The sweet smell of advertising: the essence of matching scents with other ad cues

ABSTRACT

New technologies enable practitioners to communicate scents in advertisements on various media. The current research examines the importance of matching scent cues to the advertised product, and the joint effect of scent and other cues such as colour on consumer responses to advertising. A 4 × 2 experimental design was conducted, where participants (N = 603) were presented with scented colour print advertisements. Three hierarchical responses were measured: emotional response, attitude, and purchase intention. Findings reveal that higher congruence between scent and the advertised product heightens positive consumer response. Furthermore, this research stresses the significant joint effect of scent and colour cues, and supports the incongruence approach, suggesting that combining scents that are poorly congruent with other sensory cues enhance consumer response. Practical and theoretical implications are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Scent
• colour
• attitude toward the brand
• PAD model
• congruence
• incongruence

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Yaniv Gvili

Yaniv Gvili is an assistant professor of marketing at the School of Business Administration of Ono Academic College, Israel. Yaniv received his PhD degree from Temple University. Prior to his academic career, he worked as an analyst and director of research in a global communications network. His work has been published in leading journals including Journal of Advertising Research. Yaniv's research interests include word of mouth, social networks, and new media marketing.

Shalom Levy

Shalom Levy is a lecturer of marketing at the Department of Economics and Business Administration, Ariel University, Israel. He holds a PhD degree from Bar-Ilan University. Prior to this, he worked as a media manager and head of planning and research in advertising companies. His work has been published in journals including as Marketing Letters and International Journal of Advertising.

Moty Zwilling

Moty Zwilling is a lecturer of marketing at the Department of Economics and Business Administration, Ariel University, Israel.