Brooklyn Nets Use Signature Scent at Barclay Center

If you think about professional basketball and try to associate it with a scent, you would probably come up with Eau de Locker Room, stale beer or fried food, but an NBA team is out to change that. The Brooklyn Nets is now using a scent various described as "perfumey" "clean"
or citrusy"" to make their arena more pleasant for the fans.

The scent, provided by Scent Air, is intended to go with Barclay's high end look and menu. Barclay Center is a brand new, billion dollar facility owned by Russian oligarch Mikhail Prokhorov.

Scent Air also provides scent marketing for other professional sports teams including the Atlanta Hawks, St. Louis Rams, and Dallas Cowboys.

Experiential Marketing Trumps Digital

If you are in the marketing field, all the buzz in the last five years or so revolves around digital marketing: web, SEO, social media, and mobile marketing. Yes, certainly these are all relatively new ways of reaching people and of course marketers are going to try to take advantage of them. However, as data has come in it appears that these may not be all they are cracked up to be, particularly in social media. Social media is a very personal medium and when companies use people's profile information to micro-target ads to them, they are regarded as "creepy." Another downside of digital marketing is that it is the ultimate hyper-crowded information overload setting, making any kind of brand attention and decision difficult at best.

The new buzz, as we in the scent and sensory marketing field have been saying for quite a while, is experiential marketing. The new science of neuromarketing has proven that the vast majority of buying decisions are made with the primitive reptilian part of the brain, where emotion rules supreme.

Marketers 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 = valuable. That is why men will frequently buy heavy jewelry for their wives and are flummoxed when the recipient doesn't like it. Another example was cited by Zev Auerbach in his presentation at ScentWorld, where high-end stereo manufacturer Bang & Olufsen intentionally weighted down their remote control unit to convey the tactile idea that it was expensive and well-built.

Scent also plays very easily into this strategy, as it is the only sense that is processed in that non-cognitive part of the brain. In a research study, people in two rooms were asked what they were planning to do that weekend. One room was scented with a lemon fragrance, while the other room was unscented. In the scented room, nearly half of the people said they were planning to clean, compared to 15% in the unscented room.

Similarly, we know that different fragrances can make people perceive a room as being either bigger or smaller than it actually is, and can even make people think that an individual is more slender than he or she is perceived to be without the scent.

The point of experiential marketing is to tap into these common associations, and also to create a pleasant environment for the customer so that this idea of pleasantness will subsequently be associated with Brand X.

Some conspiracy minded people are spooked by the whole idea of neuromarketing, pegging it as manipulative, or mind control. As far as 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. On the subject of mind control, experiential marketing and neuromarketing are more akin to mind reading than mind control. As with any kind of mind study, neuromarketing seeks to understand how people think rather than make them think a certain way. Although many decisions do take place in that reptilian brain, we still always have the option to use our higher cognitive processes to make buying decisions.

Australian Bank Banishes Stuffy Atmosphere

National Australia Bank has opened a new branch location featuring free Wi-fi, iPad stations, a children's area and olfactory branding. They are planning to open another four similar locations in the first half of 2012.

Scent, and indeed, most sensory strategies are slow to come to the mostly conservative banking and financial industry, but NAB is one of a few who are proactively improving their customers' sensory experience in their branch locations.

The company worked with designer Warren and Mahoney, who worked with them to do an analysis of the best retailers worldwide and incorporate research on the science of shopping. The idea was that the bank needed to compete effectively not only with other banks but also with other retail stores for the customers' time.

NAB has chosen a Persian lime and grapefruit scent," and was chosen to align with the brand's personality. According to Steve Mott with BetterBuyDesign consulting firm, "only a small number of U.S. banks have the kind of customer-centric retail approach for which a multi-sensory strategy wouldn't feel out of place."

Maybe that is why they are having such trouble...

British Airways to Fly High With Signature Scent

British Airways has announced that it will be using scent branding on its flights to "improve the experience on board [their] aircraft," according to a statement from the airline. In addition to making the flight more enjoyable, the signature scent is meant to stimulate passengers' recollection of their positive experience on BA. The scent is part of British Airways' new marketing campaign, "Making Flying Special."

BA has been interested in scent for a long time. In 2008, their travel site High Life featured an article called Scents of Destination, about wearing personal fragrance in different locations. In fact, since at 1999, British Airways has been scenting its business class lounge at Heathrow Airport with the smell of freshly cut grass and the ocean. BA was also a sponsor of the Fragrance Foundation's 2011 Jasmine Awards. It was only natural for them to take the leap into in cabin scent marketing.

British Airways is not the first airline to use scent on its flights. Singapore Airlines has been doing so for the past 18 years. Their signature scent, Stefan Floridian Waters, is delivered via fragrant hot towels given to passengers as well as in the perfume worn by flight attendants. Along with other components of their strategy, Singapore Airlines' scent marketing has helped them build one of the strongest and most distinctive brands in commercial aviation.

