What part can smell play in enhancing your brand?

Brands can connect with customers in two ways: they can appeal to the rational mind, based on product price, performance and specification. But, the ‘emotional argument’ offers more fertile territory for creating affinity and loyalty, as Simon Harrop, CEO of The Aroma Company, explains.

Smell is a powerful way of appealing to the emotional part of the brain – for instance, the smell of baking bread in a supermarket can make you feel hungry, so it’s creating a direct physiological response that interrupts your purchasing intent.

Some brands use devices where a consumer can press a little button to sample a smell – which encourages interaction. For other brands you need to identify brand descriptors, then create a signature smell.

Just as you use a logo or a brand colour, you work out ways to use the signature scent in every branded touch point – it works particularly well with direct mail, such as mailshots or brochures.