Consumers perception of scented brands

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[...] CONSU C UMERS' PERCE EPTION N OF SCENTED D BRANDS HOW CO ONSUMERS PERC CEIVE SCE ENTS AND SCENT TED PLAC CES Pedro Ferrei ira Profess sor of Consume er Behaviour Portuguese Ins stitute of Marketing Managem ment Copyrigh ht © 2011 by Pedro Ferreira This w work is licensed under the Crea ative Commons s Attribution‐No onCommercial 3.0 Unported L License. To view w a copy of this license, visit http://creativeco ommons.org/lic censes/by‐nc/3. [...]

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[...] .0/ or send a letter to Creative e Commons, 17 71 Second Stre eet, Suite 300, San Francisco, California, 9410 05, USA. Pedro Ferreira Consumers' Perception of Scented Brands INTRODUCTION It is widely accepted that olfaction is a special sense for several reasons. The sense of smell closely connected to the amigdala, which process emotions, and the hippocampus, which processes memories. That's why smell can bring up memories long forgotten, pleasant or not. This special feature of smell has, thus, an enormous marketing potential, and is being used by several well known brands. This report presents the results of a study about scented places in Portugal. The main goal was to understand how consumers perceived scents and scented places. This goal aimed at: •Identify the level of the scent recognition •Measure the degree of pleasure or well‐being induced by the scent •Understand how consumers describe scents On the other hand, the survey tried to depict possible associations between scents and brands, namely measure the degree of coherence between the brand and scent perception STUDY DESIGN The study was conducted in Portugal and involved more than 1300 consumers distributed by 8 businesses: •Retail clothing •Retail communications •Retail automotive •Retail utilities •Entertainment •Hospitality •Health clubs •Transportations Copyright © 2011 by Pedro Ferreira 2 Pedro Ferreira Consumers' Perception of Scented Brands The data was collected in 24 scented stores/places of 8 different businesses. The places were not scented before the study. It was used a consensual fragrance and the diffusion was made using the XL Sense200 from I‐sensis (www.i‐sensis.com). The diffusers transformed the scent on a ultra‐ thin steamer, containing 1‐10 microns (0.001mm) micro‐droplets. Given the small size of the droplets, they remained suspended in the environment for a long time. The data were collected from customers in May 2011, in the moment they were leaving the stores, through a questionnaire with 11 questions that took about 3 minutes to answer. More than 1300 customers took the survey. FROM RECOGNITION TO PLEASANTNESS Scent recognition is the first step to the implementation of a successful scent marketing strategy. In terms of perception, recognition is the first step for the formation of an attitude which will lead to behaviour, hopefully in accordance with the brand's expectations. The control of scent is a very delicate process. The intensity can be determinant, since many fragrances with the wrong intensity can turn a pleasant experience in a painful experience. There are many aspects to be handled and even small changes in space dimension, characteristics of air circulation, air temperature, traffic and number of customers in the space, among others can have undesirable effects. Not to mention that everyone is different when it comes to tolerate and react to scents. Following recognition, the general opinion, or attitude, towards the scent is the second step. Generally speaking, customers can have a positive or negative reaction. This general reaction is very important, because it may influence the more detailed perception that is formed. Copyright © 2011 by Pedro Ferreira 3 Pedro o Ferreira Consumers' Percep ption of Scente ed Brands 33% 67% Yes No o Figure 1: Scent Recognit tion 10 rs e, a ble Nearly 7 out of 1 customer recognised the scent in the store which is a considerab score, ount the delicacy of sc centing a sp pace (as me entioned be efore), but also that a taking into acco etimes the le ength of stay was short. [...]