Chains Are Using Scent To Target More Customers

Different restaurant chains and boutiques are now using the sense of smell to lure customers into successful business transactions. That hint of jasmine one smells at a restaurant, or any other pleasing smell lingering in a boutique, is not a coincidence. According to the Wall Street Journal, the minds behind different restaurants and stores are adjusting the smell in the air in hopes to pull people in.

Stores are now believed to be installing secret “misters” to create a special aroma of tea, wood, and other pleasing scents into their atmosphere. The question remains if a restaurant and/or boutique can redefine itself by branding with smell? We would like to think so.

As far as restaurants go, they’re adjusting recipes for a more pleasing scent. Although this seems to be a great answer to yet another money-making strategy, concocting a pleasing scent is a lot more complicated than it seems. Mostly because we don’t all smell the same scents the same way. For one person a sour aroma may smell very pleasant and sweet to the next person. Think of how a person hates a fragrance and another will stack their bathroom with bottles of it.

As for the places that are experimenting with scent as a business strategy, the bakery chain Cinnabon has been named as one of the stores that’s enticing customers with a very pleasing smell. Another big one is the popular coffee chain Starbucks.

Kat Cole, who is the president of Cinnabon, has given an insight into how scent advertising works for the business. Cole said that “putting ovens in the back of stores at a test location ‘significantly’ lowered sales.” Then the lightbulb went off and now cinnamon rolls are being baked every thirty minutes regardless of whether they’re in demand.

According to Cole, “Some store operators heat additional sheets of brown sugar and cinnamon to keep the aroma in the air.”

There are some stipulations in this type of advertising. If a business is located in a mall, Cole said that there are contracts that limits a food business from using aromas within a certain radius.

Edward Burke, of Scentair Technologies, said that “scent marketing” is growing at a fast rate even though there’s no results proving that this actually works as far as boosting sales.

“Many hotels now use scent, especially subtle, tea-derived aromas. At senior living homes, cinnamon and other homey scents are popular,” Burke explained.

Bill Gellert, the president of Gellfam Management Corp, sums it all up perfectly: “Aroma is who we are. It’s our greatest asset.”

[Image via aishka / Shutterstock]