What’s that Smell? Sensory Marketing
Taste and smell are universal languages. We do not need a point of reference, a back-story, or an elaborate marketing campaign to know when something smells or tastes good.
This realization has paved the way for companies to begin using more than simple sights and sounds to reach to target audiences. Sensory marketing is based on the concept that a fully pleasurable experience will reinforce positive associations with a brand.
Check out two companies who are leading the way in the sensory market:
ScentAir
ScentAir helps companies across the globe create customized scents for their products and stores. According to their website, “scent marketing is how businesses are breaking through mundane and overused marketing gimmicks to reach customers emotionally.”
Scent Air has created signature scents for retail stores ranging from Sony to Lexus to Bloomingdales, as well as for hotels, realtors, and spas.
FirstFlavor
Imagine how effective a magazine ad for Hershey’s would be if you could actually taste the chocolate. FirstFlavor has recognized this power and enables companies to incorporate taste tests in their print ads and direct mail.
Branding and marketing a tool called Peel ‘n Taste®, the FirstFlavor website assures that “the flavor of your product is replicated in quick dissolving edible film strips which are distributed through individually packaged pouches to prospective customers.”
Would you try one?
Contributed by: Maghan Cook
I don’t think I would try one. It’s one thing to Peel ‘n Sniff (like those perfume samples in magazines). It’s another thing to Peel ‘n Taste from something that’s circulated in magazine racks across America, perhaps touched by hundreds of hands prior to my tasting it. I’m not a germ-a-phobe, but eww. Perhaps it would depend on the packaging though.
I wanted to clear up a misconception about First Flavor’s Peel ‘n Taste product. The piece of edible film which is flavored just like a consumer product is fully enclosed in a tamper-evident foil pouch. It is totally sanitary and no one else who might have touched the outside of the foil pouch, such as on a print ad or direct mailer, can contaminate the edible film strip. The product is produced with the same type of pharmaceutical packaging as is used by popular OTC medicine strips such as Sudafed, Benadryl and TheraFlu. Over 92% of people who have actually seen (and tasted) a Peel ‘n Taste strip said that they would be open to trying a strip if it came on a direct mailer or on a magazine ad.