New Technology Delivers Scent at POS and Beyond

Scentevents has come out with a new computer controlled technology to deliver multiple scents on cue, activated by motion sensor or requested by the user. The patent pending device, which is commercially available now, is called the 4D scent media player.

The 4D scent player can work with scent diffusion devices provided by ScentEvents or with third party diffusers. The idea is that large brands can integrate the power of scent into their other marketing communications. For example, a company can set up a free standing kiosk in a mall or other public area that runs an ad or video or even a series of them for different products. The scent can be timed to coincide with the image on the screen to emphasize the visual and audio marketing message. Another option is to allow the user to interactively choose the scent they want to smell. Or, depending on the location and application of the system, the scents can be placed on a loop so that they are released on a timer. Different smells can be combined to create a large range of fragrances in the same device.

The natural product for this device is perfumes and scented personal products, since it would allow customers to sample the scents before buying, and thereby spur more sales. However, its uses are limited only by the imagination.

We know that scent is uniquely effective in provoking memories and emotion. Travel companies like cruise lines, resorts and airlines can incorporate the smell of seasonal destinations (pina colada, salt air, refreshing cold air for ski resorts, etc.). Hotels can use their signature scents, reminding previous guests of their stays and inducing a feeling in keeping with the hotel's ambiance and branding. Restaurants can make patrons hungry using tempting food smells, and malls can increase holiday spending with pine and other seasonal scents.

You can contact Scentevents for more information and pricing.

New York Grocery Chain Implements Scent in Multiple Areas

Supermarket Chain NetCost Market has launched scent marketing in its Brooklyn and Staten Island stores, and plans to install scent machines in all of its stores.

NetCost uses specific food fragrances to stimulate sales in its different departments. The meat department has the scent of smoky bacon, while the produce area smells like grapefruit or strawberry. Managers have also tested other food scents like chocolate in the candy aisle and rosemary focaccia in the bakery and have been very happy with the results.

Sales have steadily been going up of products in the scented areas. A NetCost spokeswoman said that, "Because of the scents, I think fruit sales are up probably 7 to 8 percent." Other areas, like the bakery and candy sections were added later, and sales are climbing there too.

Sniff Your Way to Profits

I am delighted to be writing my first blog for Scent Marketing Today, and thank Tony for this opportunity.

At my recent presentations for the Luxury Marketing Council in Tampa, West Palm Beach and Miami, I showcased Environmental Scenting Technology, and my focus was all about "Celebrating the Senses". I was delighted to see Spence Levy from Air Esscentials and his colleagues at my Miami presentation.

Many people from all industries are fascinated about the subject of fragrance, but some are a little leery about it because they don't really know much about it or understand it. Today, Scent Marketing is the new branding frontier, and it is a growing industry!

Our sense of smell is the strongest sense that we have after sight and yet it is the most ignored! Without our sense of smell we can’t enjoy food because scent and taste are so intertwined, and as a result people get depressed and their lifestyle becomes severely impacted.

Many Fortune 500 companies are now recognizing the power of scent, and as a result are ‘scent-branding’ their properties to create a memorable experience for their guests, and to ensure return visits to their casinos, hotels, spas, and retail stores. Even corporate event planners are utilizing scent to create a multi-sensory experience for their guests, and are incorporating ambient aromas for themed weddings, events, and special occasions.

Supermarkets are now enticing customers to buy food by incorporating environmental scent in the air.. and much like the Pavlovian response....when you smell the tantalizing aromas of coffee, delicious roast chickens and scrumptious deserts, the cash registers reflect that craving and start to ring as consumers purchase those items.

Today, ambient scenting can be programmed into individual hotel rooms! By selecting your desired scent when you check in at the front desk of an hotel, you can let them know what fragrance you like, and it can be controlled and activated from the front desk so that when you walk into your room, your favorite scent is already wafting in the room! This is an initiative that has already begun in Paris and we are bringing it to the USA. Talk about customization and establishing a home-away-from home ambience!

This particular technology was developed in France by whiz guru Yvan Regeard of Exhalia and Scenterprises Ltd is the USA partner. Our environmental scent presentation is compelling and the product is amazing. We can deliver fragrance though computers, DVD’s, videos and television. Yes! We have Scent-o-Vision in a delivery system that offers amazing aromas for all kinds of interactive, multi-sensory video games, computer programs and TV cooking shows. We have interest from every major fragrance company and also from national Television shows for this application.

