Use the power of smells and tastes to captivate your customers. Part three of a four-part series on using the senses to influence customer decisions.
When customers exit the wash tunnel at The Better Wash in Gladstone, Mo., there’s a good chance that they’ll be smelling more than the fresh scents of the mango hot wax or citrus rain repellent. If they’ve stopped first at Dominic’s Italian Express, the drive-through restaurant that’s attached to the car wash, they are probably enjoying enticing whiffs of freshly made lasagna, pizza or toasted raviolo, wafting up from the takeout containers on the seat beside them. They may even take a bite out of the meatball sub as they’re going through the wash tunnel.
The wonderful aromas and tastes of Italian food, which most people associate with warmth and welcome, are now linked in customers’ minds and memories with The Better Wash as well. Those sensory memories, coupled with the quality car wash services that The Better Wash provides, encourage people to return to the location again and again.
Influencing Emotions and Behaviors
Scents make lasting impressions on our brain, creating memories that are even stronger than those created by vision, according to a study published in a 2017 issue of “Memory.” In their abstract, the authors note, “The findings of this study support the notion that odors are particularly potent in eliciting rich memories.”
Humans detect smells through the 400 or so olfactory receptors located in the nose and the nasal passages. By combining the input from these receptors, people are able to distinguish 10,000 different types of odors. The olfactory receptors send this information to the olfactory bulb; from there it travels to the limbic system, which stores memories, influences emotions, and controls learning and survivalist behaviors like mating, aggression and defense.
The sense of smell and taste work closely together, according to The Fifth Sense, an organization that supports people with smell and taste disorders, People who lose their sense of smell, for example, often complain that their food doesn’t taste as good as it did before.
People experience taste through 2,000-4,000 taste buds that are located mostly on the tongue, but may also be found at the back of the throat and in other places in the oral cavity. People can experience at least six different taste sensations: sweet, salty, sour, bitter, piquancy (spicy) and umami (savory). Some scientists believe even more should be included in this listing.
The area of the brain that handles input from the taste buds is very close to the area that handles smells, which could explain the strong connection between these two senses.
Selling and Marketing with Taste and Smell
Researchers have been exploring the workings of smell and taste and their impact on human behavior for decades. In the last few years, as sensory marketing has gained attention, companies are finding ways to apply what’s known about the impact of smell and taste on human behavior to marketing campaigns and to the design of retail stores.
Numerous studies have documented how potential buyers react to various types of scent stimuli.
In one joint project from Washington State University and the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland, researchers found that sales in one retail store increased when it used a simple orange scent in the area rather than a complex orange/basil/green tea scent.
Another frequently cited study by Alan Hirsch looked at the impact of scent on shoe sales. Identical Nike shoes were place in scented and unscented rooms. The researchers found that 84% of the customers who had viewed the shoes in the scented room reported that they were more likely to buy them. The percentage was much lower in the unscented room. Hirsch also found that slot machines located in a scented area drew in 45% more money than the slots in unscented areas.
The research on taste and consumer behavior is much more limited, except as it relates to the food industry. But sensory marketers like to emphasize the link between taste and memory, and suggest that foods that taste good, like cookies and pasta, may evoke positive memories that encourage people to view a retailer or service provider more favorably.
Good Scents Build Sales
When Dominic Cuccia built The Better Wash’s first location in Gladstone, he wasn’t thinking of the power of sensory marketing. He had added an additional drive-through window to the facility with the idea of giving customers a Starbucks-like coffee service when they visited the car wash. Although Cuccia had previously operated a very popular stand-alone pizza and pasta drive-through, that wasn’t something he planned for the car wash.
But after his father died, and his mother wanted something to keep her busy, he decided to open Dominic’s Casual Italian Express. “I noticed that when people came into the car wash during their lunch hour, they would be eating or drinking something. So I figured it might be a good idea if they could get food, get the car washed and get back to work,” he said.
Since Cuccia’s mother liked to cook the sauces and the pasta in the 400-square-foot small kitchen early in the morning, car wash customers could smell the restaurant’s offerings throughout the day. Although his mother passed a few years ago, the enticing aromas of palate-pleasing Italian food continue to bring in people hungry for a meal and for a cleaner car.
“People will come and get their food and think that while they’re here they’ll get a car wash at the same time,” Cuccia said. “It definitely works both ways. Our customer service attendants are cross-trained for the car wash and drive-through, so they can answer questions if a car wash customer is asking about the restaurant or vice versa. We have a lot of customers who order food, then go through the car wash while their order is being made. We stock Dominic's menus in the car wash to give to customers.”
