Scent marketing helped Starbucks, Apple; India to try it for G20

Olfactory marketing has been around in the hospitality and F&B industries. Starbucks was an early sniffer, using its own scent branding in its outlets since it first opened shop in 1971. Apple stores have had their distinctive green apples and mint signature smell since 2018, created by master perfumer Christophe Laudamiel to concoct a smell that is ‘innovative, vibrant and modern’.

While optics remains the master tool of marketing, the olfactory goes much deeper, creating stronger emotional connect. A 2009 study, ‘The Use of Scents to Influence Consumers: The Sense of Using Scents to Make Cents’, investigates how consumers have been increasingly influenced by ambient scents – general odours that do not emanate from a product but are part of the retail environment. Ergo, olfaction becomes a powerful marketing tool. A 2014 Sense of Smell Institute study shows that 90% of respondents remembered the last time they encountered a certain scent, while only 50% remembered what they had seen.

Smells crafted for a brand can create a memorable experience, powerful brand recall. Keeping this in mind, India’s G20 sherpa could have a special scent for the venue at the leaders’ summit less than a month away. Phials of G20 attar – rich, bright, hint of spices – can spread India across the world.