Aromamarketing: examples
Anyone who's been to an Auntie Anne's pretzel shop knows what iceland phone number library they smell like. The distinctive aroma of freshly baked, buttery pretzels wafts through food courts in shopping malls, airports, and train stations around the world. It's a scent that's hard to miss. And Auntie Anne's knows it.
"There are few scents more recognizable than Auntie Anne's," the company said in a press release, announcing that it would be launching a perfume with its signature scent, called Knead. The "scent with notes of buttery dough, salt, and a light sweetness" sold out online within 10 minutes of its launch.
Other food companies like KFC and Pizza Hut also produce their own perfumes and scented candles. The marketing gimmick is quite popular: when McDonald's Japanese commercials this year featured French fries-scented perfumes, there were even rumors that they would actually go on sale. That never happened, but McDonald's recently installed the world's first scented billboard in the Netherlands.
“Scent branding is becoming such a hot topic,” says Tianyi Zhang, a PhD candidate in experimental psychology at the University of Oxford who studies how sensory experiences influence consumer behavior. “Companies create very strong associations, so when you smell a scent, you immediately think of it,” he adds.
Scent marketing—the strategic use of scent to influence consumers—is not just for restaurants. It originated in the 1970s, when technological advances made it possible to alter the smell of products.
Retailers can use artificial scents (for example, electronics giant Samsung's flagship store in New York City smells like melon), while some restaurants and bakeries use scents in their products to attract customers and increase brand awareness.
Chain restaurants use standardized ingredients and equipment, so the smell of their food can be as consistent and recognizable as the visual logo.
“Flavor is who we are, it’s our greatest asset,” a Cinnabon franchise owner told the Wall Street Journal in 2014. Cinnabon places ovens at the entrances of its stores to spread the aroma of its cinnamon buns. Some locations even heat the cinnamon-sugar mixture to preserve the scent.
