Scents marketing is a marketing tactic that uses scents to attract consumers. For example the smell of freshly brewed coffee at the Tim Horton enticed sleepish mall employees to have a cup of coffee.

Omni hotels use scents marketing technique to attract and retain customers by pumping a mix of green tea and lemongrass perfume in their lobby.

Studies have shown that a scented environment leads consumers to stay longer and spend more. Scents Marketing: Leading Consumers by the Nose by Sellsius offers some interesting statistics on this marketing method.

Freshly baked bread, chocolate chip cookies just out of the oven, newly laundered clothes drying on a line in cold weather, freshly cut grass, lavendar, vanilla, roasted chestnuts, a pine forest, a rose garden, cool fresh air on a dewy morning, a spring garden, Chanel No. 5. These create a pleasant feeling or trigger a pleasant memory.

The secret of scent is it can create a “flow state“, where one loses the normal sense of time and is totally consumed in the event. The flow state can last up to several minutes.

Scents Marketing is a growing trend in advertising. The power of scent is not fully understood but it has been applied with success to marketing virtually any type of product, including real estate. We are all familiar with the real estate agents’ long held belief that baking bread or chocolate chip cookies during an open house will help sell the house.

These signature scents have served as the basis for attempts to trademark a smell.

Singapore Airlines has gone so far as to patent a scent of lotus flowers and bamboo forests that is worn by flight attendants and put on hot towels handed to passengers before takeoff.

Samsung is working on a “technological” aroma to create a seductive electronics environment for its customers.

Some companies have tried to use scents to market their products by having scents sprayed on their posters at the bus stop. This however had caused objections from scents allergic travellers and this scents marketing concept at bus stop was discontinued.

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