Simon Wakeman - marketing, public relations and digital communications

Smell as a marketing tool

Wednesday, May 28th, 2008 at 9:30 pm

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Oranges on sale
Sometimes a really simple marketing idea works.

While I was out and about recently I walked past a fruit and vegetable shop. I was really struck by the strong smell of oranges coming from the display pictured above.

It reminded me about how powerful our senses are in marketing. Without the use of smell I wouldn’t have given the oranges display a second glance, but the cut oranges were giving off a great orangey smell that stopped me in my tracks and made me get out my cameraphone (ok, so the last bit is because I’m just a little bit sad about marketing, but there you go).

All too often marketers fall into the trap of appealing to the eyes, for example through printed materials, when using sound and smell can really add to the effectiveness of marketing.

Tags: Marketing, senses, smell
Categories: Marketing