Why Smell Makes Brands Unforgettable: The Psychology of Scent and Memory by Choong Whan Park

How our sense of smell influences emotional connections, consumer behavior, and the brands we remember.

Woman enjoying the aroma of freshly brewed coffee, with dreamlike scenes of cherished memories illustrating the connection between smell, emotion, and memory.
A familiar scent can awaken powerful memories and emotions, illustrating how sensory experiences contribute to brand recognition, emotional attachment, and lasting consumer relationships.


Of all the human senses, smell possesses a particularly intriguing ability to reconnect us with experiences from the past. The aroma of freshly baked bread may evoke childhood memories, while the fragrance of a particular flower can remind someone of a person or place they have not encountered in decades. These recollections can arise unexpectedly, sometimes accompanied by emotions that seem disproportionate to the ordinary scent that triggered them. What makes this phenomenon especially interesting is that the experience often occurs before we have consciously identified the smell itself.

For businesses seeking to build meaningful relationships with consumers, this connection between scent, memory, and emotion offers an important perspective on brand strategy. Most discussions of branding concentrate on visual identity, advertising messages, product performance, and customer service. Yet consumers experience brands through a much broader range of sensory encounters, many of which influence their perceptions without attracting conscious attention. Smell is particularly relevant because it can become associated with experiences that acquire personal significance over time.

Professor Choong Whan Park addresses this broader relationship between sensory experiences and consumer attachment in his article, Why Can't Customers Forget Certain Brands?. His discussion emphasizes that memorable brands connect with consumers through both intellectual understanding and emotional experience. Expanding on this perspective, the psychology of smell provides a useful illustration of how sensory associations can contribute to brand recognition, emotional meaning, and enduring customer relationships.

The Neuroscience Behind Smell and Emotional Memory

The relationship between smell and memory begins with the organization of the human olfactory system. When airborne odor molecules enter the nose, they interact with specialized sensory receptors that transmit information to the olfactory bulb. From there, neural activity reaches several brain regions involved in identifying odors, evaluating their significance, and associating them with previous experiences. The olfactory system has particularly close anatomical and functional relationships with structures involved in emotion and memory, including the amygdala and hippocampus.

These connections help explain why odors can become powerful cues for autobiographical memories. Unlike remembering a historical fact or recognizing a familiar object, autobiographical memory involves recalling events from one's own life, often together with their emotional and contextual details. A familiar perfume, for example, might not simply remind someone of a particular person. It may revive impressions of the environment, circumstances, and feelings associated with that relationship.

Researchers have examined this phenomenon through experiments involving odor recognition, associative learning, and autobiographical recollection. A review published in Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience by Anne-Lise Saive, Jean-Pierre Royet, and Jane Plailly discusses how olfactory memory engages networks involved in retrieving personal experiences. Although the precise mechanisms remain an active subject of investigation, the research demonstrates that smell has distinctive relationships with memory systems.

This does not mean that smell invariably produces more accurate or stronger memories than sight or hearing. Memory is influenced by numerous variables, including familiarity, emotional significance, attention, and the circumstances in which information was originally experienced. What makes olfaction especially interesting for branding is its capacity to become associated with emotionally meaningful episodes. A scent encountered repeatedly during positive experiences may later serve as a cue that brings those experiences back to mind.

How Brands Become Associated With Particular Scents

To understand how smell contributes to brand memory, consider the experience of visiting a favorite café. The customer does not encounter the aroma of coffee in isolation. The smell accompanies a particular physical environment, the sounds of coffee preparation, familiar visual elements, the taste of a beverage, and perhaps conversations with friends or colleagues. With repeated visits, these sensory details can become associated with a broader experience of comfort, relaxation, productivity, or social connection.

Psychologically, this process involves associative learning. When sensory cues repeatedly accompany particular experiences, they may acquire some of the meaning attached to those experiences. The aroma of coffee can therefore become more than an indicator that coffee is nearby. For an individual who associates a particular café with enjoyable conversations or an established morning routine, the smell may activate memories and expectations related to those occasions.

The distinction between the scent itself and its acquired meaning is essential. A pleasant fragrance does not automatically produce affection for a brand, and an unpleasant customer experience will not become desirable simply because it occurs in a scented environment. The emotional significance of a sensory cue depends partly on what customers have experienced alongside it. Businesses that consistently deliver satisfying products and services create opportunities for sensory details to become associated with positive outcomes.

