If Christmas had a smell, how do you think it would be?
Seasonal Brand strategies
Within the olfactory marketing strategy, we must make a distinction between two strategies: brand and seasonal. When we talk about brand strategy, we consider the global strategy -which we have already mentioned in previous posts– and which refers to the brand identity and the creation of its customized odotype or fragrance. On the other hand, when we refer to seasonal strategy, we are talking about an experience related to at any given time, usually linked to a marketing action or based on seasonality.
Next, we explain how can be a strategy based on seasonality. A very good example of these days is Christmas season.
Considering the scent as a Christmas decorating essential
It is typical to find the streets and shops embellished for Christmas season. Nowadays it is almost unthinkable to find a public space that does not have Christmas ornaments: coloured lights, decorated trees, Christmas music everywhere… But many times it’s missing a customized scent that helps to create this sensory space, which awakens all our senses and makes us live a memorable experience.
The scent should be one more element of this whole Christmas decoration. Imagine how scent can modify a shopping space, even help increase sales. It has been demonstrated in numerous studies that the scent marketing brings many benefits to brands. So why we do not consider scent as another Christmas decorating essential? This is partly because we don’t consider the power of scent marketing. Maybe no trusted expert can advise the brand and integrate it into the brand’s marketing strategy.
What Christmas smells like
Have you ever wondered what Christmas smells like?
Surely a smell will come to everyone’s mind: cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, snow, hot wine, vanilla, ginger, orange, ground coffee beans, honey, cold fresh air, chocolate…
Christmas has many aromatic smells that evoke family moments, celebrations, the sound of uncorking bottles of champagne… that sensation of vitality, euphoria and emotion!
At BeAromic we don’t believe that Christmas is related to a single scent, but we can say that for us Christmas scents are divided into 3 large families:
- Gourmet – Those sweet fragrances that remind us of cakes. That smell of apple and cinnamon, those afternoons with a hot cup of chocolate and churros. Those fragrances that evoke familiarity, remind us of the family sharing a cake, children baking biscuits… It is the most homely aroma.
- Florals – Those fragrances that remind us of the Christmas red colours. To the centrepieces with poinsettia and Christmas holly. There are also notes of red fruits that remind us of meetings with friends, those afternoons playing games with family.
- Woody – Finally, we have some Christmas notes that remind us of snowy pines and woods. The icy snow outside windows and the warmth of the wood-burning in the fireplace. It reminds us of the whole family opening gifs surrounded by the Christmas tree.
It has been shown that integrating a scent with our decoration reinforces the Christmas campaign. A fragrance according to what we see and hear has a positive effect on the consumer. As tested by Grohmann, Sprott (2005). Their study showed that consistency between ambient Christmas scent and the presence of Christmas music means more favourable stores attitudes, stronger intention to visit the store, greater pleasure and more favourable evaluation of the environment.
At BeAromic we encourage you to trust our professionals to bring spirit to your marketing actions at the point of sale.
