Close your eyes for a moment and think of the
smell of freshly baked bread – what does that wonderful warm smell remind you
of? Perhaps it takes you back in time to your childhood, to Sunday mornings when
you used to walk down to the corner bakery to buy a fresh loaf dusted with
flour.
In the same way that an everyday aroma can
instantly take us to another place and time in our minds and remind us of people
and places, so too is it possible to associate your brand with an aroma in the
minds of your customers and clients.
Aromas have the ability to build powerful brand
recognition, quickly. In his book, Brand Sense, Martin Lindstroem says,
‘Seventy-five percent of the emotions we generate on a daily basis are affected
by smell…Next to sight, it's the most important sense we have’.
Dr Eric Spangenberg, Dean of the College of
Business and Economics at Washington State University, ran a test in a clothing
store in the Pacific Northwest of the US to determine how scent affected
customers by gender. He diffused the subtle smell of vanilla in the women's
department and rose maroc (a spicy, honey-like fragrance) in the men's. When he
examined the cash-register tapes, he found that receipts almost doubled on the
days when the scents were used. However, when he reversed the scents (diffusing
vanilla with the men and rose maroc with the women) customers spent less than
average. ‘You can't just use a pleasant scent and expect it to work,’ he says,
‘it has to be congruent’. That is, the fragrance has to make sense with the
product or environment it's supposed to enhance: ‘When you go into Starbucks,
you don't expect to smell lemon-scented Pledge’.
Whether your company operates retail stores,
hotels or corporate offices aromatic branding can give you the edge. Here’s how
aromatic branding works:
• Our sense of smell is our most acute sense. We
take in more information, more quickly and retain it for longer through smell
than we do through any other sense.
• Our sense of smell interacts with the limbic
system in the brain, where memories are linked to aromas. We’ve all had the
experience of smelling an aroma that instantly transports us to another time and
place because we associate it so strongly with a certain person, time or
experience.
• The deliberate use of aroma is the final
frontier in creating a truly unique and memorable brand experience.
• Aromatic branding is about creating a unique
aroma that people associate with their experience of your brand – effectively,
it anchors a certain aroma to the brand experience so that every time a person
smells that aroma, they will be instantly reminded of their experience.
• Most companies already use sight, sound and
touch to create an integrated brand experience, but few use smell. This is an
opportunity for your company to be at the forefront of aromatic branding.
Jennifer Jefferies International (JJI) is already
working with leading brands to create a unique aromatic brand association for
their customers. Among them are Palazzo Versace and Sofitel Hotel at the Gold
Coast, for which JJI developed a unique ‘signature’ scent that captures the
‘essence’ of the hotels experience. The hotel uses its signature scent
throughout both public spaces and individual rooms to anchor its guests’
experience and memories of their stay with that particular aroma. This scent is
available exclusively to the hotel, and through it, to its guests.
For GU Health, JJI created a Workplace Wellbeing
blend. This blend was designed to create an environment that increased
productivity and performance and at the same time reduced burnout.
Life Balancing expert Jennifer Jefferies is one of
Australia’s best-known authors and speakers and she has a prescription for
modern living. Her powerful message is of work, life and balance – and how to
have it all through 7 Steps to Sanity®.
Jennifer is a qualified health practitioner who
speaks to corporations throughout Australia, Asia, USA and New Zealand, sharing
practical real-life strategies that help people to improve their health,
wellbeing and productivity by finding balance in their lives. Jennifer is a
refreshingly downto-earth, engaging and informative speaker who leaves her
audiences feeling empowerd about the things they can do to achieve balance in
their lives, rather than feeling guilty about what they’re not doing!
Jennifer is the author of 7 Steps to
Sanity® and seven other health-related titles. For more information go to
http://www.jenniferjefferies.com
