A query about companies using odors such as chocolate chip cookies and baking bread in marketing campaigns came in over the transom the other day and I thought to answer it here. The specifics of the query were "...how companies use smell in their marketing campaigns. What products do they use: scented candles, lip balm, scent cannons, scratch n' sniff cards, etc.? Are they drawing customers into retail locations with alluring scents like apple pie or chocolate chip cookies? How can scent, the most powerful of the five senses, be used to evoke positive emotions about a company?
I'm not sure I'll concede that the sense of smell is the most powerful of the senses (and by the way, people who attended my eMetrics presentations know that we have more than five senses) and I will agree that our sense of smell is one of the most primitive senses.
The real question to me is "How will companies deal with an intentional triggering of one of the most primitive sensory systems, one which doesn't directly pass information to the higher cognitive centers that sight and hearing do?" A follow up question is "How will companies deal with the extreme cultural and ethnic differences prevalent in a polyglot society such as the USA, GB, AU or western Europe (forget worrying about specific countries)?"
These are much greater concerns to me. Some odors are so cultural that one group finds them erotic and the other offensive. A general rule of thumb is to stay away from primitive emotional stimuli in the aggregate, use it in the singular. It's fine to ask someone if they'd mind sniffing something or having a taste of something, the concern is when a location with no other environmental cues uses a specific odor. Imagine shopping for clothes and smelling bread baking. Confusion ensues. However, being in a bakery and smelling fresh bread? My mouth's already watering.
This is not to say that scent based marketing doesn't work, only that 1) the cues need to match the environment to be effective and 2) highly generalized odors are better than specific odor complexes.
Please contact NextStage for information regarding presentations and trainings on this and other topics.
Links for this post:
- A Natural History of the Senses
- Deciphering the Senses: The Expanding World of Human Perception
- F. Gonzales-Crussi, The Five Senses, ISBN 0-15-131398-9
- DC Emetrics Summit on 14-17 Oct '07
- Society for New Communications Research Annual Research Symposium & Awards Gala on 5-6 Dec 07 in Boston.
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