Branding Strategy Insider

Building Brands With Sound

Have you ever been in a café when suddenly, over in the corner, a baby starts giggling? If you have, you might have noticed that every woman, regardless of age, looked up, momentarily distracted from her coffee, magazine or conversation. It’s as if women are hard-wired to tune into this sound. Check out YouTube and you’ll notice that among the most-watched videos on the site, is one of a baby giggling. More than 107 million people have downloaded it.

There’s can be no doubt – sound is immensely powerful. And yet 83 per cent of all the advertising we’re exposed to on a daily basis (bearing in mind that the average person will see two million TV commercials in a single lifetime) focuses, almost exclusively, on the sense of sight. That leaves just 17 per cent for the remaining four senses. Consider to what extent we rely on sound. It confirms almost all our digital and electronic connections. We rely on it to dial or text on our cell phones. Interestingly, the revenue from the slot machines in Las Vegas fell by 24 per cent when the whirring and tinkling sounds was removed. Furthermore, experiments conducted in restaurants show that when music slower than the rhythm of a heartbeat is played, we eat slower and we eat more!

Can sound make us buy more, want more, dream more and eat more? Any 50-year-old American can sing a whole range of television jingles from the 1970s – they are all well stored in the recesses of our brain. Yet if you were to ask the same of the generation who have recently come of age, you will find them stumped. Have the magical tunes disappeared, or has the advertising world lost sight of the fact that people do indeed have speakers at home?

I decided to put these questions to the test.

Building Brands With The Senses

Most marketing plans appeal to only two senses: sight and hearing. Why so limited? How come almost all marketing and brand building concentrates on two senses when we know appealing to all five is likely to double brand awareness and strengthen the impression a brand leaves on its audience?

Several surveys document our olfactory sense as probably the most impressionable and responsive of the five senses. Smells invoke memories and appeal directly to feelings without first being filtered and analyzed by the brain, which is how the remaining four senses are processed. We all recognize and are emotionally stimulated by, say, the scent of freshly cut grass, brackish sea air, or the perfume of roses. I'm convinced any car lover drinks in the smell of a new car.

Some are getting the hang of sensory appeal. Some supermarkets in Northern Europe are connected to bakeries by hundreds of meters of pipeline. The pipes carry the aroma of fresh bread to the stores' entrances. The strategy works. Passers-by are struck with hunger and drawn inside the shop. A major British bank introduced freshly brewed coffee to its branches with the intention of making customers feel at home. The familiar smell relaxes the bank's customers, not an emotion you'd normally associate with such an establishment.

Sound: Differentiating Brand Builder

Some time ago, I was flicking through a copy of ‘People’ magazine, when I beheld something on its pages that caused me to just about fall off my chair. An ad promoting a TV series about Elvis, which was to run on CBS, was the source of my surprise. “The King is Hear…”, proclaimed, typographically, what turned out to be the first part of this innovative notice. On turning to the next page of the magazine, sure enough, I did hear the King. Elvis was singing from the pages and a voiceover was promoting the series. If you managed to see this copy of the magazine, I’m quite sure you’d have found the advertisement as unforgettable as I did.

Naturally, I got on the phone straight away and tracked down the genius behind the ad. Tim Clegg, the inventor of the concept and CEO of Americhip in California, told me that the ad had secured 100% awareness among ‘People’ magazine’s readership - for the first time in the publication’s history. The innovative combination of sound and vision was an arresting achievement, in spite of the fact that we live in a world where hearing and sight are overtaxed senses. Yet, used in this highly differentiated way, sound and vision communicated powerfully.

This appeal to a combination of senses seems to do the trick when aiming to secure consumer attention. So it’s ironic that sound is not more strongly deployed as a sensory communication channel media online.

Scent Marketing Success: Step 9 of 10

Our series on scent marketing continues with number 9 - Carefully handle objections

Admittedly there is plenty of room for interpretation on the “pleasantness” of a scent. The same applies for some consumers’ notion that scent marketing is sneaky on a subconscious level. There is no general answer that would justify or condemn scent marketing in general.

However, some of us suffer from chemical hypersensitivity, multiple chemical sensitivity, contact dermatitis and hyperosmia, sometimes resulting in asthma and panic attacks.  While their number is fairly small, their advocates are extremely outspoken and enjoy heightened attention from the media. So we need to act responsible and react with compassion.

