Scent marketing certainly has its critics. And lately, Vienna’s underground trains have started to smell. Not the way they used to. More like potpourri - but the good stuff. What’s happened, asks the KURIER on 6 July in its local news section. And where is all this heading, the daily paper goes on to wonder.
Scent marketing is nothing new, but for the past few years it has been hip. And not without reason, as the Kurier also writes:
“Scents can create particular moods. The olfactory nerve leads directly into the limbic system (part of the brain, ed.), which is responsible for emotions,” says consumer researcher Ebster.
Companies take advantage of this effect: room fragrances are meant to help customers feel at ease in the branches. So much at ease, in fact, that they stay a long time and come back. Because that improves the chances of a sale.
Our chief noses at Aromea didn’t keep their opinion from the Kurier either, and as a leading scent marketing provider in Austria, Peter Wieser knows exactly what he’s talking about:
Peter Wieser, whose company “Aromea Airdesign” was one of the first scent marketing providers in Austria, knows of another effect: “Scents give you a certain recognisability and are part of the brand.”
In other words, customers identify a company not only by, say, the colour of its outward appearance, but by its smell as well.
That’s why some companies aren’t content with an off-the-peg room fragrance and have a perfume designed instead. Wieser has mixed fragrances for the famous Hotel Stanglwirt in Going and the Weisse Rössl on the Wolfgangsee, for example.
The Ibis hotels, the McArthurGlen Designer Outlet Salzburg and the sports chain Bründl, with branches in several ski regions, are also on his client list.
Even retirement homes, the Tirol Kliniken hospitals and the private medical centre Mediclass in Vienna rely on his services. “In these cases, we try to mask the medical smell that often triggers anxiety,” Wieser explains.
Sniffing out the brand, the Kurier calls it. We think that’s well put, and we’d like to take this opportunity to thank the editorial team for their honest article on the subject of “scent marketing”, which you can read in full HERE.
Peter Wieser on SCENT MARKETING
