5 The Power of Scent Memory
Now to shake things up a bit. Yes, it is important to know some of the history of fragrance (it gives you bragging rights at parties!). It is also important to be able to explain the different types of fragrances so a customer knows what they are buying. However, there is a big AHA moment I need you to have right now, and then I need you to help guide your clients too it as well.
Here it is:
Fragrance is almost entirely about how it makes YOU feel.
Let me say that one more time for the speed readers.
Fragrance is almost entirely about how it makes YOU feel.
You can show your customer 100 fragrances with vanilla in them for hours on end. But at the end of the day, choosing fragrance is a very personal, very emotional journey. This is because of what we in the industry like to call scent memory. This is how we attached various scents to moments in our life. Someone who wears Giorgio Armani’s Acqua di Gio may have a love for time spent at the ocean with family as a child. Or a connection to Yves Saint Laurent’s Black Opium, heavily based in black coffee beans, may be from mornings getting up for school smelling mom brewing her second cup of espresso. Fragrance is about memories.
So how do we sell memories? We simply ask one important question:
How does this make you feel?
The best and easiest way to connect with your customer is to allow them to guide the journey through their own scent memories.
Once you have an idea what type of fragrance is resonating with the customer based on their scent memories, you can help use your knowledge of the various fragrances to show them things that are similar. Remember this does not mean just because they like something with vanilla you should show them everything with vanilla. They may like something that is floral and warm like Viktor & Rolf’s Flower Bomb, or something that is sweet and spicy like Ralph Lauren’s Polo Red. Show options that make sense. And try to narrow it to no more than four fragrances (that is about all our nose can smell at one time and still be able to differentiate between). An insider trick to help your client smell more fragrances is to have them smell their shoulder or somewhere on their clothing. This helps get them back to their own scent; a reset button, if you will. Some people might tell you smelling coffee beans does the same thing, however, that is a myth. That simply adds another ingredient in to their nose. And quite a few fragrances now have coffee in them already.
So are you ready to take your clients on a scent journey?