Although the car wash/restaurant has been a big hit with customers, and has drawn a lot of media attention, Cuccia said he has no plans to repeat this combination at his other three locations. At those car washes, he relies on citrus scents in the wash tunnel. “I think they trigger something in your brain that makes you feel good,” he said.
Scents for the Seasons
Qual Chem, which specializes in car wash chemistry, provides a variety of scents that car washes can use to make a sensory impression on their customers.
“With growing competition in all markets, customer experience is an important key to setting yourself apart from your competition,” said Jessica Price Easter, director of marketing.
“We started a couple years ago with a holiday fragrance that would make your car wash smell like a Christmas tree. It was a huge hit. Our customers and our customers’ customers loved it,” she said. “Customers get excited when a new scent hits and it makes them feel festive, excited, fun and engaged.”
The success of the Holiday Blend fragrance encouraged Qual Chem to expand its fragrance offerings. “We decided to do seasonal fragrances: spring, summer, fall and winter, Easter said. “As a company, during one of our annual meetings, we all sit down at the table and do a huge sniff test. We all vote and the top fragrances are then paired with a season.”
The scents are designed to help customers recall pleasant memories. In previous years the company has offered Suds on a Beach, which smelled like sun tan lotion and pina coladas. Citrus Zest was a blend of different citrus notes, and one fall fragrance, Sweater Weather, “felt like a warm hug,” Easter said. “It was so popular we’ve been asked to make it a permanent fragrance.”
In 2023, the first scent was Sunny Day, a blend of lavender and herbs that had a spa feel to it. “It would boost spirits and put a customer in the spring cleaning mood,” she said. The summer season scent was a juicy fresh peach scent. The fall scent will be Tropical Holiday, which is reminiscent of the popular volcano candles. Qual Chem sent out tea candles to its customers with this scent, and car washes liked it so much that they’ve asked the company to make it a permanent offering.
Easter said its customers look forward to new releases each year. “We have fun with the artwork, branding and marketing behind it and helping operators market it to their customers too. It is a great way to bring whimsy to your wash and keep customers wanting to come in to see what you are doing next,” she said.
Signature Scent
Soapy Joe’s Car Wash in San Diego County, Calif., has been using scents as part of its marketing efforts for several years and even has a signature air freshener.
“It is a sweet citrus scent, and we really lean into the fact that it's uplifting,” said Anne Mauler, VP of marketing. “In our annual survey, customers tell us that happiness and a sense of accomplishment are what they feel most after their car washes. So we really like to wrap that all together, and then engage all their senses so that we can really reinforce that and make sure that we're delivering on that experience.”
The company gives a free air freshener featuring the Soapy Joe’s mascot to its customers after each wash. Its design may change during certain promotions. “Last summer we did a different air freshener for each of our 16 locations. You could get them not only at the site, but we also delivered NFTs (non-fungible tokens), so customers had a digital copy of those air fresheners that showed when they visited the site,” she added. The promotion had some gamification as well; customers who went to four sites qualified for a certain tier of prizes, while those who visited eight got a prize from a higher tier.
To further increase customers’ engagement with the brand, the company sometimes offers special air freshener scents, like pumpkin spice latte one fall. It has thought about developing different scents for the air fresheners for each of its 20 sites, or even having some kind of “guess the scent” promotion. “Scent is one of the untapped frontiers in terms of engaging our members and it’s something we’re really looking to do in 2024. We just approved a scent-based promo for 2024, so I can confirm this is a strategy we are investing in,” Mauler said. “We are ALL about engaging the senses!” She said one of the scents in the works for 2024 is Fallbrook Avocado Fest, but one of their cult favorites is Classic Air Freshener, which is a sweet citrus scent.
Customers will soon get subtle scent reminders of Soapy Joe’s in their own homes; the company is working on a home goods line of candles and air diffusers with its sweet citrus scents.
Soapy Joe’s has also used the sense of taste to make a brand impression. The company hired a local artist to make cookie cutters in the shape of its air freshener, and it brings cookies made with them to community events. “We are really trying to engage people through their taste buds; it’s such an aesthetic thing to have a Soapy Joe’s cookie. We think it takes customers to a lovely place, and we like to lean into that flavor profile for special events,” Mauler said.
Sensory connections like these reach people on a different level, Mauler said. “It’s difficult to stand out in the car wash marketplace when you’re talking features and benefits as opposed to emotional connections. At Soapy Joe’s, we hang our hat on creating those emotional connection touch points.”