Smells like a sale! Scented packaging is trending

Although our sense of smell is not as sharp as that of many animals, the impact it has on our purchasing behavior is not to be underestimated. Just catch a whiff of hot chocolate, fresh-cut grass or that new book smell and you’ll find yourself immersed in a flurry of (childhood) memories. There’s simply no denying that smell triggers memories and associations like none of our other senses can. Hence, it was only a matter of time before packaging designers started incorporating scents into their designs.

Tapping into the power of embodied cognition

While it’s usually a great graphic design that encourages a consumer to pick up a product, scent can make all the difference for brands when it comes to sealing the deal. After all, the smell-analyzing region of the brain is closely connected to the parts that process memories and emotions. What’s more, simultaneously seeing, smelling and touching something encourages the human brain to engage in embodied cognition: the more senses a packaging appeals to at the same time, the stronger it gets encoded in the brain – along with the associations it triggers. While merchandisers have been known to experiment with scent to draw consumers to specific products and tempt them into buying, the nifty trick is now making its way to packaging design.

Scented perfume packaging

Forget testers and test strips: why not add fragrance to a perfume’s actual packaging? More and more perfume brands are seeing the benefits: it’s not only cheaper, but more practical and less confusing for the consumer, too. There’s only so much arm you can spray, for one, and once you’re holding more than three test strips it’s easy to lose track of which is which. Additionally, consumers no longer have to open packages if they want to test a perfume, cream or gel.

Innovative packaging design: touch me, smell me!

Having smelt the scented packaging trend from afar, specialist packaging company Follmann has come up with the perfect solution for adding fragrances to packaging. Perfectly compatible with both flexographic and screen printing (and an ideal solution for shrink-wrapped cosmetics and perfume products), micro-capsules enclosed within an oil-based scented coating make sure the packaging gives off a fragrance whenever the consumer touches it.   Inspired by Interpack