This also explains why the same aroma may produce different reactions among different individuals. The smell of coffee might suggest comfort to one consumer, professional activity to another, and an unpleasant experience to someone else. Scent associations are influenced by personal history, cultural expectations, and context. Consequently, businesses should be cautious about assuming that a particular fragrance communicates a universal emotional message.

What Consumer Research Reveals About Scent Marketing

The commercial application of these principles is commonly described as scent marketing: the deliberate use of fragrance or naturally occurring aromas to influence the customer experience. Retailers, hotels, restaurants, and other service businesses have explored scent as a way to influence perceptions of their environments, distinguish their offerings, and encourage more favorable customer responses.

Research indicates that scent can influence consumer behavior, although the results are more nuanced than some marketing claims suggest. In a meta-analysis published in the Journal of Marketing, Holger Roschk and Masoumeh Hosseinpour integrated 671 effects reported in ambient-scent experiments. Their findings indicated that pleasant ambient scents generally improved customer responses, but the magnitude of those effects depended on the circumstances. Factors such as scent familiarity, congruence with the environment, and the nature of the service experience influenced the outcomes.

This is a significant finding because it challenges the assumption that any pleasant fragrance will improve commercial performance. The effectiveness of scent marketing depends not only on whether consumers enjoy a particular aroma, but also on whether it makes sense within the environment in which they encounter it. A fragrance that complements one retail setting may appear inappropriate or distracting in another.

Another study, published in the Journal of Retailing by Andreas Herrmann and colleagues, investigated how fragrance complexity affects consumer responses. Across four studies, the researchers found that a relatively simple scent could facilitate cognitive processing and increase spending under the conditions examined, whereas a more complex scent did not produce the same effect. The proposed explanation involved processing fluency, or the relative ease with which people interpret information in their environment.

Taken together, these studies suggest that effective scent marketing requires considerably more thought than simply introducing an appealing fragrance into a commercial space. The selection, intensity, complexity, and contextual appropriateness of a scent all deserve consideration. Its contribution must also be evaluated alongside the quality of the products, the physical setting, and the expectations customers bring to the experience.

Consistency and Complementarity in Sensory Branding

Professor Choong Whan Park's discussion of sensory branding provides a useful strategic framework for interpreting these findings. In his article, he emphasizes two principles: consistency and complementarity. Consistency requires the various elements of a brand experience to communicate a coherent underlying benefit. Complementarity requires those elements to reinforce one another, making the overall experience more convincing than any individual component could be on its own.

Consider a hotel positioned around tranquility and restorative experiences. Its interior design, lighting, service approach, background music, and physical amenities should support that positioning. A subtle fragrance might strengthen the intended atmosphere, provided that it complements the environment and is comfortable for guests. Conversely, an overpowering or incongruous scent could undermine the hotel's positioning, even if the fragrance were considered pleasant in another context.

Starbucks offers another illustration of how olfactory experiences can contribute to a broader brand identity. As Professor Park discusses, the company's association with the idea of a third place—a setting between home and work—depends on more than the beverage itself. Store design, product presentation, music, the sounds of coffee preparation, and the aroma of coffee together contribute to the experience customers encounter. The smell is relevant because it forms part of a recognizable environment rather than functioning as an isolated advertising device.

The important implication is that sensory branding should begin with the brand's central promise, not with the sensory stimulus. A business must first establish what customers should understand and value about its offering. Only then can it determine whether particular aromas, visual elements, sounds, or tactile experiences would help communicate that meaning. Scent becomes strategically useful when it reinforces an identity that is already supported by the rest of the customer experience.

The Limits and Responsibilities of Scent Marketing

Despite its potential, scent marketing is not appropriate for every business or customer environment. Fragrance preferences vary considerably, and some individuals experience discomfort or adverse symptoms when exposed to scented products. People with asthma, migraines, or certain sensitivities may find environments with strong fragrances particularly difficult to tolerate. Responsible sensory design therefore requires attention to ventilation, fragrance intensity, accessibility, and the possibility of providing scent-free spaces.

There is also a practical distinction between a naturally occurring product aroma and an intentionally introduced ambient fragrance. A bakery may already benefit from the smell of freshly baked products, while a florist's environment may naturally carry the scent of flowers. In these cases, introducing additional fragrance could be unnecessary or even counterproductive. The most appropriate sensory strategy may be to preserve and support the authentic experience rather than manufacture a separate one.

