interesting to note perfume has come full circle today as more people seek out high quality aromatherapy perfumed oils to use in exactly the same way as our ancestors did.

Of the five senses, studies have shown the sense of smell is second only to sight. However, there are some who say the sense of smell is the strongest—we can shut off our other senses but the sense of smell cannot be turned off. As people age, they begin to lose their sense of smell; because taste is related to smell, they do not enjoy food as much as they cannot detect the delicious aromas that food emanates. The human tongue can distinguish only among five distinct qualities of taste, while the nose can distinguish amount hundreds of substances, even in minute quantities.
Perfumes touch our deepest emotions and reflect a person’s true spirit. Consider how the whiff of baby powder immediately takes you back to a beautiful born baby or the memory of your first kiss? Or a scent wafting in the air bringing up memories of a particular event—luscious jasmine or gardenia fragrance conjuring up memoires of a wonderful tropical vacation. Scent and emotions therefore have become indelibly imprinted on the brain. When you smell the scent again, it triggers the memory because it is tattooed in your brain.
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Coty Canada Inc. hopes Torontonians will stop to smell the flower.

Canada’s largest fragrance company has teamed up with Astral Media Outdoor to put its playful perfume Daisy Marc Jacobs in front of customers through transit shelters and street columns in Yorkville.

Each piece is decorated with a Daisy-shaped application that passersby can “scratch and sniff” to experience the scent.

A promotional team was hired to simulate the act of scratching and sniffing the decals to draw attention to the boards, and to encourage those walking by to do the same.

“The passionate and innovative spirit of this Astral Media Outdoor program fits that of the Daisy Marc Jacobs brand and with this street level creative execution bringing the scent directly to the consumer, we know the interactivity will garner huge success for us,” said Kim Husted, director of marketing, Coty Canada Inc., in a release.

Coty wanted to capitalize on the increased traffic for the Toronto International Film Festival generates, especially in the Yorkville area, said Lara Hannaford marketing and communications project manager, Astral Media Outdoor.

The effort runs until Oct. 4, with OMD handling media buying and planning.

The new Hollister store on Houston and Broadway seems to be pumping its fragrance outside its doors, and neighbors are pissed that it’s stinking up the ‘hood, the Post reports today. (One dissenter even allegedly set off a stink bomb outside the So-Cal wannabe-surfer palace in protest.)

It’s only fitting that Hollister has caused such a ruckus; it’s part of the Abercrombie & Fitch franchise, whose stores are notorious for overpowering the olfactory nerves of anyone who walks within 200 yards of their front door. But this isn’t the first time an NYC retailer has stunk up a street. In July, Diane von Furstenberg’s store on West 14th Street reportedly offended passersby because its D Eau de Parfum scent wafted well beyond its doors.

The science of smell isn’t exactly anything new. According to Harald Vogt of the Scent Marketing Institute, scores of new retailers jumped on the scent marketing bandwagon last year, a development he says is largely due to the struggling economy. Hey, we get it. Adopting an aggressive scent strategy to lure in recession-minded shoppers and boost sales makes perfect sense. Especially since it seems to work. According to C. Russell Brumfield, the author of Whiff! The Revolution of Scent Communication in the Information Age, “The science shows that specific scents can increase sales from 20 to over 90 percent in some studies.”

In the past, some retailers, including Jimmy Choo, Lane Bryant, Hallmark, and Guess?, have created customized scents within their stores in the hopes they’ll be imprinted in consumers’ brains, make them feel positively thrilled with the experience, and keep them coming back to spend money. Certain crafty food establishments such as Cinnabon and Kentucky Fried Chicken are known to pump out smells to lure in customers. (So if you’ve got a particularly sensitive sniffer—and you’re not looking to ruin your diet—it’s probably best to steer clear of those sorts of establishments.)

Who knows what other stores are playing Jedi mind tricks with consumers with customized in- and out-of-store smells, but one place that could definitely use a scent overhaul? The BO-ridden NYC subway. Let’s hope an enterprising perfume manufacturer reaches out to the cash-strapped (and clearly desperate) MTA and makes a deal pronto.

Retailers have known for decades that a shopping experience should be a complete experience.

This is in particular true in the current climate of uncertainty and financial hardship. Consumers are looking at retailers to offer an escape from the daily grind. A place where they can loose themselves and feel happy about themselves.

Just imagine how disappointed they would be to find out that the store is noisy, sales assistants are uninterested and on top of that the store smells like a wet dog.

I donʼt think they would come back to the store once the economy picks up again.

Fact 1: Our sense of smell impacts our daily emotions and feelings for 75%.

Fact 2: The first 15 seconds of a consumersʼ shopping experience largely determines how they feel about their overall shopping experience.

No wonder that retailers around the world team up with specialist companies to create the perfect shopping experience in their stores by diffusing quality fragrances.

Although scent marketing in its current form is a relatively new marketing discipline, thanks to the progressive and innovative nature of the retail industry retailers around the world are fast embracing scent marketing as a standard brand requirement.

Often they have fragrance diffusion specialists create an exclusive signature fragrance for a retailer or retail chain that perfectly matches their brand identity. Another advantage is that it truly ties in the audio-visual and tactile cues in the store to create a complete story and address all senses.

How contradictive it may sound, in particular during the current global economic downturn retailers are looking for ways to stand out and provide the most complete experience to their consumers. Diffusing an exclusive fragrance that leaves a lasting impression with their guests is no doubt the most powerful way to do this.

