It’s long been known that there is a strong connection between our sense of smell, or olfactory system, and our memory and emotions. This is because it is connected directly to the emotional part of the brain, bypassing the intellectual and logical parts of the brain. More and more companies are now harnessing this connection as part of their marketing strategies.
Ambient scent marketing is the practise of adding or diffusing scent into the buying environment, to create an emotional link to the products we’re browsing.
This additional emotional connection is said to have helped numerous businesses grow their sales revenues significantly.
According to business.com, consumers are often overwhelmed by the volume of visual messages they’re presented with, so by including scent in your marketing mix, you can boost ROI.
The benefits of scent
As well as increased sales, there are many benefits to adding a scent to your shopping environment, such as adding a perception of quality, creating a pleasant environment and a memorable shopping experience as well as differentiating your brand from others.
Research also shows that by stimulating more than three senses at any one time with brand messages, you can increase your brand’s impact by up to 70%.
Creating your olfactory brand
As with all brand elements, any scent should be carefully chosen so that it properly represents your brand values, colour schemes and target audience.
Getting started adding scent to your own marketing mix can be a daunting task, but companies such as http://moodmedia.co.uk/scent-marketing-for-business/ can help. As well as creating your own scent, your store or sales space will need to be rigged up with the correct equipment to diffuse the scent through the space. If you don’t feel that you have the budget to create your own custom scent, many companies can also provide a variety of existing fragrances.
While getting it right may take some time and careful consideration, it’s clear that the benefits are well worth the effort. So, whether you manage a retail store, shopping centre, car dealership, hair salon, hotel or restaurant, adding scent to your marketing strategy is worth investigating, if you want to stand out in today’s competitive marketplace. Of course, until such time as computers and smartphones are able to emit scent, it’s one way your business can steal a march over online retailers.
