What Makes One Business Stand Out From Another? Sometimes, It's the Scent.
How a simple conversation highlighted the role scent can play in shaping first impressions and distinguishing one business from another.
Businesses spend a lot of time thinking about how to stand out.
They invest in attractive spaces, comfortable furniture, welcoming staff, and positive customer experiences. Every detail contributes to someone's impression when they walk through the door.
But there's one detail businesses may overlook.
How their space smells.
And sometimes, that detail leaves a stronger impression than expected.
A Conversation That Stuck With Me
I recently spoke with someone who had been touring senior living communities while helping a family member find the right place to call home.
During our conversation, he brought up something I found particularly interesting.
He told me it was amazing how much scent differentiated one community from another.
As he visited different communities, the way each building smelled influenced his overall impression.
Some environments felt more inviting. Others simply didn't leave the same impression.
What surprised me most was that he actually thanked me for the work we do at Fragrant Solutions.
What made that conversation particularly interesting was his perspective.
He wasn't a senior living operator. He wasn't a marketing director. He wasn't someone selling scent marketing.
He was the family member walking through the door.
He was experiencing these communities exactly as a prospective customer would.
And he noticed the difference.
Your Customers Notice More Than You Think
That conversation highlighted an important aspect of the customer experience.
The atmosphere of a business can influence how people perceive and remember it.
Think about the last time you walked into a hotel, a retail store, or an office.
Before anyone greeted you, you were already forming an impression.
The lighting. The cleanliness. The temperature. The sounds.
And yes, the scent.
Our sense of smell has strong connections to the parts of the brain involved in emotion and memory. Research published in Progress in Neurobiology explores the relationship between olfaction, emotion, and associative learning. As a result, scent can contribute to how people perceive an environment and recall it later.
Different fragrances may contribute to perceptions of freshness, comfort, warmth, or luxury, depending on the setting and individual preferences.
And when customers visit several competing businesses, these subtle differences may influence their overall impressions.
Differentiation Isn't Always Something You Can See
Most businesses focus on visual differentiation.
They renovate lobbies, update signage, improve landscaping, and invest in interior design.
Those investments matter.
But what happens when competing businesses have equally attractive spaces?
Consider three senior living communities. Each has a beautiful entrance, friendly staff, and comfortable common areas.
On paper, they may seem nearly identical.
But imagine walking into one community and noticing a subtle fragrance that complements the surroundings.
That additional sensory detail may contribute to how comfortable, inviting, or memorable the environment feels. A study published in the Journal of Marketing found that ambient scent influenced customer evaluations and behaviors in a simulated retail environment.
The same principle applies to hotels, apartment communities, fitness centers, offices, and retail spaces.
When businesses look similar, the overall sensory experience can influence how people distinguish between them.
Scent represents one component of that experience.
The Experience Stays With the Customer
One of the most interesting things about the conversation I had wasn't simply that this individual noticed the different scents.
It was that he remembered them.
He had toured multiple communities, yet scent remained important enough to his experience that he brought it up in a completely separate conversation.
That observation raises an interesting point about customer experiences.
Customers may forget the exact color of the lobby furniture. They may not remember every feature someone showed them during a tour.
But they may remember how a place made them feel.
Scent can contribute to those associations and become part of someone's memory of a particular environment.
It doesn't replace great service, a beautiful environment, or a quality product.
Instead, it adds another sensory element to the overall experience.
Over time, a consistent fragrance may also become something customers associate with a particular business or location.
A Small Detail That Can Make a Difference
Businesses can incorporate scent into their environments without making major changes to their physical spaces.
Professional scent marketing systems provide one method for introducing a consistent fragrance throughout designated areas.
These systems can operate automatically, maintain consistent fragrance levels, and accommodate adjustments based on the size and needs of a space.
The objective generally involves maintaining a subtle fragrance rather than overwhelming visitors.
A well-balanced scent should complement the environment without drawing unnecessary attention to itself.
For a senior living community, that might mean a warm, welcoming lobby.
For an apartment community, it might mean a fresh, inviting leasing office.
For a hotel, it might mean a signature fragrance that guests begin to associate with their stay.
Different businesses. Different environments.
Each presents an opportunity to consider how scent contributes to the overall customer experience.
What Will Your Customers Remember?
I keep coming back to that conversation with the gentleman touring senior living communities.
He wasn't looking for scent marketing.
He wasn't evaluating fragrance systems.
He was simply trying to find the right community for someone he cared about.
Yet scent became one of the things that distinguished the places he visited.
His experience offers an interesting example of how environmental details can influence first impressions.
Customers don't need to consciously evaluate scent to notice differences between environments.
They walk through the doors, take in their surroundings, and form impressions based on a combination of sensory details.
Lighting, sound, cleanliness, design, service, and scent all contribute to that experience.
For businesses evaluating their physical environments, scent deserves consideration alongside these other elements.
And as that conversation demonstrated, sometimes the details people remember most aren't necessarily the ones businesses expect.
References
Spangenberg, E. R., Crowley, A. E., & Henderson, P. W. (1996). Improving the store environment: Do olfactory cues affect evaluations and behaviors? Journal of Marketing, 60(2), 67–80. https://doi.org/10.1177/002224299606000205
Herz, R. S., & Engen, T. (1996). Odor memory: Review and analysis. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 3, 300–313. https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03210754