Table of Contents:
- Creating a positive customer experience
- Creating Brand Identity and Differentiation
- Considerations
Fragrance scenting has been used for hundreds of years by spice traders to increase and influence customer interaction.
In the past 20 years the gaming and entertainment industry has used fragrance scenting as a way to enhance the customer experience and create positive memory association to drive repeat visits.
The power of scent has been recognized by leading brands and many use it to create brand identity and differentiation. Brands such as BMW, Audi, Porsche, Zegna, Ritz Carlton and many other high-end brands have adopted fragrance scenting as an integral part of their branding and marketing strategy.
Creating a positive customer experience
The idea of using fragrance scenting as a strategy is not just to create a great smell or a memorable experience, but to produce a consistent and high-quality in-store experience that helps customers make buying decision.
Consider how a leading brand such as Zegna Menswear used in-store fragrance to enhance the mood of their in-store sales associates which translated into increased sales conversion. The positive sensory and cognitive effect of the scent impacted both the customers and front-line sales associates.
It is also important to remember and understand that the way your customers make decisions should directly impact your scent selection and deployment approach. Paying attention to your customer demographics, customer behaviors, preferences on how they interact with your products or services and applying this information in scent selection and deployment approach.
For example, you’ll notice that most high-end hotels and dealerships keep in-store temperatures cool and fragrance selection light and radiant. The intent is to evoke thoughts of modern, sophisticated but also feelings of warmth and embrace or welcome. The scent, the product, the environment all creates a feeling of luxury and energy to act, move, to have fun.
When working with a very famous, high-end men’s cigar bar in New York City, we had to select an organic scent that associated with Cashmere, Musk and masculine elegance but also created a feeling that time is suspended in a cozy, chill lounge – the feeling that you’re in the right place and in no hurry to leave. In this case, having a light, fruity and radiant fragrance would not complement the place or evoke the right feelings. Furthermore, we had to consider where and how the scent would be deployed. We decide that the scent would be best deployed at the entrance to the lounge, and deployed through a time-controlled diffuser, to avoid overpowering the lounge, as would have been the case if it was deployed through the HVAC system.
Creating Brand Identity and Differentiation
We have worked with some of the leading brands to create a unique scent that articulates what the Brand wished to stand for. The scent of the physical location for any business plays a subtle yet very significant role.
The scent can set the tone of voice, the look and feel and the context of the environment. When employed correctly, it can amplify the brands familiarity and recognition, and convey emotional responses and feelings and elicit other responses, such as fun, playful, happiness, curiosity and confidence.
Like all of the brand identity elements, scent has to be shaped by the brand personality. Think ahead to the response you’re aiming to provoke. Keep your focus on the audience, your clients or customers, not on your personal preference. Think about to whom you’re reaching out and what is the message you wish to convey. Think about the tone of the scent, what scent will best express this message and do it in the right tone. And lastly, think about the intended outcome – what do you want your audience to feel: the need to act, relax, get lost in thought and space. In the end, the scent needs to be positive, memorable and recognizable.
Considerations
Selecting the right scent for your business is not an easy task. It is almost like writing a song. The lyrics form to the instruments, the notes and rhythm have to form to the lyrics. And when it all fits, you not only hear it, but you also feel it!
My team and I take 3 key elements into consideration:
- The nature of the business and target customers. This is the foundation to scent selection and design. The customer demographics will shape the tone, color and overall composition of the scent.
- The message. As with the profile of the customer, the intended message is the second critical element, and as outlined above, we start with what we intend to convey and how we want our customers to feel.
- The physical space and scent delivery. In many ways, the delivery approach becomes critical to ensure the right amount of the scent, in the right space and at the right time is deployed. Overpowering the ambiance with the scent will produce undesired counter effects.
If you wish to know more … please reach out to us.
