10: The Sweet Smell of Brand Success
View the warning on the contents page regarding "facts" presented by this author.
Of the five senses, smell is most often ignored or taken for granted, yet it is recognized as the most powerful of the group. Neurologically, the sense of smell has a direct link to the limbic lobe of the brain, where resides the "emotional control center" and is reckoned to be the most immediate and effective way of triggering emotional responses via sensory input.
Scent is also reckoned to have a strong association to specific memories. The author suggests "there is much evidence" that people recall smells with 65% accuracy after a year or more, which is significantly better than visual recall, which drops to 50% after only about three months. There is even evidence that a certain aroma can evoke a past memory in great detail, and evoke the same emotional response even before the conscious mind recognizes the connection.
Aside of food-oriented products where scent is an inherent part of the product on offer, few companies are slow to use, or even acknowledge the effectiveness of, scent in the customer experience. Only a handful of companies have done so - for example, the athletic-shoe retailed uses a "new sneaker" scent in direct-mail and event advertising campaigns and certain auto manufacturers seek to enhance the "new car smell" that customers have come to recognize by name.
The author also mentions the scent branding used by a handful of hotel chains. In particular, the Westin hotel chain used air freshener of a "white tea" fragrance that was popular enough that it began selling a range of "White Tea by Westin" products, such as scented candles and popourri, that feature the aroma.
Another example of olfactory branding is Singapore Airlines, which used a specific perfume in the cabins and on the towels given to passengers. There is the mention of the awards the airline has won in terms of customer experience, but there is no clear link to scent.
Scent does not necessarily need to be pleasant to be effective. One example is the T-Rex exhibit at the London National History Museum, for which the museum allegedly commissioned an aroma specialist to come up with a fragrance that suggested the smell of the animal that combined the odor of rotten meat, blood, and infected wounds, released whenever the robotic creature opened its mouth. Ultimately, the museum felt the smell was too offensive and opted instead to recreate the swampy, boggy musk of the creature's natural environment. (EN: sounds like an urban legend, but I found reference to it on the Web site of the consultant they hired.)
Defining your brand's smell
The examples above refer to large corporations, with the financial resources to hire a consulting firm to experiment and test aromas and to patent a unique scent. The author suggests that with a little knowledge of the psychology of specific odors, you can simply fo the job yourself, to create a scent that is note entirely unique, but not identical to an off-the-shelf product, that becomes an olfactory brand.
(EN: Curiously, he doesn't suggest hiring a student or an amateur aromatherapies to do the work, as he does with logos and jingles. Since I generally regard aromatherapy to be so much pish and nonsense, I'm reluctant to contradict him, but it stands to reason that if you buy into the notion that scent has specific meaning, you might as well go whole hog and seek someone who has, or has reason to claim to have, experience and expertise.)
The author then provides a brief table of aroma "moods": Vanilla is relaxing, pine is stimulating, lavender is soothing, etc. There are likely more comprehensive references.
Scent environment
The environment of a business that customers encounter often smells like nothing at all, or worse, something accidental and unpleasant. Given that the typical scent of a workplace is a blend of industrial cleaning fluids, the lingering stink of burnt popcorn from a nearby breakroom, body odor, or the smell emanating from a nearby lavatory, having a controlled and pleasant scent is a mark of distinction that will be noticed.
The author also provides the example of charity thrift shops, where used clothing is sold to raise funds for a nonprofit. Most of the items have not been adequately washed since they were last worn, and even those that have give off a wide array of chemical odors - not to mention that thee clothes may be stored for long periods of time in damp and musty places. The shops in the UK are particularly well-known for being foul smelling places.
If nothing else, a purposeful pleasant fragrance can help to mask the undesirable scent that arises from accidental circumstance.
The obvious locations where scent can and should be controlled are customer service areas: sales floors and showrooms. The lobby or reception area, waiting areas, guest bathroom, offices where the customer might be invited, are also areas where scent matters. Exhibition booths are another example.
Scenting the product
The author goes on a bit of a meander (literally flipping through the yellow pages and daydreaming how certain categories of business might incorporate scent into their product or service), but arrives at the conclusion that there are very few products or services that could not benefit from an "aromatic makeover."
Companies whose product itself emanates an aroma that is intended to be pleasant such as restaurants and floral shops, can likely be carried by the inherent scent of their product, with unpleasant detractors controlled or contailed.
Those whose product does not have a particular scent, such as most retail stores, can use scent in the environment to enhance the experience.
Others, whose environment has an inherently unpleasant odor, such as butchers' shops and waste disposal, can take measures to mask or reduce the smell of their business.
Even those who do not bring the customer into the operation, such as catalog merchants whose goods are shipped, can include scent in their packing materials. The alternative is the chemical smell of paper and adhesives and the lingering scent of their warehouse.
Even service companies, who have no physical product, have an opportunity to create a brand scent. They either bring the customer into a controlled environment to receive a service, such as dentists or travel agents, and others send an employee to the customer's home.
