From clothes to cars to banks, brands seek to distinguish throughcommercial scent diffuser

From clothes to cars to banks, brands seek to distinguish through commercial scent diffuser

 

Lincoln's showroom scent evokes "luxury and warmth." There are some smells - warm biscuits, fresh cut grass, salty air - evoke powerful memories that can alternately make people feel comfortable and satisfied, energetic or just happy

 

As brands continue to seek innovative ways to differentiate themselves, fragrance marketing is becoming another tool in its arsenal. If there is no music to play, you won’t walk into a well-known retailer today. But this is not the case 15 or 20 years ago.

 

You can walk into a beautifully designed space, and if it smells bad, it will become meaningless.

 

Although the root of odor marketing is odor control - think about the offices of smoked casinos and medical doctors - retail, hotels, car dealerships and financial services are all looking to better define the brand through fragrance. Odor experts believe that odor is more and more intense than visual or auditory cues, because odor is the only sensation directly related to the limbic system of the brain, which accommodates emotion and memory.

 

 A study conducted in the 2013 Global Business and Management Perspectives magazine showed that environmental odors have the greatest impact on consumer behavior in terms of mood, assessment, willingness to return to the store, and willingness to buy.

 

Jennifer Dublino, vice president of development at ScentWorld, a global non-profit organization, estimates that the perfume marketing industry has an annual growth rate of 15% and global revenues of about $300 million.

 

A few years ago, retailers began working with ScentHope to better deploy fragrance. The delivery system is mounted on the ceiling and powered by track lighting. “They have promised to use fragrance as part of a multi-sensory experience,” Mr. Bensinger said. “We just help them deliver it in a more consistent and safer way.”

 

For marketers, you can work with companies like ScentHope or competitors to attach brand attributes and adjectives to certain fragrances, such as citrus, vanilla or floral.“It’s like a translation marketing language,” says Mr. Bensinger, noting that there are 80 adjectives available to marketers. “It allows companies to define themselves rather than relying on the subjectivity of sales people. It makes it more scalable.”

 

Just as ScentHope did for JW Marriott, you can also create a fragrance from scratch. Edward Burke, director of marketing and communications at ScentHope, described a fragrance called Subtle Sophistication - a soft, refreshing citrus. “This is not the most important thing,” Mr. Burke said. “For business travelers, this may be as much as a vacationer.”

 

According to Mitzi Gaskins, head of global branding at JW Marriott, this fragrance is as important as music, lighting and plant elements in creating the right mood. Smell fans can even take it home - sell a subtle delicate candle on the CuratedByJW website.

 

At the Ocean Bank of 21 branches in Broward and Dade County, Fla., senior management conducted a scent test on Sensory Max and then identified a fragrance called Ocean Blue for its branch. Market director Cheryl Rees said the bank is exploring a scented checkbook cover and pen.

 

Ford Motor Company's Lincoln brand is undergoing a rebranding effort and is looking for an iconic fragrance to enhance its brand identity with its customers. Its signature Lincoln fragrance, designed by SensoryMax and perfumer Rene Morgenthaler, can be used on perfume cards across the country and dispersed through the ventilation system of the selected showroom. According to news reports, the fragrance "exudes luxury and warmth", including the smell of green tea, "to promote high-end happiness", and jasmine and tonka, "to create a relaxed atmosphere."

 

Lincoln Experience Training Manager Dennis Carnevale said in a statement, "Although each feeling can play a role in shaping the customer's perception of the experience, the relationship between smell and memory and emotion is most closely related.

 

The essence of Lincoln is the subtle but powerful tool our dealers use to help customers build emotional connections with their stores and the Lincoln brand. ”