Scratch and Sniff Marketing – A Look at Scent Marketing
”Scented Printing + An Interview with Scentisphere
Almost all of us have heard of, seen or even interacted with something that is scratch n sniff at one point or another. But the majority of people never really think about it beyond maybe asking “I wonder how they do that?”. The truth is this is a marketing thing. In fact, it’s literally called Scratch and Sniff Marketing, Scent Marketing or Scent Advertising depending on the marketer you talk to.
We recently spoke with Scentisphere at the Printing United show in Las Vegas to get more insider knowledge on how and what marketers and brands are looking for when it comes to scratch n sniff marketing.
So in this article we’re going to break down scent marketing for you as well as drop those insights from the leading manufacturer of scents that you can print.
What is Scratch and Sniff Marketing?
It kind of speaks for itself, but here’s the definition. Scratch and Sniff Marketing is the use of scent infused inks on surfaces that activate when scratched or rubbed and are an element of a marketing campaign or strategy.
There are a number of industries that have done this for a while and use many of the same marketing tactics to utilize the infused scents that activate from some action whether it be scratch, peel, or rub.
What Industries Use Scratch and Sniff Marketing?
Really any industry can use Scratch N Sniff Advertising or Scent Marketing / Advertising. But you will find it being mostly used in the B2C space within industries such as health & beauty, food and home cleaning products.
An Example of scent marketing or scent advertising at its best is what fragrance companies did for years to draw us in. They would put ads in magazines that had scent infused adhesives that when peeled back, activated the scent so we could sample the smell of the perfume or cologne. They also would make it so that you could rub these activated pieces on your skin to give you a mild experience of wearing that fragrance.
But you see all different types of industries, products and methods of delivery. The more creative the company gets with their scented printing or scent activation the more impact this type of scent marketing will have.
**As an interesting side note the Scratch N Sniff technology was actually developed back in the 60’s by 3M (it seems like 3M invented nearly everything, lol)
Scentisphere – A Leading Manufacturer of Inks for Scent Marketing & Scent Advertising
We talked with Scentisphere to learn more about how brands and marketers are using scented print / scent printing to market their products to consumers and what they shared was extremely insightful.
To start, Scentisphere doesn’t actually do any printing or creating of the marketing material that has the scent infused & activation. They are the geniuses behind the scents and fragrances themselves who provide the “smells” to the marketers, brands and printers. Think of them as working in the science of scent.
Who Comes Up With the Idea for A Scent Marketing Campaign?
The Scentisphere team shed some light on this for us.
Big brands that have large lines of consumer products with points of differentiation all have scents and smells within those lines. Think of laundry detergent, fabric softener, air fresheners. What’s great about those companies is that they already have scientists and chemists who create these scents for their own products. So when those brands need to have a scratch and sniff marketing campaign or other scent activated piece those brands can supply Scentisphere with the proprietary chemical scents which they then encapsulate so it can be added to the inks or adhesives the print company will use to produce the final marketing piece.
But in some cases the engineers at Scentisphere are asked to recreate the smell of something that doesn’t already exist in chemical form. Under those circumstances a brand is getting something highly unique!
Then there are standard fragrances that are a part of chemical libraries which have been around for a while. Think of scents such as oranges, pineapples, roses, lavender or even rain.
In every case it’s typically a marketer who initiates the need for a scent advertising campaign which then moves forward the series of events to getting to the final scent printed piece.
What is the Future of Scent Marketing?
Scent Marketing & Scratch N Sniff Print have been around for a while, it’s really made a big comeback and the demand is increasing rapidly throughout the year, year over year. So right now the future is looking very bright for different types of scent advertising.
The good news is that for you as a print service provider this presents a great opportunity to open up more sales at your business by offering scent printed products. If you have more questions on how to make that available for your print company contact the crew at Scentisphere to learn more.
And to generate more sales of that new line you can of course use us here at Pryntbase to make sure everyone knows you do it!