We offer 3 product lines to diffuse perfume interactively in association with multimedia contents:

• Scent Marketing products- for fragrance sampling; point of purchase programs, and store events;

• Hospitality Systems product line - Systems for olfactory marketing professionals and for air treatment,

• Home Systems product line-- wonderful ambient home systems

Today there are many wonderful delivery systems from a range of companies for all types of spaces: small, large and medium areas. There are nebulizers which diffuse liquid into vapor which is barely discernible; diffusion through scented pellets with fans; saturated pads that are placed in scent cubes where the air flow draws in the air and then diffuses it through the fan; scented gels which are diffused through digital scent technology through which the scent is synchronized with software and activated via the sound and images in videos and TV television.

The digital world is realizing that the use of fragrance for interactive video games such as “World of Warcraft”, TV cooking channels and flower and garden shows are much more experiential if the viewer can actually smell the wonderful aromas from their computers, DVD’s, videos and television.

Read my articles on environmental scenting in the following magazines:

GLOW BEAUTY MAGAZINE
http://viewer.zmags.com/publication/5f7fa368#/5f7fa368/124

VUVUZELA MAGAZINE
http://www.vuvuzelamagazine.com/magazine/index.html
see page 26

SCENT MARKETING HAPPI MAGAZINE
http://www.happi.com/expertsopinion/2011/03/03/scent_marketing

My recent interview on blog talk radio by Karen Krymski from “Women Power Up” discussed the world of scenting. It was broadcast live on April 12 and can be downloaded and listened to at your leisure at: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/womenpowerup. Log onto Scent Branding Discussion with Sue Phillips.

Fragrance, aroma, scent, perfume….. Whichever name you give it, it is the new marketing frontier for branding, and goes beyond just applying it to a lady’s wrists or pulse-points! It is the most powerful sense we have that triggers memories and emotions. Today, fragrance can seduce us personally and environmentally!

Inhale, apply, enjoy and you and your clients will also sniff their way to profits!!!


Scentfully,
Sue
President, Scenterprises
http://www.scenterprises.com/
sue@scenterprises.com

Scent Marketing Primer

Newly laundered clothes hanging on a clothes lines, chocolate chip cookies that just got out of the oven, vanilla, grass cut just a few hours ago, a pine forest, a rose garden, freshly baked bread, the salty tang of an ocean breeze, cool fresh air on a spring morning... Speaking of all those, are they starting to trigger some sort of pleasant memory or feeling when you smell them?

It's important that you know that smell is a chemical sense that is tied to the emotional center of the brain. One of the most powerful senses, able to not only to make us salivate, attract us to someone or stir our memories, but it can also change our heart rate and other physiological measures. But that's not all - it can also make us open our wallets to buy something.

Using the senses of sight and hearing, businesses all over the world spend millions every year trying to attract new customers via print ads and TV. However, the real savvy businesses out there are also using the sense of smell to persuade their customers to stop, smell and buy the roses, cars, and houses.

One of the fastest growing trends in advertising is scent marketing. And even though it's not fully understood yet by the majority of businesses, the power of scent has already been successfully applied and can be applied to almost every type of product. Real estate agents know that baking bread or chocolate chip cookies during an open house is going to help sell it. And also, chances are that the sudden spike in home sales during the spring is due to the delicious smells of the blooming hyacinths and daffodils.

Many studies from all over the world have shown that a scented environment makes consumer spend more time and money in that location. A recent study in Las Vegas showed that people spent more time more and spent 45% more money in a scented environment than in an unscented one. In another study, consumers rated a product more favorably and were willing to spend more money for it in a scented room, versus the same exact product in an unscented room.

The secret behind scent is that it creates a "flow state" that leads people to temporarily lose their normal sense of time and become totally consumed in the occurring event. It can last up to several minutes.

So how are major companies out there using fragrance to increase sales? Some use scents that are naturally present in the environment like a bakery funneling the scent of baking bread from the oven area to the front of the shop. Those establishments that are not able to capitalize on their innate smells can create an environment with any fragrance their heart desires, through introducing ambient scent.

A pleasant smell puts the customer in a pleasant, buying mood and increases the chance that of becoming a repeat customer. For instance, Omni Hotels pumps a lemongrass and green tea scent into its lobbies and public places. Rolls Royce was seeing a drop off in customer perception of its cars, even though mechanically, they were the same or better. After investigating, they found the source of the dissatisfaction: the smell! Customers associated the smell of the classic 1965 Silver Cloud with quality, and when the Rolls Royces stopped smelling like this, the satisfaction dropped. Now, Rolls Royce has reproduced the smell of the Silver Cloud and they spray it under the seats in all of their new cars to protect their brand.

Similarly, Singapore Airlines has consistently gotten high marks from consumers in part because they use sensorial marketing to immerse passengers in the smell of a bamboo forest as well as lotus flowers. The fragrance is worn by flight attendants and put on hot towels that are handed to passengers before takeoff.

