JAL - Scent Marketing

JAL - Scent Marketing

Certain scents can trigger both emotional and memory responses, an element that is often overlooked when creating a brand image. Supermarkets around the world, for example, have played on our noses for years, pumping their in-store bakery waste air into the entrance air conditioning to alert the nose and help create the sense of hunger in the brain.

Whilst nothing new, olfactory marketing is a relatively modern concept to the airline industry, with only Singapore Airlines (who initiated the concept 18 years ago) and recently British Airways also scenting their experience.

JAL last month introduced two new scents which will appear in their lounges at Tokyo Narita, Tokyo Haneda and Sapporo airports. The scents will change dependent on the time of day, with the morning fragrance imparting a sense of a “gentle and refreshing, peaceful morning” and the evening fragrance imparting “luxury with sophisticated richness.”

The scents are purely aimed at creating a more graceful and comfortable atmosphere for its passengers and the fragrances, designed by Midori Makishima, aren’t for sale.

This differs slightly from the approach that Turkish Airlines has taken in May this year, when it introduced a fragrance that it sells. Dubbed TK1933, the fragrance is used to ‘scent’ the entire travel experience (from lounges to aircraft). By selling the fragrance on board, Turkish Airlines also hopes to generate additional revenues.