Scent branding, how does it work? | 16 maart 2018

Jeannot de Boer is a 20-year old, hardworking student with the focus on bringing the hospitality experience to the guest. He has a few years of experience in the hospitality and hospitality is his passion. He is flexible, open-minded, sociable and a team player who always wants to learn. Jeannot was nominated for the Trendspotting & Innovation Award 2018. Read his blog about scent branding.

Scent branding, how does it work?

The last 3 weeks I received some strange questions during my work at the Guest Services Department. Five different guests have asked me which smell we use at the entrance of Hotel Arts. They were feeling really happy and satisfied through this smell and I asked the engineering about it. They told me, it was a private recipe developed by a company who is specialized in creating a smell which resumes in a specific satisfaction.

What does smell trigger?

Smell triggers immediate emotional response. Nowadays, there are some different studies about the usefulness of a smell to stimulate the experience of a guest or customer which is called Scent branding. One company observed the 5 sense organs to check what it would do with the guest. Of course, there was already a lot of research to the result of using sight of hearing, but now the smell was a new potential in this brand. They tried to add a company´s brand identity into the memory of a customer and the research was shown as follows: the customers remember 1% of what they touched, 2% what they heard, 5% what they see and at least 35% (!) of what they smelled. Nowadays there is a top five list which make people happier, this is as follow: baked bread, clean sheets, mown grass, flowers and ground coffee.

New trend

This new trend is a great opportunity for your business, but it can be a bit expensive. You need to do a research: which smell fits the best to my customers. Nowadays there are agencies that are specialized in marketing and Scent branding but it will take a while before you have the result. You need to decide which emotional feel the buyer’s needs to receive and this can be complicated, because choosing the wrong scent can turn customers off. Also, it will be expensive and it can take a lot of time. But when you finally finf the right smell, your guest will be feeling more satisfied than before which can increase your sales with at least 20%.

Cocktails & Perfume

In the hospitality world, you see a new trend with the combination of cocktails and the smell of a perfume. The idea sounds surprising, but collaborations are busy to develop a strong link between the sense of smell and taste. There are a lot of similar points between a cocktail and a perfume like the head notes, heart notes and base notes. Although, there are only 4 bars in the world that are using this new trend but I see a lot of opportunities for the hospitality industry.
Scent branding is for every business an opportunity to gain more sales. Bakeries, shopping malls, electronic stores or hotels, every company will find the right smells to attract their guest and satisfy them. In special, the hospitality has a huge opportunity in the future with the combination of perfume and cocktails and I am looking forward to hear about the first hotel bar with those special cocktails.

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Scent branding, how does it work? | 16 maart 2018