Fact is, there is scent all around us. Garbage on the sidewalk on a hot summer day, the guy next to us on the subway, the street vendor selling his pretzels – nobody can reasonably object to those.

In scent marketing it comes down to managing scents:

•    Providing for a mechanism that puts the consumer in control over having an olfactory experience or not – depending on her personal preferences and potential medical condition. This also means to keep public spaces clear of scents.

•    Delivering an appropriate quality and quantity of scent. Let’s not be tempted to buy scents from dubious sources and/or countries that do not have institutions overseeing ingredients and manufacturing processes.

Scent Marketing Success: Step 8 of 10

Our series on scent marketing continues with number 8 - Commit to your scent marketing program

Believe it or not, the main hindrance to successful scent marketing is poor tracking.

Evaluating the “before-during-after” scenario is crucial but often neglected. If you use, say, scent marketing to promote the sales of flowers in a supermarket then you have to capture (over a certain time period) and record the sales in the unscented environment. Then do the same during the scented period. For curiosity’s sake you may discontinue the use of scent altogether and see what happens. Were you able to successfully lay a scent track to the flower department? Did you generate loyalty and repeat purchases? How about playing with the price? Can you maintain an increase? There are plenty of scenarios you can play as long as your store and inventory management is plugged in.

You may want to push scent through your front door the same way some stores blow cold air on the sidewalk on a steamy day. A simple electronic people counter on the door can tell you if you were successful in doing so. Now the traffic is there, what do you do with it? Unless you have enough sales staff or product on hand you will not be able to increase your sales and capitalize on your scent marketing effort. You may even end up with a frustrated consumer.

Unless you keep close tabs on the results you will never find out if scent marketing makes sense for you. It would not be fair to give it a bad name only because efficiency has not been measured. The biggest issue with installed systems is not reliability of the delivery system itself but that the consumables are not replaced as required. Once you have made a commitment you need to stay with it and instruct your staff accordingly so they do not see it as a nuisance but an important component of your marketing.

Courtesy of Harald Vogt, Scent Marketing Institute

Sponsored By: Brand Aid

Scent Marketing Success: Step 7 of 10

Our series on scent marketing continues with number 7 - Understanding your cost and the Return on Investment

It is important that you understand and define your needs before you even try to run the numbers on your scent marketing efforts.

•    Do you need a signature scent (development cost: $25K - $125K)?
•    How large is the environment you need to deliver the scent in? A point of Sale application requires a different (cheaper, $5 - $50 one time cost per unit) solution than large space scenting via the HVAC system ($100 - $250 per unit per month)
•    How many units would you need to sufficiently deliver scent in one outlet? It is highly recommended that you figure this out before you sign a contract with any equipment manufacturer. The impact on your monthly expense can be dramatic. Multiply that by the number of outlets and you have your monthly “hardware” expense.
•    Probe your supplier for installation requirements and service/support levels. How easy is it to replace the containers for the consumables? Can it be done by store personnel?
•    What is your cost of consumables? Are they included in the monthly rental fee you pay to the equipment manufacturer or do you have scent delivered from a third party?

Answering these questions will help you set up your scent marketing budget. For a large brand the cost will be fairly insignificant, the challenge here will be to create and justify a new budget category. For a smaller enterprise, or if you are trying to promote sales of minor-ticket items, the cost factor may be prohibitive unless you make an effort to find an appropriately low-cost technology solution.

Numbers on the Return of Investment are kept very close by the existing scent marketers and are not publicly available. The Scent Marketing Institute has a database of current initiatives that can be exploited when making the case for a brand extension via scent.

Courtesy of Harald Vogt, Scent Marketing Institute

Sponsored By: Brand Aid

Scent Marketing Success: Step 6 of 10

Our series on scent marketing continues with number 6 - Finding the right delivery technology.

The end product of any perfumer’s creative process is an oil – sometimes called “Fragrance Oil” or “Essential Oil”. Now you need a way to get it out into the open, either rather restricted at the Point of Sale or on a grand scale in a retail store or an event space. Stay away from any scent delivery systems that applies heat to the fragrance oil, not only for safety reasons but also as not to alter the scent’s characteristics. In fact, professional commercial equipment is quite different from home devices you would buy in the local drugstore or online.

