Scent Marketing on Aeroplanes

Walking past the bakery and noticing the welcoming aroma of freshly baked bread and entering the shop to purchase is exactly the plan!

More and more businesses are using scent marketing to entice consumers into their premises as well as creating the perfect aroma for different settings.

In this scent marketing series, we are looking at the different scents that work for different businesses, environments and occasions.

Scent Marketing on Aeroplanes

With thousands of flights taking place around the world every single day, airports and aeroplane hold a very captive audience. Holidaymakers, business travellers and personal travellers are in the airport for a few hours before the flight as well as potentially hours on board, and experiences count.

How often have you flown with an airline and something has put you off, making you not want to fly with them again? Cramped seating, poor food, crying children or bad smells are top of the problem lists. Now we know that not all of those issues are directly caused by the airline or anything they can control, however, what the airline CAN control is the ambience on board and more importantly, the scent of the plane.

Back in 2013, a special scent was commissioned by Turkish Airlines to be used on board their flights – featuring elements to ‘product feelings of trust, peace, happiness, serenity and pleasure’.
Delta Airlines also followed suit using a scent called ‘Calm’ featuring lavender and chamomile in the soaps found in the washrooms and in the hot towels and Iberia Airlines has a citrus scent within the cabin.

Studies have proven that scents can improve moods, help to form memories or recollection of memories, increase sales and improve the consumer journey to shorten the perception of time.

The best scents for cabins would be clean and light fragrances with uplifting elements such as lavender, jasmine, and magnolia, as these scents are powerful enough to be noticed but unlikely to offend.