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11.10.2005

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Aroma Marketing

getting beyond the coffee, bread and chocolate paradigms

We've all been aware of the critical role the senses play in helping consumers understand and interpret their lived experiences with products and services, yet the one area that remains notably underdeveloped for marketers and branders is that of aroma - the propensity to engage the consumer in an olfactory (i.e., smell) experience.

Of course, we've been hearing about "aroma" marketing for the better part of 40 years now, and yet it still hasn't seemed to evolve much past the "fits and starts" stage. Every few years we hear about a machine that can interject that infamous "new car" smell, or perhaps a retailer who experiments with aromas such as coffee or fresh bread, or a technology - such as Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry - that can allegedly identify the constituent phenolic elements of a given aroma (ostensibly to replicate them at a later date); yet, somehow none of these ideas or technologies ever seem to make their way onto the marketing plans of those in the CPG business.

And while a significant part of the failing can be attributed to our own cultural baggage with regard to our sense of smell, we also believe marketers themselves are to blame for allowing these technologies to be applied inappropriately. Here we review what is known about our culture's unique perspective on aroma before turning to some concrete suggestions on how to better think about aroma for marketing purposes.

The Cultural History of Sensory Perception

Let's face it, much of the rise of the West - from the early days of Descartes and the so-called "Enlightenment" forward - has been a systematic campaign to downplay, if not eradicate, our sense of smell, while simultaneously championing that of vision.

With the dawn of the Age of Reason came an attendant rise in emphasis on visualization and visual metaphors, itself accompanied by the distanced gaze of the detached, rational, objective individual. Suddenly we "knew" because we could see things "laid out before our eyes, and great leaders became recognized for their "supervision." Vision and the visual metaphor was the means by which we could control from afar - be it through radar, binocular, organization chart or, more insidiously, via Foucault's Panopticon (in which we all submit, willingly in the form of discipline, to god's all-seeing gaze).

And yet, at the same time we saw a conscious devaluation of the sense of smell within our larger cosmological order in the West, with many "experts" and "leaders" shunning or deriding the human sense of smell for its apparent connections to the "less civilized" world of the "animal." After all, only so-called "primitive" animals, such as monkeys or dogs, appear to engage their sense of smell on a regular basis and in a manner critical to their survival. It is only a dog that is content to merely smell and act, whereas the wise human looks, listens and reasons, all presumably before acting.

Whereas the sense of sight served to reinforce the status quo and bring order to an increasingly modern world marked by disintegration, distance and detachment, the sense of smell posed something of a threat to that same order. Odors were viewed as intrinsic "essences" revelatory of inner truth. Through smell one interacted with interiors (realities), rather than with surfaces (representations) as one did through sight. Furthermore, odors cannot be readily contained, they escape and cross boundaries, blending different entities into olfactory wholes. Such a sensory model can be seen as opposed to our modern, linear worldview, with its emphasis on privacy, discrete divisions, and superficial interactions. Odors, then, represented something of the romantic (and increasingly irrational) preoccupation with essence, truth and authenticity. Odors, we see, are a critical gateway to authenticity.

In short, because we've spent most of the past several hundred years trying to systematically deny our critically important olfactory system - from our deodorants and perfumes to our more recent obsession with antibacterial soaps and ionic breeze air cleaners - it's little wonder we have such a crudely developed ability to market to aromatic sensory cues. It is, therefore, our belief that olfactory marketing remains one of the most critically underdeveloped resources in the contemporary marketing managers arsenal.

Poor Olfactory Execution

As if our past cultural baggage were not enough, our execution record in terms of olfactory marketing hasn't proven much better. Recently Tokyo-based Promotool corporation market-tested their new aroma-emitting Aromatrix technology during a screening of the (new) Charlie and the Chocolate Factory in Tokyo. The technology is designed to provide a "more immersive, emotional experience," which is itself the result of targeted aromas crafted to resonate with specific olfactory sensory cues. And the scent they chose to inundate the theater with? Yes, you guessed it, chocolate.

Sure, (nearly) everyone loves chocolate, but as far as sensory cues go, chocolate is about as subtle, emotionally complex and interesting as bright lights, loud noises and spinning propellers.

Think about it: In the early days of sensory marketing, visual and audio sensory cues were about as base and sophisticated as our good friend chocolate. Bright flashy lights? Why not. Whiz bangs and loud explosions? The more the better! The Trix Rabbit never failed anyone!

Of course, marketers have come a long way from the early days. Now we are all aware of the intense emotional power of a silent, longing glance (as witnessed in nearly every airline commercial). Ditto for the auto makers who seem universally focused on selling us automobiles by flooding our minds with the soundtrack of our youth.

And yet when it comes to aroma we get chocolate, coffee and bread?

Marketing to emotions is undoubtedly a tricky proposition, but sheer common sense would suggest that aromas from a specific time and place are bound to be a lot more subtle and emotionally complex than chocolate, coffee and bread. Which emotionally salient aroma is more reminiscent of early childhood, Hershey's chocolate or that strange perfume your single mom always wore when going on her dates in the swinging 70s?

And when it comes to conjuring memories of one's teenage years (presumably the domain of auto manufacturers), certainly we can come up with far more unlikely aromas than gasoline? How about the dank smell of worn leather on your parents hand-me-down car? Or the odd, soapy, bubblegum aromas that so characterized those Bonnie Bell Lip Smackers? Or that peculiar "teenage musk" that pervades guys' T-shirts and sweaters - a scent that more than a few women can recall from their teenage years? The point here is that aroma marketing has failed in large part because those practicing it have demonstrated a surprising lack of nuance and creativity.

We believe firmly in the future of aroma marketing - for manufacturers and branders as well as retailers. The critical issue remains, however, that for aroma marketing to prove successful marketers and branders must think much more carefully about the myriad sensory connections between aromas, memories, products and experiences.

Now it's time to move beyond what we term the coffee, bread and chocolate paradigm.

The Power of Smell

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