The Power of Olfactory Marketing: Enhancing Sales Through Scents

We are able to remember 35% of what we smell compared to 5% of what we see. This is taken advantage of by some brands, which use fragrances or enhance certain smells so that we buy more, it is what is known as olfactory ‘marketing’. This strategy is already present in stores with resounding success, for example, Nike was able to sell 80% more in a scented store.

So a businessman from Utebo thought it would be a good idea to bring this sales system closer to small businesses. Today it has 100 franchises that serve 100,000 clients on three continents. “The aroma that we are going to offer to a cafeteria is not the same as to a stationery store or an office. In an office, for example, we are going to look for aromas that are more citric, energizing”explains Elsa Bayés, the commercial manager of the business.

These smell can be changed, for example with the passing of the seasons and put a fresher one for the summer. “We put that neutral smell, or floral, fruity, sweet… the one you choose. In the rooms we choose a different point depending on how the room is decorated. You have to hit the key point. In addition to eating well, enjoying the environment, good price… if, in addition, you get a good sensation of aromas and smells, it’s brutal”, says the manager of a Zaragonza brasserie, David Burillo, where, In addition to the rich smells that come from your kitchen, they offer the customer a sensory experience.

The otolaryngologist Héctor Vallés assures that “smell that we perceive, smell that remains recorded”. “We are making an archive, a library of smells and we are relentless,” he says. In the Aragón TV program Objetivo, they have analyzed everything that olfactory ‘marketing’ entails. We invite you now to track your usual businesses. Surely now they see them with different eyes; or rather, they smell them with another nose.