Especially where employees are concerned, scent matters. Most firms consider require personal hygiene to be sufficient - to avoid smelling bad - but a few attempt to create a common scent that is associated to the brand rather than the individual employee. Singapore airlines is a noted example: their staff were provided a perfume or cologne to ensure not only that they smelled pleasant, but that they also smelled the same - such that the smell of their employees wasn't associated to a specific person, but common to all employees a customer might encounter.
Aromatic publicity and promotions
Scent can also be used in promotional materials. The concept of a perfumed letter is familiar for personal correspondence, but it can also be leveraged by business.
This has been common for fragrance manufacturers - to include a sample scent in a promotion or even a scent strip in a magazine advertisement. (EN: I think that may have been largely discontinued - a fashion magazine filled with perfumed ads had a collective stink, and no single aroma could be distinguished from the others).
The practice can also be leveraged by other businesses: the scent of baby powder, pipe tobacco, grass, and virtually any other scent can be concocted and used to scent direct-mail pieces and catalogs. It may not be the scent of the product itself, but it can be a scent that is closely associated to it.
The author pauses to consider the emerging channels of Internet and mobile: scent is inaccessible there, but there are experiments under way by companies that consider aroma-enhanced Web sites to be the next "big idea."
(EN: Could be the author was taken in by a site some years ago that was entirely parody, but doubtless someone, somewhere is seriously working on it. I can't agree it's going to happen, soon or ever, as the cost of equipment and supplies, consumer resistance to having some firm smell up their home or office, and a number of other factors - besides the fact that it is an inherently stupid idea - are likely to be effectively prohibitive.)
Of importance is that the use of scent should not be occasional or accidental, experimenting periodically with different scents for various mailings, but consistent and constant for all.
Delivering the smell
The author pauses to consider some of the technology that can be used to deliver a scent.
In a physical environment, it's actually quite simple. There are many physical objects that exude a natural scent (cedar wood, flowers, spices, etc.) as well as chemical products that are made specifically to exude aromas (air freshener, incense, scented candles).
Including sachets or containers of fragrance is effective, but highly expensive. However, the use of "scratch and sniff" (S&S) technology in the 1970's, there was a way to impregnate ink with scent.
One drawback is that, as scent is a chemical phenomenon, it is short-lived: once the surface is scratched, the aroma is released, and it is gone. While it's not once-and-done, it does have a limited number of uses and a limited shelf life. They're working on it, but it's likely progress will extend the lifespan, but it will not become infinite.
(EN: Another drawback is that it requires the reader to undertake an action - they do not experience the aroma unless they scratch and smell the paper. Another drawback is that the technology, while significantly improved over the years, has yet to get fragrances quite right. A S&S recreation of the scent of a cookie doesn't smell exactly like the original cookie, but a distorted and muted scent that is something like it, combined with a sort of melted-plastic aroma.)
One interesting use of the technology, which has nothing to do with marketing but is nonetheless ingenious, was by a natural gas provider that gave customers a sense of the chemical they added to (odorless) gas so it could be sensed, the message being "if you smell something like this, you may have a gas leak."
Your personal scent
A common question asked of the author is whether a personal signature scent should be used. The previous example of Singapore airlines suggests it is a good idea, but considering the cultural differences between east and west, with westerners being both more individualistic and anything to do with the body is a sensitive topic, it's highly likely employees may be offended by the suggestion they wear a particular perfume, and refuse to comply. It may be an issue of harassment or discrimination even to mention an employee's personal scent.
For staff that have no direct contact with customers, it's definitely a dangerous topic to approach - but companies have better justification for addressing the matter with those in contact positions. It makes more sense, and is less a matter of singling anyone out, to suggest that it's part of customer experience to have a consistent scent rather than conflicting individual aromas.
For professionals who consider scent to be important, and wish to make a personal choice, it's less of a political matter. It's common sense that other people, both customers in the business setting and individuals in private life, notice and react to personal scent, and we want that reaction to be positive.
Certain aromas give specific impressions: you may wish to tailor your personal scent to give a sense of power and authority, delicateness and beauty, or any combination of emotions.
(EN: one other thing worth mentioning is that commercial perfumes are worn by many people, and the associations to them may carry over to others who wear the same fragrance. For example, the scent "Polo" cologne and the odor of Dial soap are both associated with the lowest ranks of the working class.)
And as in other branding elements, consistency is as important as pleasantness: if you choose a specific aroma and use it constantly, the scent of it will remind people of yourself and the feelings they have about you - just as they remember the scent of a person who is close to them, and take comfort in it.
Use scents and aromas with care
While fragrance can be used to create a positive impression, too strong of an aroma creates a negative impression, even if the scent itself is not unpleasant. Also, there is some insistence that certain odors can trigger allergic reactions and asthma attacks. The research into this has been inconclusive, but there has been at least one incident in which an advertising campaign was squelched by local government: am industry group placed scented posters at bus stops in San Francisco.
While the objections to scent are tenuous, it should still be a concern for a brand that wishes to make a positive impression and avoid unwanted attention from the media. As such, consider where scent is appropriate, be subtle rather than overpowering, and consider whether it can be made optional, such that those who prefer to avoid it may do so.