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The Power of Scent Marketing to Benefit Businesses

Successful businesses have to find effective ways to communicate with customers, and few methods are more potent than scent marketing. Humans are wired to connect aromas with memories. A 1991 study reported in Science Direct revealed that people could sense aromas through more than 1,000 receptors. As soon as fragrances are inhaled, signals travel to parts of the brain that trigger emotional and physiological responses. In short, one whiff of a certain fragrance can alter someone’s mood and feelings about their environment.

With that in mind, many businesses now diffuse a range of essential oils into the air to create specific reactions from customers and workers. Essential oils are made from various flowers and other natural materials and can create any imaginable environment.

Scent Marketing Enhances Brand Recognition

In a competitive business world where many products are similar, firms often use scent to make their brands stand out in clients’ minds. A product brand consists of an entire package, and shoppers constantly evaluate packages and then make personal decisions about them. The scent is often the hook that makes the difference between choosing one product over another.

Companies can use the powerful connection between aromas and emotions to create the desired environment. Fortunately, businesses looking for aroma oils for specific purposes have a lot of choices. Suppliers that provide diffusers and essential oils carry a wide variety of fragrances and expertly guide clients’ choices.

Fragrances Make Brands Memorable

Many organizations now use scent technology to ensure clients’ associate their products or services with happy experiences. Hotels have been doing it for years. Hoteliers are experts at choosing aromas that reflect their values without being too strong or too light.

For example, when customers link certain aromas with luxury, it is usually because high-end retailers and hotels diffuse essential oils like frankincense, myrrh, and sandalwood, which provide a sense of opulence. For example, Abercrombie and Fitch famously blanket all of their stores in the same rich aroma that has become their trademark.

Customers Linger More Often

Marketing professionals from Mood Media have found that customers tend to stay longer in scented areas, by an average of five minutes. A study of Samsung shoppers showed that they underestimated shopping time by 26% and visited three times more product categories when exposed to specific scents. One casino research project revealed that slot machines in scented areas recorded a 45% revenue increase and a 40% increase in visitors’ dwell time.

Customers often linger in stores because they identify with the merchant’s signature scent without realizing it. Consumers may not even realize that they are drawn in by aromas that make them feel they are in a warm, comfortable, familiar environment.

Pleasing Scents Attract New Customers

Attracting new customers is key for business success, and several factors motivate people who have never bought from a store before. Scent marketers understand that it takes a sensory experience to bring new clients. Companies typically use visual cues, like colorful displays and background music, but the most powerful tool for attracting new business is a complete sensory encounter that incorporates scent.

A fragrance acts very quickly on consumers to create a potent first impression, which can be good or bad. If the first unconscious impression is positive, the brain automatically wants to repeat it. Scent specialists understand and use this fact to choose aromas that buyers will associate with happy memories.

There Is a Heightened Perception of Value

The old joke that certain places “smell like money” is not far from the truth. People instinctively associate certain scents with greater value. For instance, marketing professionals have found that consumers spend more in areas that have floral scents. Shoppers connect flowers with freshness and good things.

Research shows that people also tend to buy more in environments with “warm” aromas, like vanilla or cinnamon. Many companies work with scent professionals to create unique, essential oil mixes that create a sense of consequence and luxury. According to Fortune Magazine, “There have been a lot of studies in the past that have proven that, in the presence of a custom scent, an object will have a higher perceived value,”

Repeat Business Increases

According to a study of small business owners, building relationships with customers is the key to repeat business. Statistics show that returning clients spend 67% more than first-time shoppers. As a result, many organizations now use scent strategically to give customers a pleasant experience they link with happy memories. The associations repeat themselves every time clients get a whiff of the aroma.

Marketers know that shoppers are far more likely to remember fragrances than they see, touch, or hear. Scent experts use this knowledge to help organizations use essential oils as anchors to create an ultimate sensory experience. Businesses do not just get repeat business due to the quality of products or services. Clients are just as concerned with shopping in a positive, appealing atmosphere.

Retail Sales Jump in Scented Areas

Everyone from grocers to clothing shop owners is using scent marketing to influence buyers. Nike studies reveal that using various scents in stores increased the intent to purchase by 80%. A marketing experiment showed that when gas stations smelled like freshly brewed coffee, they increased coffee sales by 300%.

A 2003 Lindstrom and Kotler study indicated that 84% of shoe shoppers either liked shoes better or were more likely to buy them in scented areas. Participants also said they would pay as much as 15% more for products located in scented spaces.

Fragrance Creates a Pleasant Workplace

Scented workspaces can improve employee morale and productivity. Harvard Business Review research shows that happier workers are 31% more productive, have 37% higher sales, and are 31% more creative.

The most effective essential oils for increasing performance are woodsy rosemary, which can lower stress, and lemon, which has an energizing effect and helps relieve tension. Lavender creates a sense of calm, cinnamon is a productivity booster, and peppermint stimulates mental clarity and alertness.

Thousands of companies now use scent marketing to give them an edge over their competition. Aromas have a powerful impact on the human brain and can influence behavior when customers associate certain fragrances with positive memories. Businesses diffuse scents in strategic areas to attract and keep clients and improve brand loyalty. Scent can increase shoppers linger time and total sales. The right aromas can also boost employees’ morale and productivity.