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1600 Madison Avenue
Toledo, Ohio 43604
+1 419.725.9100
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An agency of MadAveGroup
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What is
Scent Marketing

Reinforcing Your Brand While Delivering Memorable Visitor Experiences

As a marketer, have you ever considered how overworked our eyes are?

Visual stimuli are everywhere, so it’s no wonder that most visual ads and marketing messages are lost in the crowd, overlooked entirely or simply forgotten because they didn’t stand out from all the competition. But a scent can cut through the clutter of visual messages.

Scents appeal to an entirely different part of the brain, one that’s linked strongly to memory. That connection means that it may be easier for your audience to remember their encounter with your brand’s signature scent, especially if it was combined with other positive experiences.

A branded aroma is a unique combination of notes that are affiliated with your products, company culture or other elements of your brand.

When your audience smells that aroma again, they’ll likely associate it with your brand and recall their previous positive encounters with your products, services or environment, which could encourage return visits.

SensoryMax: Your Partner in Scent Marketing

Marketers who understand brand.

There are companies that provide machines to scent a room. Most of those companies are vendors interested only in selling equipment and scented oils.

With SensoryMax, you get strategic, thoughtful marketers who work to understand your brand and then use scent to elevate it.

We know how to translate what your brand stands for into a relatable signature scent and then build a Scent Marketing program around it.

About SensoryMax

We provide a full suite of Sensory Marketing services, including Scent Marketing, Video and Digital Signage, Audio Marketing and Environmental Design.

Selecting Your Scent

A thorough, strategic method.

First, we’ll conduct an in-depth discovery process to understand your products and services, company history and culture, geographic location, audiences, the personality you want to convey and how you want your audience to feel.

By assessing those key elements, we can choose notes that best represent your brand and accomplish the goals of your Scent Marketing program. We’ll develop several scents for you, conduct testing to evaluate how people respond to each aroma and then present them to you for your feedback.

White Glove Service

A hands-free program.

As a SensoryMax client, you’ll enjoy our elite White Glove Service. It includes our thorough discovery process, plus all aspects of equipment installation to ensure that each of your locations is properly scented and delivering a consistent aromatic experience. We’ll also refill your scent diffusers and provide system maintenance as necessary.

Plus, you’ll pay no upfront cost for your equipment or installation. With SensoryMax, you’ll enjoy personal service from a team that’s completely devoted to your satisfaction.

Frequently Asked Questions

We deploy your brand’s scent through your building’s HVAC system to deliver a consistent aroma throughout each location.

Absolutely. Once we develop your brand aroma, we can apply it to your packaging, marketing materials, letterhead and other tangible items, maybe even your products.

We’ll send approved contractors to each of your locations to conduct site surveys. They’ll determine how many units you’ll need based on your square footage and where they should be installed. At a later date, those contractors will return with the equipment and install it.

Following the discovery process, it takes an average of three months to develop and test your scent, assess your feedback, conduct the site survey(s) and install your equipment.

As part of your program, we’ll automatically refill the oil in your scent unit every eight months, so it never runs out.

Your aroma truly is a brand element. Just as you don’t change your logo every season, we don’t recommend changing your scent either.

Success Stories

Ocean Bank | South Florida

Challenge:

Instead of just transactional banking, Miami-based Ocean Bank wanted to provide an elevated retail experience that made an impression on their high-end clients. To that end, they started exploring Scent Marketing.

Solution:

We advised Ocean Bank on how to incorporate Scent Marketing into their brand in a way that would resonate with visitors. We created a signature scent for them with a ‘Florida’ feel, incorporating oceanic, beachy, sweet and floral notes. Now, they’re providing a more relaxed, luxurious experience for their clients.

Results:

“Including Scent Marketing as one of the first steps in our brand revitalization process has allowed us to have stronger emotional connections with our customers, increase brand recognition and get customers to stay longer, which potentially increases sales”

Pamela Frank , Vice President
Ocean Bank

Virginia Tire & Auto | Eastern Virginia

Challenge:

The environment of the typical tire and auto shop feels very masculine, even though more than half of that industry’s customers are women.

Virginia Tire & Auto’s new female Chief Marketing Officer had one mission: re-brand to appeal to the majority of their walk-in traffic – female drivers.

To accomplish that goal, they brightened up their lobbies and uniforms by changing both to a distinctive lime-green color. They installed espresso bars at each store and, for their lobbies, they broadened their television package to include more female-oriented programming. The missing component was scent.

Solution:

The SensoryMax team created a scent that supported the new lime-green colors at Virginia Tire. It was a crushed lime and mint aroma, much like a mojito. After the new brand scent was implemented, the Virginia Tire & Auto staff noticed increased revenue from female clientele, as well as positive Yelp reviews.

Results:

“Numerous customers have commented in written reviews how the smell of our stores has enhanced their vehicle repair experience. One customer even wrote how ‘shocked’ they were by ‘how good it smelled!”

Julie Boncarosky Holmes
Virginia Tire & Auto

Lincoln | Dearborn, Michigan

Challenge:

Lincoln’s leaders wanted to redesign the entire dealership experience. As part of that effort, they made several changes involving paint, furniture, fixtures, lighting, music and noise reducers. During the redesign process, we proposed Scent Marketing. They loved the concept.

Solution:

We led the development of the brand’s signature scent – the Essence of Lincoln. It reinforced the elegance of their brand and the strong aesthetic of their locations, while appealing to their client demographic.

Lincoln has applied their brand aroma in several ways: scented business cards, in-cabin air filters that diffuse the scent and retention mailers that encourage people to visit a Lincoln dealership. They’ve also considered several opportunities to use the scent in their Lincoln merchandise stores.

Results:

“As we transform our dealer network to provide a higher level of client experience, we look for ways to engage the senses of every visitor. The Essence of Lincoln scent is an extension of that initiative. We thank [SensoryMax] for helping shape the future of the Lincoln showroom experience.”

Enza Sleva , Client Experience Manager
Lincoln