Are you ignoring the power of scent in your marketing campaign? If so, there is perhaps a very simple way to engage all five of your customers’ senses with scented pens and rulers!

Why should you take an interest in olfaction all of a sudden? Well, recent technological developments are allowing marketers to experiment with scent marketing more cheaply and easily than ever before.

And it works, too. When Nike used scents in their outlets, they increased intent to purchase by 80%, while in another experiment at a petrol station shop, pumping smells of coffee saw purchases of the drink increase by 300%. It makes sense (pardon the pun!), aromas can evoke strong memories, good and bad, and can be very powerful. For some the smell of jasmine can instantly transport them to the streets of Delhi, others are instantly calmed by the scent of lavender.

More and more brands are starting to consider what their signature scent is, even commissioning a customised scent like London’s Langham Hotel did (ginger-lily, for your information). M&M World in New York’s Times Square sneakily pumps the aroma of chocolate onto the streets outside to entice people inside. Casinos are increasingly using musky, masculine fragrances to keep men on the casino floor (and presumably trigger their primal, testosterone-driven instinct to take risks). Even Harrods use scent marketing to get people in the mood for an exotic holiday by filling their swimwear department with the smell of coconut.

To get scientific, our sense of smell is located in the same part of the brain that controls our emotions and memory and is very closely related to our sense of taste. Dr Alan Hirsch, a US neurologist at the Smell and Taste Treatment and Research Foundation, is carrying out very interesting research into immediate recall of childhood memories by a particular odour, a phenomenon he refers to as olfactory-evoked recall.

Hirsch believes that scent has the power to evoke emotions powerfully, but can sometimes cause people to rewrite history a tad, seeing past events through rose-tinted glasses and glossing over less positive elements from their memory.

So what’s the link with promotional products? We’ve got a new pen in stock which comes in a huge range of scents, from strawberry to popcorn, baby’s talcum powder and chocolate chip cookies. Imagine getting a package on your desk that smelt like biscuits — wouldn’t you be more likely to open it? And if, like the Langham Hotel, you would like to create a signature smell for your brand, we can attach it to the pen.

Get in touch for more details about the sensory experience you’d like to create and do let us know about any of your experiences with scent marketing!