Smell is considered one of our most powerful senses. Companies are increasingly looking for professional creative, and customized scents to create a brand image in the consumer’s mind. Although many people may not have heard of olfactory marketing, it has been around for years, with some of the most well-known brands employing this strategy. Let’s discover more about the magic world of creating a signature scent looking at some great examples.
Disney Theme Park
Disney was one of the pioneers in this field. They diffuse different aromas to match the locations around their parks. Walking along Main Street in the morning and popcorn wafts through the air, at dinner time, Main Street smells of f warm biscuits, ride California Adventure, and the smells of oranges waft through the air as you fly over the orange groves, and so on.
Scent is a part of the design of every theme park Disney opens. It is all about creating the complete experience so that away from Disney Theme Parks, memories will be triggered whenever that smell is in the air.
Scent Company
At Scent Company, we focus on developing professional creative, and customized bespoke home fragrances. We create fragrances by carefully studying the customer, his identity and by creating ad hoc proposals.
John Lewis
Our fragrances are designed to reflect the company’s identities and values. For John Lewis we have created fragrances for different cleaning and resting environments, highlighting the character notes of each situation.
The following three case studies illustrate how we combine fragrances using the olfactory pyramid to create a fragrance that complemented the brand. They illustrate how in combination, a range of different fragrances can combine to create an olfactory memory.
- Lait de Cotton (Cotton Milk)
One of our signature fragrances, Lait de Cotton, was designed to smell like fresh laundry.
The fragrance profile that we aimed to achieve was fresh flora. The most volatile notes in this fragrance are bergamot, black pepper, and lemon. They were chosen to introduce the fragrance. The heart notes which come through as the top notes fade are a combination of jasmine, hyacinth, carnation milk, cotton, and lily of the valley. We complemented these fragrances with base notes, of vetyver, white musk, patchouli, and musk tree.
- Neve Fresca (Fresh Snow)
Neve Fresca was developed for a bedding brand. This fragrance is based on a citrus, floral profile.
For this fragrance, we chose tangerine, bergamot, lavender, and mint for their seductive qualities. Our heart notes were chosen to give the fragrance balance. They are the main theme of the fragrance and include jasmine, lily of the valley, and violet. We added vetyver, white musk, patchouli, and musk tree to leave a lasting impression.
- The Vert Ry
This floral, fresh profile was also developed for a bed brand. Bergamot, orange, lemon, and apple were chosen for their citrus overtones as the top notes. The heart notes give the fragrance its full-body and include jasmine, star anise, violet tea, and honeysuckle. While cedarwood and musk were used to create the fragrance’s lasting quality.
SKP Beijing
SKP, the largest shopping mall in China, chose Scent Company to create a fragrance to match the concept of its shops. Innovation and avant-garde, minimalism and street style are some of the ingredients we used to create the recipe for the SKP fragrance.
For the well-known Chinese luxury shopping leader, Scent Company designed 1 abstract signature scent, positioned at the entrance, to characterise the identity of the mall as well as a set of 13 different scents to highlight the specific areas and sectors of each shop.
The Olfactory Pyramid
Each fragrance is designed with the olfactory pyramid in mind. The Olfactory Pyramid is a classification system for the olfactory notes that make up a particular fragrance. It is based on the theory that fragrances can be compared to a musical scale. Each fragrance is classified according to the persistence of its notes and the degree of volatility.
There are three-note classifications:
- The Top Notes: the ones we smell immediately. Typically, they are the most volatile and often fade away quickly. Citrus and marine are the most common of the olfactory families at the top of the pyramid.
- The Middle or Heart Notes: the warm notes that come through next. These notes are floral or fruity in nature. Heart notes have been described as the soul of the fragrance.
- The Base Notes: the persistent notes that linger after the other notes have faded. Some of the more common base notes are spicy, oriental, leathery, gourmand, and leathery fragrances. The lighter fragrances have musk, vanilla, and chypre as base notes.
When creating a fragrance, the challenge is to balance the three notes. The fragrances we develop at the Scent Company use the olfactory pyramid, so the fragrance imprints the olfactory memory and creates a lasting connection to the brand in the consumer’s mind.
Scent Company is one of the leaders in this field. If you are interested in finding out more about our scents, make sure you visit our website.
