Scent marketing
In marketing , fragrance marketing refers to all measures that, with the aid of fragrances , are used to increase sales of products , strengthen customer loyalty or increase the value of a brand . By changing the actual room odor, a manipulation of the sense of smell (or of people and their emotionally guided decisions) is carried out.
Scent marketing not only includes the odorous substances inherent in the product, but above all the scenting of sales rooms using appropriate room scenting devices. The business environment is also increasingly being scented in order to attract potential customers to the sales area. The use of close-range scenting on sales counters / shelves that indicate a product is also referred to as scent marketing (e.g. the scent of hot pizza near the corresponding frozen product). After all, the integration of scents in printed matter and magazines as a scent tab or "scent-to-rub" is a well-known form of scent marketing.
Another possibility to use fragrance as part of marketing is to extend it to corporate communication . Specialized companies develop so-called CS fragrances (Corporate Scent) as part of the CI ( Corporate Identity ) for brands or companies .
Fragrances can be used subliminally or in a consciously perceptible way. Depending on the area of application, one or the other is recommended. As soon as one becomes aware of a scent, inter-individual differences between different people immediately appear, which in turn means that they react differently to it. This phenomenon is due to the close connection between smells and memories. Olfactory stimuli get straight into the limbic system . The hippocampus (memory center) is also involved in this first processing stage .
If you want to avoid these inter-individual differences, you use fragrances in such a way that they never penetrate your consciousness. This allows us to make targeted use of the effects of various fragrances without going into each individual person personally (which would of course be impossible). In the meantime, numerous studies show which fragrances have which effects. Lavender has a calming and stress-relieving effect, and citrus fragrances promote concentration. Certain herbal or “forest” scents even have an antiseptic effect, which increases the germ count in the air, e.g. T. considerably reduced. These are all findings that we naturally make use of in our daily work with fragrances. Much more valuable, however, are the empirical values that have now accumulated over the past two decades.
For products and brands you can easily use scents that are consciously perceptible. If a product smells like what it is, this can definitely be an advantage. Under certain circumstances, the product wins the attention of the consumer and they then deal with it more intensively, which increases the likelihood of a purchase, but also the memory and recognition performance. You can also make use of certain, learned associations. Many people associate the smell of cinnamon with beautiful Christmas memories. If you want to take the risk that a few people will react negatively to it, this type of fragrance is perfectly fine.
Brands can also benefit from these "scent memory" associations. No typical fragrances are used, but new ones are created. This with the aim that “their” scent is used in places where people experience positive emotions in the interaction with the specific brand. These emotions are then immediately associated with the scent, which later serves as a kind of "trigger" for the positive memories / emotions. In addition, the "right" scent gives a company the opportunity to differentiate itself and express its identity on a further level (in addition to the visual and the auditory logo). The latter in turn leads to better recognition and memory performance and higher (emotional) customer loyalty.
The simplification and generalization of individual findings is also increasingly criticized in this marketing method. Scientists at Le Moyne College in Syracuse, for example, found that silhouettes from men to women are more likely to be perceived as feminine when scented with lemon and more masculine when scented onions, from which it could be concluded that men should surround themselves with an onion scent. Further studies were able to find out that certain fragrances not only promote sales one-sided, but can also have a sales-inhibiting effect. Scientists from the Belgian Hasselt University have shown that the smell of chocolate in bookstores led to an increase in sales of romance novels, but at the same time to a decrease in sales of crime novels and thrillers, so that total sales did not increase at all.
Just like optical stimuli, olfactory stimuli or scents can also be used specifically for marketing purposes. In this way, smells reach the limbic system directly through the nose, where they can have a major influence on a person's behavior. With regard to marketing, influencing the willingness to communicate and buy as well as the length of stay is of particular importance.
literature
- Patrick Hehn: Emotional brand management with fragrance: Fragrance effects on the perception and assessment of brands . 1st edition. Research Forum , 2006, ISBN 3-937411-23-2
- Hans Knoblich , Andreas Scharf, Bernd Schubert: Marketing with fragrance . 4th edition. Oldenbourg, 2003, ISBN 3-486-24828-6
- Jan E. Rempel: Olfactory stimuli in brand communication . 1st edition. Gabler, 2006, ISBN 3-8350-0581-2
- Martin Lindstrom: Brand Sense: Build Powerful Brands Through Touch, Taste, Smell, Sight, and Sound . Free Pr. 2005, ISBN 0-7432-6784-2
- Scent marketing. In: FAZ , October 17, 2006
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Günter Gerhardt: Scents: Advertising with scents - manipulation with the primordial instinct
- ↑ Eva Beermann: With berry scent to catch customers. In: FAZ.net. October 17, 1006, accessed March 9, 2014 .
- ^ A b Johannes Baldauf: Scent Marketing. IUE Hochschule Basel, June 18, 2020, accessed on June 19, 2020 (German).
- ↑ Tom König: Scent Marketing: The Smell of Despair. In: Spiegel Online. Retrieved March 8, 2014 .
- ↑ Scent Marketing - How Seductive Are We? , January 29, 2010, accessed March 24, 2019.