Scent Marketing Trumps Digital Marketing Techniques In The Increasingly Competitive Business Landscape

Scent marketing may be the most efficient and effective marketing tool at your disposal to win customers and stand out from the competition. Scent Marketing allows your brand to reach customers on an emotional level and may be far more effective than the current emphasis on digital marketing techniques.rnIf you follow marketing trends in the past five years you will be familiar with SEO and social media marketing. Whilst marketers should be focused on doing everything to promote their brand they may be wise to invest in scent marketing.rnExperiential marketing which focuses on creating superb customer experiences may be the most effective marketing tool at your disposal. Neuromarketing studies have proven that the vast majority of buying decisions are made with the brain’s limbic system, the part which deals with emotions and decision making.rnMarketers define experiential marketing as sensory experiences felt in relation to a product or brand. These sensory inputs are then paired in the customers' brains to an idea or value. For example, a common linkage is heavy equals valuable. That is why high-end stereo manufacturer Bang and Olufsen incorporate extra weight into their remote controls to convey a feeling of quality over regular light weight rivals. rnScent therefore plays very easily into this strategy, as it is the only sense that is processed in that non analytical section of the brain. Numerous research studies have demonstrated that: • Customers evaluate scented products as being of higher quality. • Consumers are more eager to buy and willing to pay more in a scented environment. • Consumers spend more time and money in a scented environment. • Consumers remember scented shops more than unscented onesrnConsumers evaluate scented products as being of higher quality.rnA study of ladies' stockings discovered that when presented with two versions of the same product where one was lightly scented with an orange fragrance, women said that the scented stockings were clearly of superior quality. Another study showed that when consumers were shopping for a camera in a scented environment, they rated the quality and features as better than the same camera in an unscented store. Consumers are more eager to buy and willing to pay more in a scented environment.rnA study was done using identical Nike sneakers in a scented room and a non-scented room.rnIn the scented room, there was an eighty percent increase in intent to buy and the respondents were willing to pay up to 10% more money than in the non-scented room. Consumers spend more time and money in a scented environment.rnWhen exposed to a pleasant smell, shoppers underestimated the amount of time they spent in the store by twenty six percent. Respondents to a survey rated the sense of smell as second of the five senses when asked which sense was most important when making a decision about which brand to buy. rnConsumers remember scented shops more than unscented onesrnResearchers at a German cinema used scent during some ads and not in others: upon exiting the movie, patrons remembered the scented ads at a rate of about four times greater than for the unscented ads.rnThe point of experiential marketing is to tap into these common associations and to create a enjoyable customer experience. Therefore this idea of pleasantness will subsequently be associated with Brand X.rnSome people may be spooked by the concept of neuromarketing, claiming that is manipulative. Isn't all marketing and in fact, all persuasion of any kind in essence manipulative? The point is to persuade or influence the customer to take some kind of action, such as voting for a candidate, buying a product or making a donation.