For sensitive noses: scent marketing in retail

During the shopping experience in stores, subtle, fresh scents that invite you to linger longer, as well as unpleasant smells of food or even sweat, are remembered. The impact of scents, especially in retail, is still underestimated, even though they have a powerful influence. FashionUnited spoke to Dutch fragrance design agency Transduce about the possibilities of scent marketing in stores, which smells work well and what unexpected positive effects a scent can have.

Scent marketing is not about overwhelming fragrance explosions like those used in US fashion brand Abercrombie & Fitch stores – such a predominant smell is not always perceived as positive. It also doesn’t seem to be enough to place a few fragrance sticks in shops, as they only have a local effect. The disciplines of scent marketing are much more complex.

The effect of a good and natural scent

Rebeca Barbulescu and Kimberlynn Chaves from Transduce came up with the idea of ​​working in scent marketing by chance. For Chaves, the use of essential oils was present early on. She met Barbulescu at a young age because they were both among the few people in the southern Dutch community of Zoetermeer who had dark hair. “That bonded us together,” said Chaves. “After that, we found out more and more that we had the same norms and values.” As teenagers, the two joked about starting a company one day, without having any idea that they would start Transduce. Chaves initially wanted to become a diplomat, while Barbulescu attended a hotel management school. With the start of the pandemic, the two finally met again on a professional level: When Chaves decided to experiment with her love of essential oils, Barbulescu saw an opportunity for the hotel industry. “We could create a scent for hotel guests with jet lag that would make them feel re-energized,” she explained. This laid the foundation for Transduce. The two soon realized that scent marketing could be used in many other industries, such as healthcare, retail and hospitality.

Natural scents affect the human limbic system, which controls emotions and influences long-term memory. “We can respond very well to this with our scents,” says Chaves. “Each oil has a different effect, which we can tailor to the needs of our customers. A fragrance oil can act on the nervous system by creating an invigorating feeling, or it can have the opposite, calming properties.” Chaves also emphasized that Transduce only uses natural fragrances. “It’s like olive oil: the first pressing is the best. Essential oils, which you often buy at health food stores, smell wonderful, but are often the tenth or eleventh pressing in the distillation process,” she explains. “They don’t have the same strong impact. We really focus on quality, which means the effectiveness of the oil is also stronger.”

The company’s clients now include hotels and retailers, including the Dutch optics group GrandVision, which is developing its own scent together with the Transduce team. The brand should be recognized so that customers stay longer in the store. First, a scent was developed and tested in stores. “Trying it out brought surprising results that we had not expected. “We hadn’t initially thought about the impact on the employees,” says Barbulescu. They soon found it much more pleasant to work in the branches and started the day with more energy – even the afternoon slump didn’t occur. “Employees also said they felt valued by bosses as more attention was paid to the work environment.” An additional advantage is that consumers’ perception of the GrandVision store has also changed, such as Third-party studies show. “Because of the pleasant smell, customers felt that GrandVision cared about the well-being of both employees and customers. In addition, consumers pay attention to the transparency of a brand and what it communicates to the outside world. Natural scents are more associated with transparency, authenticity and honesty.”

Scents that invite customers to linger longer in the store

Although every brand should have its own recognizable scent, there is also a general solution. “There are scents that are very popular, but we find that many of our customers want to create a scent themselves to recognize the brand. We live in a very competitive world where brands want to differentiate themselves in some way,” explained Barbulescu. If you still decide to use an existing scent, citrus scents are an advantage. “They have a very invigorating effect, usually act as a base note in every perfume and are often used as top notes – a perfume consists of top, heart and base notes.” Top notes are smelled first, but they also disappear quickest. “Citrus is an ‘inner’ scent that keeps you awake.” Chaves explained that the symphony of different notes makes a scent rich and appealing to a wide audience.

“We also often add a warm undertone because our retail customers naturally want prospects to stay in the store as long as possible to increase the likelihood of a purchase,” says Chaves. “The warm undertone creates a feeling of calm and comfort, which is very important.” A combination of citrus scents with warm undertones is therefore often recommended by Transduce for retail.

Which scent is ultimately chosen depends entirely on the goal that the retailer or company is pursuing. Transduce prefers to be integrated into an experiential concept as early as possible “so that we can really breathe the brand.” It’s usually easy to predict in advance which fragrance will be released, but sometimes there are surprises. “We recently had a brief from a company that wanted a fresh and, above all, non-floral scent. We suggested all sorts of fresh scents, but they were like, ‘That’s not it, but we can’t say what it’s supposed to be.’ Eventually we got persistent and presented them with a floral scent without saying what it contained, and they finally went for it.” Floral aromas find themselves in a difficult position as they are quickly associated with scents that are too sweet while in a scent bouquet can certainly come into their own.

Scent marketing is already widespread in southern European retail

In Northern Europe there are still many opportunities to expand retail scent marketing. “In southern Europe and the USA, acceptance is much greater. There, but also in the Middle East, people are already playing with emotions, while here we think very rationally about what color the wall should be or what lighting should be used. Italy and the United Arab Emirates are elevating the experience,” Barbulescu said. The possibilities are many, because even in countries where scent marketing is already accepted, there are opportunities for Transduce to support brands and companies, for example by switching their fragrances from synthetic to natural ingredients.

Barbulescu and Chaves therefore see the future of scent marketing as moving away from synthetic scents as much as possible. “It will also be more personalized to customer needs. A few years ago it was still said ‘quantity makes class,’” Barbulescu described. “Another trend we see is that scent marketing is becoming established in all industries. Not only in retail and the hotel industry, but also in fitness studios, health facilities and the catering industry. They all want to do something for their well-being.”

The possibilities are diverse and it is clear: scent marketing smells like more.

This article originally appeared on FashionUnited.nl. Translated and edited by Heide Halama.