If your business involves any kind of location, whether retail, hospitality, healthcare, or entertainment, it just makes "scents" to incorporate our most powerful sense: the sense of smell.

Intro to Scent Marketing

Informative, tongue in cheek video about scent marketing...Enjoy!

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.

Choosing the Right Scent

You wowed them with your sales presentation and convinced them of the effectiveness of scent marketing by showing them the relevant research. Your prices are within budget and the client is ready to implement a scent strategy. One of the key factors in the success of their program is the implementation.

Pleasant - Research has shown that people react positively to scents that they find pleasant, and negatively to unpleasant smells. So, look for smells that are widely accepted as pleasant such as vanilla, citrus, freshly cut grass, linen, ocean and lavender. Think about doing a small “sniff test” to determine if your customers like the suggested scent.

Nostalgic – Because the sense of smell is connected directly to the memory center of the brain, smells evoke certain memories. In a study comparing recall related to the senses, researchers found that smell brought forth the subjects’ strongest memories, more positive emotional association with the memories and earlier memories than either sight or hearing. Nostalgic scents might include pipe tobacco, leather, freshly cut grass, baking bread, and the perfume of a loved one. Nostalgic scents make people feel comfortable and happy.

Gender specific – In a much-cited study on the use of scent to boost retail sales, researchers diffused a vanilla scent in the women’s department of a clothing store and rose maroc into the men’s department. Sales on the scented days almost doubled compared to unscented days, but when the scents were switched, sales actually decreased.

Cultural – Different cultures have different scent preferences, many of them related to the smells of their natural surroundings and foods. For example, Indonesians tend to prefer fragrances with adehydic notes, which are present in spices used in the area’s food. Americans associate musk with sexuality, but in France, it is a common scent in baby products. Cultural differences also affect group’s affinity with fragrance in general. A study by Yankelovich Partners for Heart & Soul found that African American women are more than twice as likely as those of other races to buy fragrance, and 75% of them buy muliple scents to be worn on different occasions. Hispanic women are also big fragrance buyers, as wearing perfume is considered to contribute to both their cleanliness and femininity.[1]

Congruent – In a study of scent use in a grocery store, scents that customers perceived as “going with” the product increased sales (baked bread smell in the bakery section, strawberries in the produce section), but incongruent scents depressed sales.

Intensity – Many marketers consciously choose a low intensity for their scent because they want the effects to be subliminal. A study done in a shopping center with a low intensity citrus scent noted that while the scent was noticed by very few shoppers, the average amount of money spent increase by $55 per person on scented days versus unscented. Others are concerned about triggering backlash such as pickets of Abercrombie & Fitch saying that their scent dispersal was too intense and “unhealthy” for the employees.

---

[1] “Marketing Fragrance to Minorities is Lucrative But Not Specialized”, Minority Markets Alert, October 1998

Dos and Don'ts of Selling a Scent Solution

Although research has shown over and over again that scent, used correctly, produces a marked increase in sales, the use of scent for branding and enhancing the retail experience is not yet commonplace. The general lack of knowledge about scent marketing makes it important for scent solutions companies to approach prospects in the right way, or risk turning them away from using scent in their marketing at all. Here are some tips.

Do listen to the client. What kind of experience is the client trying to create for its customers? Ask questions about the client’s positioning like “ Is X Company firmly established in its market or is it a newcomer?” and “When your customers think about X Company, what emotions do they experience?” “Do you want them to continue to think of X Company in this way, or are you looking to arouse different emotions and experience in the customer?” “Do you want to use scent to brand X Company or to instigate certain behaviors such as buying more, relaxing or becoming more alert?”

Do consider the capabilities of the person operating the equipment. The last thing you want is for the equipment to break because of user error, so find out who will be using it and make sure that the operation and care of the equipment is in line with that person’s technical ability and position. Provide training if necessary.

Do educate the client about the optimum intensity of the scent for their space. Abercrombie & Fitch, one of the most well-known companies using scent marketing, was picketed by consumers angry about the high intensity of aroma in their stores, which they claimed made customers and employees sick and dizzy. One sure way for a scent marketing program to fail is by having either too intense or too faint a smell.

Don’t fall in love with one solution. Every client is different, and they have different needs. Even if you believe that one equipment line is the best, be open to the client’s budget and specific requirements, and give them the solution that works best for them.

Don’t ignore the other players. The company paying for the solution is not the only people who have to be on board with your proposal. Right up front, ask your contact at the client company who else should be involved and include them in your pitch from the beginning. There may be an advertising agency that wields significant input into marketing decisions, or with product companies, there may be retail chains that you should invite to your presentations. First, present the available research on the effectiveness of scent marketing to establish that scent should be used, and then engage them in choosing the scent. This will make them feel like they have a voice in the process and turn them into your advocates instead of your adversaries.