Scent Branding

October 5, 2023

26 min 41 sec

Ten months. A broken Rodecaster, a podcast rename, a rebrand, and a growing obsession with something most brand strategists never talk about.

Martin Sully is back, and he's brought scent with him. Scent branding is the use of fragrance as a deliberate brand touchpoint -- to trigger memory, extend time spent with a brand, improve mood, and create an emotional connection that outlasts anything visual. Humans can recall scents with 65% accuracy after a year. Visual recall sits at 50%. Smell wins.

The episode opens with a story from 2008 in San Francisco – Martin's wife dragging him across the street towards an Abercrombie and Fitch store she could smell from a hundred metres away.

Common branding misconceptions

What's Covered in This Episode

The Rode Rodecaster replacement story – a broken microphone and a brand that made it right by sending the newer model. Trust equals reliability plus delight.
The olfactory system explained simply – smell connects directly to the brain and triggers memory faster than any other sense
Why scent branding is still relatively unexplored – genuine competitive opportunity
The Abercrombie and Fitch San Francisco story – every sense engaged simultaneously, from a hundred metres away
The dog clothing brand thought experiment – wet dog scent as campaign idea, fresh cut grass as packaging scent
65% scent recall accuracy after a year vs 50% for visual recall
How luxury hotels use scent to create emotional memory
The sandwich chain whose smell you know immediately – aggressive scent marketing that works
When scent branding goes wrong: wrong context, overpowering fragrances, allergies
Questions to ask: what benefit are you targeting, what emotion do you want, what scent triggers that emotion
T equals R plus D. Trust equals reliability plus delight.

Want to go deeper on scent branding?

The full guide to scent branding is on the Snapper Studio blog. And if this episode has you thinking about all the ways your brand connects emotionally, the Sentiment Tracker is a good place to start.

Track your brand sentiment