Will attractive aromas spritzed in the air be able to save bookstores? According to an article by Robert Klara (@UpperEastRob) in Adweek (@Adweek), a growing trend among diverse businesses (including retail, hotels, funeral homes, retirement villages, medical and law offices) is secretly scenting the air customers breathe to get them to buy more.
At a time when brands have already fine-tuned everything from their store color palettes to employee dress codes to the music thumping through the speakers, scent — the sole remaining sense that can directly influence how a customer regards a brand — is becoming an increasingly important instrument in the marketer’s toolbox. Given that smell is the most powerful and emotional of all the senses, the bigger surprise might be that it’s taken brands this long to wake up to smell’s potential.
...Environmental psychologist Eric Spangenberg of Washington State University says, “The technology has advanced to the level where anyone can do it.”
...Brands want their customers to be in such environments because, as research has shown, even a few microparticles of scent can do a lot of marketing’s heavy lifting, from improving consumer perceptions of quality to increasing the number of store visits.
...Brands that use the technology have a singular aim: to put people in the mood to spend. “Pleasant, subtle scents lift our moods and impact buying behavior,” says Donna Sturgess (@donnasturgess), president of Buyology (@BuyologyInc), a neurological marketing firm based in New York. Brands that have found the right ambient scent, she says, “have seen results as high as double-digit increases in brand preference.”
Also see our previous blogpost, “Life-Like Mannequins Inspire Real-Life Shoppers.”
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