Scent Marketing - How It Increases Sales And Brand Loyalty

5 Companies That Use Scent Marketing Effectively

Did you know that companies can also target a person’s sense of smell to market their products and convince people to buy what they’re selling? It’s called scent marketing, which is a strategy that centres around the use of particular smells to entice customers. Businesses utilize scent diffusers, fragrances, or even aromatics in the food they serve to hijack your sense of smell. If this is the first time you’re reading about this, then read on to learn what scent marketing is all about.


What is Scent Marketing?

Various smells can convey different messages to a person. For businesses, it helps them convey their brand’s theme and value by communicating subliminally to customers. These brands know exactly what smell suits the particular demographic they’re targeting. To the uninitiated, it’s nothing but a smell that seems familiar to their senses. In reality, these potential customers associate the things they smell with a particular feeling or brand.

In simpler terms, scent marketing is the process of using one’s scent for the whole experience. This stems from the fact that everything people see, hear, feel, smell or taste completes whatever it is they are currently experiencing.


The Different Types of Scent Marketing

There are four different types of scent marketing utilized by marketers, brands, businesses, and corporations. These four types are quite effective in what they do, depending on how they are executed. The four types of scent marketing are as follows:

  • Aroma Billboards - Whenever a company associates a bold, noticeable scent with its brand, they utilize an aroma billboard for their scent marketing. Usually, companies will use the same scent on all of their branches.

  • Thematic Smells - This is a more subtle type of scent that you’ll find in spas. They basically use scents that are relevant and can be easily identified with the type of business using them.

  • Ambient Smells - If you notice malls having the same pleasant and almost unnoticeable scent, then they’re using ambient scents. These are very subtle and are often used to cover up any foul odors and make people feel good when they enter a particular area.

  • Signature Smells - Many retail establishments and designer stores use a signature scent on all their locations. This is usually what perfume brands do as it evokes certain feelings in people who smell those signature scents.

  • Famous Brands Using Scent Marketing

    To better understand just how scent marketing works, here are a couple of examples of companies utilizing scent marketing as part of their strategy to entice potential customers:


  • Starbucks - That particular aroma of freshly brewed coffee you smell whenever you pass by this famous coffee shop is no coincidence. Starbucks is probably the most renowned abuser of scent marketing in every single branch that they have.

  • Cinnabon - Cinnabon is known for that rich sweet smell with a hint of cinnamon that you all know and love. To some people, it’s their first encounter with what cinnamon smells like.

  • Abercrombie & Fitch - A&F is also notorious for using a signature scent that is completely noticeable in every store you visit. The smell is quite difficult to describe, but if you’ve ever been inside one of their stores, you’ll know exactly what we’re talking about.

  • Lush - brands like Lush centre their marketing efforts around the use of scent marketing. They have specialized boutiques that have their own unique collection of scents.

  • Cineplex and Movie Houses - While this is not a company, in particular, movie houses are also known to utilize scent marketing to entice their customers to buy tickets and watch a movie.

  • Conclusion

    From sports stadiums and coffee shops to medical offices and malls, scent marketing today is being used to tap into customers’ emotions on a deeper level. These scents and odors are designed to appeal to those emotions so that people can have an overall great experience.

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