Fragrance has proven to be one of the most impactful ways to extend the reach of a brand whether you’re selling air fresheners or candles. When you create the perfect combination of scents for fragrance brands, marketing is the catalyst that can change the trajectory of your product. The world of marketing is evolving and promoting a fragrance requires a strategic plan to make it stand out from the competition.
Changing Trends For Fragrance Brands
The era of traditional fragrance marketing is dwindling as we see more brands creating an online presence and working with influencers. Print ads, commercials, and giant billboards featuring high-profile celebrities are usually reserved for top-tier talent which has changed how a fragrance is promoted online.
One of the tried and true methods of fragrance marketing is the desire to create a fragrance that will appeal to the sensory aspects of a consumer through a strategy called scent marketing. Today we’re going to discuss how scent marketing can be used to increase sales and appeal to the needs of everyday consumers whether you’re selling candles, air fresheners, or perfume.
Scent Marketing Is A Must
Scent marketing immediately conjures up a plethora of emotions. You could be envisioning your favorite candle or thinking about the time your grandmother baked an amazing cake. Scent marketing has been widely used by major brands and is a strategic marketing method used to connect with a customer at different touchpoints.
Scent marketing is not based around a single fragrance or smell, it’s a combination of marketing efforts that include branding, image, and customer experiences. Think about the emotions a consumer can have when smelling a certain scent, the memories and feelings that accompany it can determine whether or not that person makes a purchase. That’s the power of scent marketing.
There are different types of strategies you can take when applying scent marketing to your signature products, here are a few popular methods to consider.
Ambient Scenting
If you’re looking for a marketing strategy that can tie scent to build customer trust, ambient scenting is right up your alley. This is about creating a meaningful customer experience that is gentle but impactful. Consider the types of scents in a gym, healthcare facility, or massage parlor. These scents can be light, calming, and invigorating to help enhance the experience for the people in the facility so they associate good feelings or thoughts with that space.
Scent Branding
This plays on the visual components of scent marketing where the power lies in your branding. Keeping consistent branding through an object like a unique candle holder or creative air freshener bottle can separate you from the competition. Your customer will recognize your signature fragrances based on your branding versus just the smell alone. This gives you the power to explore different fragrance types without being locked down to one smell.
Masculine Scents Are On The Rise
We are living in a generation that continues to champion gender norms and that has infiltrated every aspect of the market, including fragrances and scents. More men are utilizing home fragrances, opening the door for more scents & a new market. Gendered notes have been making a comeback in the fragrance world as we see a rise in more “masculine” scents, which have been steadily rising each year and creating more demand for male-scented candles.
While these scents can be enjoyed by any gender, masculine-scented candles can clear the air and enhance the atmosphere of a room. Popular candle scents like bourbon, woody scents, patchouli, or smokey fragrances are often signatures of male scents and can be a great addition to consider when expanding your product list.
It’s never too late to grow your offerings with new scents. If you need some inspiration for masculine scents, here are a few signature choices to get you started.
- Spicy – These fragrances typically include fragrance notes like cinnamon, ginger, and myrrh.
- Citrus – Tangy is the name of the game with these clean and invigorating scents that include smells like lemon, grapefruit, orange, lime, and lemongrass.
- Clean – There’s nothing like the smell of fresh soap, shampoo, and laundry which can be energizing and uplifting.
- Musk – This is a signature scent of most men’s candles and colognes because it can be viewed as rich and sensual. Musky scents are based on musk oil which is derived from musk deer.
- Earthy – Earthy scents are strongly associated with masculinity and can be derived from scents like sandalwood, patchouli, and rosewood.
Seasonal Scents All Year-Round
Finding the perfect scents for every season can be a bit challenging to say the least. While there are signature fragrances that are accompanied by seasonal periods of the year like summer or the holidays, you want to have scents that people can purchase all year long. Seasonality can equal steady profit if planned enough in advance which can also help with branding and online campaigns.
Certain fragrances can be associated with different times of the year and different smells so staying organized is one of the best ways to monitor your fragrance rollouts. Here are a few tips for implementing seasonal scents all year-round:
- Creating a calendar for your scents, determining when to push out certain ones that are in demand and when to take others out for the season can help as you manage inventory.
- Creating seasonality & rolling out products gives your regular customers new things to look forward to which you can plan in accordance with marketing to get them excited and ready to purchase.
- Removing scents keeps unsuccessful products from taking up space & creates demand for popular ones that are seasonally limited.
Fragrance brands all have the privilege of incorporating their unique scents with various audiences of different backgrounds and budgets. Be sure to utilize this in your marketing strategy and your customers are sure to sniff you out from the stiff competition.
