In a world where visual displays and music have dominated retail spaces, hotels and even cars, Scent Marketing: The Future of Branding has become a powerful tool to help brands stand out. It has been proven in multiple studies that smells are the most recognizable of all human senses, and a unique scent can have a huge impact on how customers perceive and interact with businesses.

How Scents Change Brand Perception

Scent Marketing: The Future of Branding

The reason is that smell bypasses cognitive thought and goes straight to the limbic system of the brain, which controls emotion. Because of this instantaneous response, it has the ability to create an emotional connection that lasts in long-term memory. We’ve all experienced that feeling when we encounter a familiar aroma, such as fresh flowers or the scent of your childhood home, and it instantly transports us back to the time and place it originated in our lives.

It is this associative power that makes scent so effective for businesses; it is the one sense that is most able to create an immediate connection with consumers, and it is also the most memorable. In fact, studies have shown that people can recall a fragrance with up to 64% accuracy after just one year.

This has been the inspiration for many innovative business owners, with restaurants leading the way in incorporating scent to boost sales and customer loyalty. Think about it: If you walk into a restaurant with the wonderful aroma of freshly baked bread or a delicious burger, it immediately makes you hungry. This is why some restaurants, such as McDonald’s, have their own special scent in their ventilation systems to spread the mouthwatering smell of their food throughout the entire building.…