Sensing the Fragrance Experience
By Ariella Halperin, Founder & Creative Director, Storied Senses
“It’s no longer just about what you smell like, but what you hear, see or feel.” These are words spoken by writer Rebecca Fearn of Elle.com, as she describes the current state of the fragrance industry. And she could not be more right. Fragrance brands (and when I say ‘fragrance,’ I am referring to not only fine fragrance, but home, body care and every scented category in between) are expanding their reach from letting us “consume scent…just with our noses” to full body and mind experiences that engage all the other senses as well. Fearn goes on to explain that consumers are demanding more from perfumes as “we wish it to be a journey through emotion, escapism and nostalgia, evoking powerful imagery and memory.” This is precisely how today’s fragrance enthusiasts want to shop for perfume – as an experience. And the way that brands are incorporating these ideals of synesthesia – the blending of the senses – into their storytelling, provides us with an entirely new way of choosing fragrance.
Last June, I wrote an article in Perfumer & Flavorist+ magazine about how fragrance brands are leveraging synesthesia to tell unique and dynamic stories of their scents and utilizing multiple senses for product development. But now, we see how brands are exploring ways to incorporate synesthetic ideas into the point of purchase stage – whether in-store or online. Calle Stenqvist of design agency Plan8 describes how the niche fragrance brand Stora Skuggan invited musical artists to create “audiovisual interpretations of their perfumes,” which were then presented as interactive pages on the brand’s website. It’s quite a synergistic experience, and I must say, I was fully engaged in the activity, clicking on each fragrance’s individual ingredient call-outs, listening to their corresponding chords and then combining the ingredients together to hear the full musical composition of the fragrance.
There were specific arrangements I gravitated towards more than others, which would certainly influence my decision-making process when choosing which fragrance to purchase. Of course I would consider the ingredients themselves, knowing which ones I personally like to wear and the olfactive families I prefer; however, accompanying these ingredients with musical notes that exhibit their own characteristics, surely affected how I perceived the fragrances. This brings to mind an interesting study on the influence of sound and music on the perception of scent. In the study, participants were exposed to pleasant and unpleasant music, as well as white noise, while smelling different scents. As expected, the participants who were exposed to pleasant music perceived the odors as more pleasant, and accordingly, perceived the odors as unpleasant when listening to the unpleasant deemed music. Surprisingly though, the participants perceived the smells as most unpleasant while exposed to the white noise. How this translates in a retail environment could mean simple background noise in a fragrance store could negatively affect shoppers’ perceptions of the products and in turn, reduce sales. As Stenqvist posits, consumers need “engaging sampling environments” that arouse their senses and evoke meaning and connection to brand stories and products.
One way that fragrance brand State of Mind has incorporated synesthesia into experiencing their fragrances is through taste. The self-proclaimed “brand for the synesthetes” frequently conducts in-person events, pairing their products with scented teas to accompany the notes in their perfumes. For their Fanfarone Italiano fragrance launch last June, the brand created a special event that presented for the first time “a gourmet coffee that forms a synesthetic couple” with the new scent. Attendees could taste the roasted coffee with facets of honey, vanilla, tonka bean and cocoa, while sampling Fanfarone Italiano, which boasts complementary notes of chocolate, coffee, tonka and vanilla, for an interconnected sensorial experience.
And I think this is only the tip of the iceberg for brand explorations of synesthesia in retail environments and online. SVP Brand Experience of agency TMA, Fred Shank, explains how “as technology empowers us, brands will craft experiences that surpass” engaging just one or two additional senses. Shank implores us to imagine entering a brand experience that greets consumers with interactive displays “pulsing with the colors” of notes detected in their fragrance diffused in the air while music that corresponds to the colors plays in the background. Now reach out and touch the fragrance notes that have been brought to life with textured materials as you are handed a tasty treat “infused with the flavors of the perfume.” I might even go a step further, envisioning a digital counterpart for ecommerce shoppers. Perhaps more brands will leverage VR and AR components that allow consumers to hear and see the same audio and visual stimuli as in-store, but also personalize their experience with tailored preferences and interactive games through a virtual showroom, “incentivizing user participation and foster[ing] a sense of accomplishment” to drive brand loyalty, as Dr. Frank Dürr of digital agency Acameo describes. This truly is just the beginning as more brands create synesthetic experiences that fully engage consumers and forge richer and more emotional connections with them.
Sources
https://www.elle.com/uk/beauty/a46524587/synesthesia-scents/
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/amp-up-your-fragrance-game-sweet-connection-between-sound-stenqvist/
https://francevisiting.com/index.php/2023/06/27/state-of-mind-fanfarone-italiano/
https://share.wearetma.agency/how-brand-experience-will-evolve-in-2024/