With today’s mass-produced and affordable perfumes, opting for a custom ambient fragrance may be considered old-fashioned, if not extravagant. Why should a company put so much effort into creating a signature scent for its stores or offices?
Well, for once, the average person is exposed to up to 5,000 ads a day and it’s becoming increasingly difficult to get customers to remember a brand. Forget the visual and audio dimensions of advertising – the more immediate forms of sensory marketing are the way to go. People are 100 times more likely to remember something if they can associate an olfactory sensation with it. And there’s no risk of overcrowding: olfactory recall can extend up to 10,000 different odors.
Let’s dive deeper into the invisible but influential world of scent marketing.
Olfactory logo: the power of scent marketing
If you want people to really connect with your brand, you need an olfactory logo – an unspoken statement of who you are and what values and unique characteristics you pride yourself on. Besides being a sensory enhancement of your company’s personality, scent has some proven effects:
- it improves the perception of product quality and recognition;
- it boosts the willingness to pay more for a product;
- it increases purchase intent, average unit sales and duration of a retail visit or stay.
A signature scent has the ability to form immediate, powerful and differentiated emotional connections with customers. Its positive effects spread consistently across every industry.
The fine art of scent development: how to make your own fragrance
The first step to create your signature scent is identifying the feeling you want to evoke in your customers. You need to define your unique promise, brand personality, tone of voice, values, and the overall emotions: without a clear idea of your identity and your business goals, your olfactory logo will be less effective. Then you have to flip perspectives and transfer your brand identity on to them: how do you want your customers to feel?
Secondly, you need to choose a reputable fragrance manufacturer, who’s able to listen to your branding concerns and understands your business goals. A master perfumer alone isn’t enough: what makes the difference is a combination of a scent strategist’s skill to interpret a brand through the olfactory lens and the creativity of a specialized perfumer to create the right composition. You’ll have to ask yourself questions like:
- What’s my target audience and how do I want them to feel when they come into contact with me?
- Do I want the ambient fragrance to be a form of greeting or a scent that envelops my entire space?
- Do I want it to be at play around the clock or only during certain hours?
- Do I just need a backdrop or am I looking for a more obvious and identifiable statement?
The answers to these questions will also help you determine the ideal location for the scent diffuser to suit your needs.
Perfume Experimental Hub: perfume workshops by Scent Company
If at this point you’re fascinated by the world of fragrance creation and want to get involved firsthand, Scent Company is the right Company to consult. Its Perfume Experiemental Hub combines the experience of a leading company in the olfactory branding field, and the expertise of Italian and French perfume masters to help you design your own perfume.
A space to learn, experiment and practise the art of perfumery, Scent Company’s Experimental Hub helps you connect with your clients through all the senses and transform your stores in multi-sensory experiences. All sorts of workshops and events are offered, including:
- live events with master perfumers to design your olfactory logo;
- private appointments with fragrance specialists to create a tailored scent;
- group workshops and lectures to discover the art of perfumery.
All events can be organized at your location or at a perfume laboratory in Grasse, the world capital of perfume, or Florence, the city that brought the culture of perfume to the world.
