Is there ever a time when you wish you could squeeze an advertisement for your restaurant or food business into an aroma? There are times when words fail to successfully convey your message. Scent is becoming a strategic tool for restaurants and dining experiences that want to improve brand recognition and sales. Many patrons cannot detect the scents or aromas used in restaurant marketing, but they are very effective in creating an atmosphere.

Here are some of the benefits of scent marketing in the food service industry, inspiration for marketing with aroma and how this type of sensory marketing entered the industry.

The effect of scent 

Smell is one of our most primal senses. It is the most basic method of collecting information from our surroundings.

Upon detecting a smell, your nose triggers olfactory neurons in its upper part that send electrical impulses to the olfactory bulb in the brain. These impulses are received and then transmitted to the surrounding areas, known as the limbic system. Mood, memory, behaviour, and emotion are all regulated by the limbic system.

Memory links to smell. Think about certain foods we’ve eaten as children. If your mom was eagerly baking bread every afternoon, walking past a bakery can transport you back to that memory. This is the reason many bakeries will lay their fresh bread out on tables or propped up against walls – as well as leave burlap sacks of flour lying around – for that homey effect. 

Scent marketing is becoming increasingly popular within the food industry for the above reasons. Kitchens can pump scents into the dining area through scent. They can also buy scents from experiential marketers, like S.O.H Group. 

From retail stores to the food industry, using scent marketing can enhance any experience. Brands can really set themselves apart with a subtle smell in their spaces. 

Scent marketing: the revolutionary experience 

Taste and smell are closely linked. Walking into a space and smelling something delicious can encourage a customer to want to eat there, and determine how much of it they want to eat. 

For example, flood the entryway to your dessert shop with hints of chocolate. You’ll find more and more people buying chocolate goodies. 

This is the idea of multisensory dining – focusing on more than just the taste of what you’re selling at your restaurant, bakery, cake shop or café. The experience becomes immersive, even if the customer is unaware of the marketing behind it. 

Scent, as a component of restaurant interior design, can influence not just diners’ opinions of your business, but also their spending habits.

The benefits of using scent for restaurant marketing

Because of how closely our smell and taste senses work together, it can seem unexpected that the food industry has not fully tapped into scent marketing or led the way. An enormous amount of growth can be achieved when restauranteurs control the smell and don’t just rely on the delectable smells from the kitchen.

1. Scent marketing can increase revenue

Smell extends appetite. An attractive aroma in a restaurant can encourage customers to order more food, spend more money, and thus benefit your business’s bottom line.

59% of consumers would spend more if a store smells good. And the right smell can encourage consumers to keep coming back. 

2. Inspires customers to become regulars 

Speaking of encouraging consumers to keep coming back, scent as a part of restaurant marketing can set the stage and influence overall satisfaction. It’s powerful. 

Loyalty in your dining experience is essential for your business to thrive. Creating a welcoming ambience – decor, lights, music and scent – can build up excellent customer feedback. A distinct aroma can still be appealing to customers even if they aren’t expecting it.

3. Scent stimulates the right emotions

We’ve spoken about how smell can steer memory and mood. Smell affects your customers’ moods psychologically, and certain smells can make them alert, happy, or relaxed. For example, a bar or restaurant that uses calming aromas of vanilla or lavender can ease the mood of patrons as they enter the establishment after a long, difficult day. 

Restaurant scents should be comforting, and they can refresh customers and enhance the overall atmosphere.

There are also smells that can change a person’s perspective of a room. A room feels bigger and airier when it is scented with apple and cucumber scents, for example. Alternatively, barbecue smoke makes a room feel smaller and stuffy.

4. It can strategically take advantage of foot traffic

While your restaurant may be located in a prime spot, scent marketing can attract customers inside.

For this reason, Cinnabon strategically places its ovens near the front of its stores so that customers are lured in by the aroma of cinnamon rolls baking. There are some restaurants that cook their strongest-smelling dishes during busy periods of the day when a lot of people are on passing by. Scent marketing can really hook hungry passersby.

Other areas to consider scenting

While ambient scenting can be used in any area, the experience of a patron in a restroom can impact the overall feeling the customer has. Restaurants are becoming more aware of the importance of having clean, good-smelling restrooms.

Having the same scent in the restrooms as in the main service area helps with the delivery aspect and uniformity of aromas.

With our programmable, innovative cold air micro-mist diffusers, your space will smell delicious without leaving any residue behind. No matter what emotion, mood or objective you want to achieve, there is a diffusing system for our unique scent marketing needs. Also, browse our ready-to-go fragrance collections. 

Scent marketing is worth the investment for your restaurant 

It’s worth noting that the right smells can increase food sales. Give your customers the impressive experience they’re after. From the moment a customer enters your lobby, create moments that delight and exceed their expectations.

Rather than burning or smoking natural herbs, spices or other ingredients, S.O.H Group is able to provide customised fragrances made of a mix of natural and synthetic aromas that are dispersed through diffusion systems. 

Boost your restaurant success with S.O.H Group

Promoting your restaurant requires a marketing strategy. Redefine your strategy with experiential marketing solutions made to entice customers through multisensory delight.  

Check out our sound and sight solutions today, and talk to our experts about how to enhance your workflow.
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