Fascinating Scents

In her book, “Fascinate: Your 7 Triggers to Persuasion and Captivation,” famed brand consultant and author Sally Hogshead lets us in on a little branding secret. She says that successful brands “fascinate” people, meaning that they appeal to them on an non-logical, purely emotional level, by activating one or more of the following triggers: lust, mystique, alarm, prestige, power, vice, and trust.

Depending on how a company wants to position itself, it focuses its marketing message on arousing one primary emotional trigger, which may be supported by a few more. As scent marketers, we are all familiar with appealing to the emotional, limbic side of prospects through the only sense that directly affects emotions and memory: scent. In order to for our solutions to be successful for our clients, the scents must match the emotions that the client is triggering in their overall marketing.

Lust – Lust isn’t just sexual arousal; it is anything involved in the anticipation of pleasure, including things that are beautiful, delicious or cool. Companies that use lust as their main trigger include Apple, Sharper Image, Godiva, and all jewelry stores.

Because lust focuses on the senses, it is the emotion that is easiest to express in scent. Lustful scents include florals like rose, ylang ylang and jasmine and with woodsy base notes like sandalwood, Spanish moss and white amber. Yummy fragrances like vanilla and chocolate also stimulate lust, as does the warm and sexy smell of musk.

Mystique – Mystique is an emotion that attracts because of what is left unrevealed, inciting curiosity. It pairs well with lust, just as a negligee both conceals and reveals. Any company that uses a secret formula or rare or exotic ingredient, like Coca Cola and many skincare lines, is using mystique.

Spicy, exotic smells evoke the feeling of mystique, such as exotic florals, cinnamon, musk, tobacco, ginger, pepper and woodsy smells like balsam and cedar. Also, any scents in which the individual elements are hard for a person to identify work for mystique.

Alarm – Alarm is the most difficult emotional trigger to express in scent. It is the emotion that people experience when they become aware of the negative consequences of inaction, like one time offers and buying identity theft protection.

The closest scent to the alarm trigger would be alert, sharp scents such as rosemary and bitter orange.

Prestige - Companies that use prestige appeal to customers’ desire to be members of an elite group and to enjoy the rank and respect that go with it. High quality and high price distinguish these brands. All luxury brands use this trigger.

Prestigious smells tend to be complex, with florals balanced with subtle spices and wood scents.

Power – Power and prestige often go hand in hand. Companies play the power card by either controlling the environment and making customers give up control, or by giving them the feeling of having power and confidence.

Power invoking scents include cool greens, herbals and citrus.

Vice - Vice is our attraction to the forbidden or dangerous, and works well in combination with lust. Any company that uses the concept of rule breaking or overindulgence in its marketing is using the vice trigger. Harley Davidson and all liquor companies fall into this category.

Smells that inspire vice as part of a branding strategy include very sweet smells like cotton candy, chocolate and juicy fruit scents.

Trust – Trust is the last and one of the most powerful emotional triggers. It is the hardest to establish, but it also creates a long term and loyal relationship with customers. Banks, universities and most established market leaders regardless of industry use this trigger to advantage.

Scents that foster trust include any kind of baked good smell like chocolate chip cookies, bread and apple pie as well as vanilla and cinnamon.