So how can marketers make brands stand out and get attention?

 

Activate all your customers’ senses—even smell.

 

You’re probably wondering why tapping all the senses would be important in marketing. Reaching untapped, underserved senses makes brands extra palatable to consumers.

 

According to Martin Lindstrom, author of BRAND sense: Sensory Secrets Behind the Stuff We Buy, statistics show that when evaluated on importance, there’s only a small differential in a sense-by-sense evaluation. All five senses are equally important in the way we experience the world, and therefore, are equally important in how brands communicate with us.

 

Ultimately, sensory experience is a strategy to mobilize the senses and emotions. The more senses you can harness at once, the more customers feel connected with your brand.

 

Thanks to technology, brands can more effectively control their interactions with customers through multisensory marketing and provide special experiences during key periods.

 

Most brands are already focusing on marketing geared toward visual and auditory stimuli. With the two primary senses covered, companies should give scent the top priority.

 

Why Scent

 

Scent is probably the most under-represented sense in the marketing world—which is a huge oversight! As one of our oldest, most primal senses, scent communicates what words and even visuals often can’t.

 

Compared with our other senses, smell is directly connected to the brain’s limbic system. The limbic system is responsible for processing memories, emotions and behaviors. Experiences processed through the limbic system can deeply affect us at a subconscious level. This is why we have a longer memory of smells than for things we’ve heard or seen.

 

Olfactory stimuli can help elevate the atmosphere and set the tone in your business to convey your brand message. Even in lean times, prioritizing scent as a must-have marketing item is smart. It provides a touchstone for returning customers and builds bonds with new customers—essential when times are tight.

 

Multisensory Experiences In The Real World

 

Harnessing the power of the senses can enrich any experience. Australian art exhibition company, Grande Experiences, changed the traditional passive way of appreciating art. Their team created a full, multisensory experience in its traveling worldwide exhibition Van Gogh Alive.

 

We were honored to partner with Grande Experiences, creating a unique "olfactory trademark" for the exhibition. Their team chose ScentAir as their scent partner for our ability to provide a consistent fragrance experience no matter where in the world the exhibition stopped and our stringent global safety standards. The scent chosen for the experience captures the feelings evoked from Van Gogh’s work and allows audience members to lose themselves in the rich colors of his paintings.

 

Brands have realized that multisensory interaction opens infinite possibilities of customer experience. The use of scent across traditional retail stores or other customer touchpoints such as hotel lobbies, airport lounges, multisensory experience has even started to expand.

 

As scent marketing rises in use for its effectiveness, brands are implementing scented experiences during special promotion projects like pop-up stores, seasonal events, entertainment, art experience and more.

 

Find this content interesting? Be sure to like and share across all your favorite social media platforms.

 

If you’re ready to learn what scent marketing can do for your business, request a consultation to speak with an expert.