Brand scent, just like a logo, is a brand element that must be professionally designed.
You know how it is: people don’t easily change their perfume. On one hand they love that scent, and on the other they want to be identified with it — they want to own it. Almost all of you know this feeling. Walking down the street, in an elevator, at a concert, or in any crowd, when you catch the scent of someone of the opposite sex, doesn’t something come rushing to mind? When you catch the scent of an old love (or a new one), don’t you feel as if you’ve seen them, met them? Perfume is, after all, a very personal product. A person feels “like something” when they wear that scent — sometimes attractive, sometimes clean, sometimes charismatic, sometimes sexy.
Scent is one of the most important parts of our personal brand, and of our commercial brands too. Visual brand elements are used very prominently. It is crowded. The consumer knows there is a self-interest at play in this relationship; at worst they grow suspicious and lose trust. They have no tolerance left. While brands struggle to flash their messages next to the news, the consumer keeps struggling not to see them. Today, countless visual elements — logos, emblems, colors, mascots, posters, celebrities — are used intensively. Of the five senses, the eye takes on most of the work of perception. Because most of people’s perception happens visually, the world of brands is visually very rich too. But over time this richness has begun to prevent brands from differentiating from one another, so brands try to enter the consumer’s mind through new methods. Owning a color is no longer easy; hundreds of brands across dozens of categories can use the same one. Scent, on the other hand, is a brand element that works more subconsciously and, at the moment of communication, catches a person without their noticing — just like the scent of an old love etched into your subconscious.
Scent has in fact been used in communication for years. The chestnut vendor fans his embers on the street corner, the bakery lets the smell of freshly baked bread drift out its door, and on holiday eves the coffee house roasts fresh coffee outside. They invite us over and whet our appetite.
Brands can have scents too. Especially brands that have a physical space (like a store or a restaurant, or an airline or a bus company) can own a scent. And they should. Companies like KFC and Burger King use exact artificial scents of their products to draw customers in. The scent used here is that of the favorite products. When you enter a food court, it makes you turn in that direction and at least weigh that product among the alternatives. It lets you connect with the brand without seeing the logo. It catches you unprepared.
When you walk into many stores, you meet a scent. But very few of these are brand-specific scents designed through professional research. Yet a brand scent should be designed with a professional approach, just like the brand’s logo. The right brand scent is not the one the boss or the marketing manager happens to like, or the one the team picks by a show of hands. Beyond personal tastes, it should be designed and brought to life to suit the brand. A sincere brand deserves a sincere scent.
Our old shopping places — the covered markets and bazaars — have a scent, one we might now call “authentic.” The scent of sincerity and naturalness… and, on top of that, the fresh scent that fresh spices offer… Modern shopping malls have a lot to learn from these old markets in this area too. In malls, where many stores come together, scent is an important brand element. People’s perceptions of a mall are formed from experiences — that is, shaped by the quality of the time they spend there. Scent forms a perception in people without their awareness, and that is exactly why it is so powerful.
So how is a brand scent designed? There are professional companies that work in the field of brand scent. The best thing is to get support from them. What matters is “producing” a brand scent that fits the brand’s promise, identity, personality, and target audience. There are firms that specialize in exactly this. You take your brand to them and, ideally, you come away with a bouncing-baby scent of your own.
Remember: a scent, as they say, should be as original, striking, and distinctive as a lover’s scent.
Good work!