Scent is typically delivered in four ways:

•    Dry air scent delivery. Fragrance oil is embedded in a gel, in small plastic beads or in another scent-saturated substance and air is run over or through the substance, picking up the scent and delivering it via a small blower or a fan. This method is very efficient at the Point of Sale since the scent’s reach can be limited to the immediate environment.

•    Nebulization: Pure fragrance oil in its liquid form is run through a venturi device that disperses the oil into extremely fine particles that then are picked up either by ambient air flow or infused into the HVAC system. These particles are 100 times smaller than what comes from a fragrance spray bottle and therefore linger longer before they dissolve without sticking to carpets, wall coverings, products in the store or the customer walking by.

Scent Marketing Success: Step 5 of 10

Our series on scent marketing continues with number 5 - The importance of investing in consumer research.

After an advertising agency puts the results of their creative labor in front of a client, one or even several rounds of consumer research usually follows. Corporate marketers in general are risk averse and want to make sure that they are making the best decisions. Unbeknownst to most consumers, fragrance marketers such as Estée Lauder, L’Oréal and COTY do the same before they launch a new fragrance.

When it comes to scent marketing, only recently the Scent Marketing Institute has proposed similar protocols for the “non traditional” users of fragrances, such as brands engaged in scent marketing. Often, in the scent-design process decisions are made based on key executives’ personal preferences, trust in the perfumer’s expertise or after cutting the creative process short because of budget concerns. But how does the scent resonate with employees and staff exposed to it for long working hours and the customer walking into the store?

It sounds like a no-brainer that any brand should look into these questions and apply at least some of the methods (perception testing, benchmarking) currently available. Is the scent perceived pleasant in general? Is it too strong and overpowering or too weak? Is it “congruent”, meaning matching the customers’ expectation? Research shows that a scent perceived as “feminine” turns off male customers, that a coconut scent released in winter confuses everybody – unless you walk into a travel agency promoting summer vacations.

Courtesy of Harald Vogt, Scent Marketing Institute

Sponsored By: Brand Aid

Scent Marketing Success: Step 4 of 10

Continuing our series on scent marketing we come to number 4 - understanding the rules and regulations of scent marketing.

For over 30 years, the manufacturing process for flavors and fragrances has been guided by the Fragrance & Flavor industry’s instruments of self-regulation. Those are:

•    RIFM (Research Institute for Fragrance Materials, Inc.) which evaluates the safety of fragrance ingredients and where all of the reputable fragrance manufacturers and consumer goods companies that sell scented and flavored products are members.

•    IFRA (International Fragrance Association) issues standards based on the conclusion of RIFM’s work that can restrict or completely ban the use of a certain ingredient.  Those standards are distributed within IFRA’s membership, among major customer associations in the U.S., Europe and Asia as well as other stakeholders and published on the organization’s public web site.

Any marketer and brand owner would be well advised to work with a manufacturer that belongs to those organizations. While membership has a price (an average of $100K/year) it also buys the peace of mind (and the paperwork and documentation that comes with it) that an unrecognized company in China or Eastern Europe would not be able to provide.

Scent Marketing Success: Step 3 of 10

Continuing our series on scent marketing we come to number 3 - designing the perfect scent.

Creating the appropriate scent requires profound olfactory knowledge and sophisticated technology. Both can be found at big flavor and fragrance houses of which there are about 5 in the world. However, some of the smaller scent industry players are suited to meet your demands in smaller quantities as well.
Early in the process you will be asked for a “fragrance brief”, so be prepared to explain your brand properties and values as well as your target demographics. A talented perfumer will be able to translate those into a scent and present you with a selection of creative ideas in sample form. These “Signature Scents” will become your brand’s property and can cost anywhere between $25,000 and $100,000. They are the more expensive alternative to “library scents” that are already developed and waiting for the right customer in the scent manufacturer’s archives.

Most scents (with Chanel No 5 having been the first in the 1920’s) are a synthetic representation of reality.  There is simply not enough natural vanilla, rose and lavender available to satisfy market needs at an affordable rate. By no means are synthetic scents less realistic than natural ones or even dangerous. Natural scents are available but their cost/benefit ratio is still unclear.

Cooked food scents (so called “savory” scents) are the most difficult to produce since the perfumer not only needs to have access to flavors but in many cases also has to consider the effect of heat on the “real” scent of, say, coffee, baked bread, barbecue sauce or a steak.