It's becoming increasingly common for retail stores to infuse their products and locations with specific scents designed to keep customers coming back for more. Employees at Abercrombie and Fitch are tasked with spraying their signature cologne throughout the store, while Cinnabon bakes sheets coated with cinnamon and brown sugar to maintain the strong scent that they are known for. Even supermarkets have started the practice of pumping the artificial aromas of chocolate and freshly baked bread throughout their stores (Peterson, 2014).
While our other senses such as sight or touch are initially processed through the analytical part of our brain, the sense of smell is processed by the limbic system; the area of our brain that is linked to memory, emotion, and perception (AirEsscentials, 2015). This is particularly appealing to marketers, as they can create an immediate emotional reaction in a potential customer, and potentially influence them to spend more money. Studies have shown that “customers will spend 40% more time in an area of a retail store scented with a specific scent over an odour-free area” (AirEsscentials, 2015).
With this knowledge in hand, marketers have turned to companies like AirQ or Scent Air, who create brand specific fragrances, and then provide the mechanics to release the scent out and into the store through the ceiling (Smiley, 2014).
Evidently, scent leads to profit, the same way produce departments of grocery stores attract more customers by organizing fruits and vegetables in a neat and tidy manner – and they sell, really well. The same way Apple and Samsung have created their new mobile devices of the generation (cue iPhones and Galaxies) to appeal to the general public by making them sleek and shiny. Examples, such as the latter, are what fuels customers to purchase these things. If it’s appealing to the eye, it will sell. Obviously, Cinnabon has taken the appealing-to-the-nose approach, and it is working just the same.
Questions
1. Do you personally find this to be an effective method of marketing?
2. Should scent marketing be limited to food retailers and restaurants only, or would you like to see it in all areas of consumer advertising?
3. What other techniques do food retailers use to attract customers? Are they as effective as scent marketing?
References Used:
http://www.airesscentials.com/marketing/scent-branding
http://www.businessinsider.com/how-stores-lure-customers-with-scents-2014-5
http://adage.com/article/cmo-strategy/smell-money-marketers-sell-scent/296084/