A good example of a retailer in Australia who has implemented scent marketing is Peter Alexander, they teamed up with Air Aroma International to create a powerful scent brand strategy. Walk into one of their six larger stores (e.g. Chadstone in Melbourne, George St in Sydney) and you are immediately taken into ʻPeterʼs Worldʼ. Quirky visual merchandising, friendly staff, hip music and a subtle scent lingering in the background to complement the overall ambiance.

Peter Alexander has even gone one step further by diffusing four different fragrances throughout the day to create four slightly different experiences. Whatever time of the day it is however, the scents always match the overall Peter Alexander story and what the brand stands for.

When it comes to technologies used to diffuse scents, many different options are available.

From oil burners and candles to spray cans and fan-forced units with gels. These methods all work to a certain degree, but either pose a fire hazard or are only effective for a short period and donʼt offer a consistent scent output.

Cold-air diffusion is the way to go. Under pressure of filtered cold air, a fragrance oil is dispersed into a dry mist of microscopic small droplets, often smaller than 2.0 micron (by comparison, a spray can produces droplets of between 50-80 micron). This dry mist of fragrance then mixes with the air in the store (either via the HVAC or straight into the air) to create the perfect ambiance. Another key advantage of using this technology is that it preserves the properties and quality of the fragrances and ensures an even scent.

With over 500 marketers, brand owners, advertising and branding executives expected ScentWorld Conference & Expo 2009 should be Scent-sational!


Register before October 1st and take advantage of the 15% early registration discount. Visit http://www.scentworldexpo.com/ for full details and registration forms.
Will you be visiting ScentWorld Conference & Expo 2009? Let us know.

Kids between the ages 8-12 also called tweens, play a big part in the way parents spend their money. Marketing expert Martin Lindstrom sets up a tween focus group toi find out how brand savvy.

Smell is one of the most important senses, it’s proven to be linked to the memory and feelings part of the brain. Science has shown that humans are actually able to recall 35% of smells and associate them to particular memories or situations. Compare this to our capability of only being able to recall 5% of what we read. That’s why the olfactory marketing / scent marketing is gaining more ground within corporate marketing strategies.

The marketing of smell is relatively new, because until recently, ads with aromas used to be exclusive to the fragrance industry and cosmetics. Increasingly though many businesses in a wide range of sectors are investing their marketing budgets in to scent marketing, aiming to attract customers and also gain a competitive advantage in the market.

Big name U.S. brands such as Hard Rock Café, Ritz Carlton, Nestle, Coca-Cola, Marriott and Macy’s, among others, have achieved successful and most importantly measurable results with scent marketing.

Full story here.

Nowadays we have excellent sound and HD movies in our Home Movie Theatres. But it lacks something of extreme importance, something that will transport you definitely to the centre of the action, the sense of smell. So why not go a step forward with SMELLIT?

SMELLIT can make you drool, like when you see that Chef taking a hot and crispy pizza from the oven. Or make you turn your head and wish you can take that “putrefaction” cartridge out of the smell board. Are you ready to feel the smell?

How it works:
*Depending how far you are from the SMELLIT.

SMELLIT works just like your printer, but instead of ink cartridges, it works with smell cartridges. As your DVD player reads the video and sound information from your favourite DVD disc, SMELLIT processes the same DVD, but the ”smell CARD” decodes all the smell information from 10 to 20 seconds* ahead of the actual scene so the odours have time to reach the spectators. After decoding the smell information, the cartridge vaporizes a very small amount off concentrated “smell gel”, and the central fan distributes equally the smell in all directions. It can be loaded with 118 cartridges, each one with a different concentrated “smell gel”. All the cartridges can be easily changed and last 3 times more than a regular ink cartridge.

Bebe Stores has launched its highly anticipated new fragrance in all U.S. bebe stores. Thanks to a partnership with Milwaukee-based Prolitec, the sensuous new “signature” scent now wafts through select areas of bebe’s stores via the Air/Q(TM) Adjustable Room Air Freshener(TM) — a miniaturized and fully programmable version of Prolitec’s ambient-scenting technology, which is already in use at many of the world’s finest hotels, resorts and spas.

“Rather than scenting the entire store, bebe is using Air/Q to scent specific in-store areas, such as those around the luxurious visual displays that introduce the new fragrance,” explained Roger Bensinger, Prolitec’s Executive Vice President of Marketing and Business Development. “This allows bebe to marry its visual marketing efforts with the olfactory experience of the fragrance itself — a very powerful combination.”

“With Prolitec’s innovative scenting machines strategically placed in our stores, clients will experience an immediate emotional connection to the scent,” commented Manny Mashouf, Chairman & CEO, bebe stores, inc. “This is a terrific way to reveal our new undeniably feminine fragrance in a subtle yet sensual manner and, based on initial results, we are encouraged by the overwhelming response.”

The retailer licensed the new fragrance through France’s Inter Parfums, Inc. (Nasdaq GS: IPAR), which collaborates with noted designers such as Francis Kurkdjian to manufacture and distribute prestige perfumes and cosmetics for the likes of Burberry, Paul Smith, S.T. Dupont and Van Cleef & Arpels.

Related Link: http://www.prolitec.com

What the Nose Knows by Avery Gilbert We humans can recognise around 10,000 different smells, with the blind being even more sensitive, and smokers substantially less. Or at least, that’s what we believe: in reality, those are among the many myths and exploded by Gilbert in this wide-ranging review. But he does more than merely debunk: he shows how, for example, scent has the ability to influence us even when we can’t consciously detect it.

Oddly, however, there’s nothing on one of the great mysteries of scent science: how air fresheners work. Published by Crown Publishers, £16.99; T price £14.99 plus £1.25 p&p – A psychologist and scent scientist, Dr Gilbert has carried out pioneering research into the sense of smell, and now runs his own scent consultancy.