Businesses should also distinguish between positive customer responses and durable emotional attachment. An ambient scent may improve the atmosphere of a store or influence evaluations during a particular visit, but these outcomes do not necessarily demonstrate that customers have developed a lasting psychological bond with the brand. Establishing such a relationship involves repeated experiences, meaningful benefits, customer trust, and the development of personal relevance over time.

For this reason, scent marketing should be evaluated as one component of a larger brand strategy rather than as a shortcut to loyalty. Organizations need to consider what customers actually value, whether the sensory environment supports those benefits, and how the total experience influences satisfaction and future behavior. A fragrance may help establish familiarity, but it cannot compensate for unreliable products, poor service, or promises that the company consistently fails to fulfill.

Why a Scent Can Become Part of a Brand's Identity

The enduring relevance of scent in branding lies in the relationship between sensory experience and personal meaning. An aroma can become associated with a familiar environment, a satisfying routine, or an emotionally significant event. When such associations are reinforced through consistent experiences, they may contribute to how consumers recognize, remember, and feel about a particular brand.

This perspective also illustrates the broader importance of understanding consumers as individuals whose decisions involve both cognition and emotion. People evaluate products according to their usefulness, quality, and value, but their relationships with brands may also be shaped by memories, expectations, and personal experiences. Sensory cues can participate in that process when they reinforce benefits that genuinely matter to customers.

Professor Choong Whan Park's work on emotional brand attachment encourages businesses to look beyond immediate transactions and consider how brands acquire significance in consumers' lives. Smell provides one compelling example of this larger phenomenon. Its contribution is not simply that it can attract attention or create a pleasant atmosphere, but that it can become connected with experiences that customers remember and value.

Ultimately, a memorable brand is not created by a fragrance, a logo, or a slogan acting independently. It emerges from a coherent set of experiences that communicate meaningful benefits and repeatedly fulfill customer expectations. When scent contributes to that coherence, it can become a distinctive part of the relationship between the consumer and the brand.

The aroma itself may be fleeting, but the experiences and associations it evokes can remain long after the moment has passed.

Further Reading and Research References

Choong Whan Park USC: Why Can't Customers Forget Certain Brands?

Saive, A.-L., Royet, J.-P., & Plailly, J. (2014). A review on the neural bases of episodic odor memory: From laboratory-based to autobiographical approaches. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 8, 240. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2014.00240

Roschk, H., & Hosseinpour, M. (2020). Pleasant ambient scents: A meta-analysis of customer responses and situational contingencies. Journal of Marketing, 84(1), 125–145. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022242919881137

Herrmann, A., Zidansek, M., Sprott, D. E., & Spangenberg, E. R. (2013). The power of simplicity: Processing fluency and the effects of olfactory cues on retail sales. Journal of Retailing, 89(1), 30–43. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jretai.2012.08.002


Location: Los Angeles, CA, USA

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Choong Whan Park USC: What Tesla Reveals About Trust and Brand Meaning

Image
Tesla shows how brand meaning, trust, innovation, and emotional attachment can turn a product category into long-term customer value.   Tesla is often discussed as a technology company, an electric vehicle company, or a symbol of innovation. But from a brand strategy perspective, one of the most important lessons from Tesla is about trust. A brand can become visible through innovation, but it becomes meaningful when customers believe in what it represents. That is why Tesla remains a useful case study for understanding brand attachment, customer loyalty, emotional meaning, and long-term value through ideas connected to Choong Whan Park USC’s work in consumer psychology and modern brand strategy. Tesla did not invent the electric car. Electric vehicles have a long history, with early battery-powered vehicle experiments dating back to the 19th century. The U.S. Department of Energy notes that electric cars are not a modern invention and traces the category through early experimentati...
Read more

How Brand Meaning Became a Consumer Psychology Question | Choong Whan Park USC

Image
  Choong Whan Park USC and the role of brand meaning in shaping consumer psychology, attachment, and long-term customer relationships. Understanding how his research connected brand strategy, identity, attachment, and long-term customer relationships A strong brand is not simply something consumers recognize. It is something they understand. They associate it with particular benefits, experiences, ideas, expectations, and sometimes parts of their own identity. That distinction sits at the center of much of the work of Choong Whan Park USC . Across decades of research in marketing and consumer psychology, his contributions helped explain why brand strategy cannot be separated from the way people think, feel, remember, identify, and form relationships. That perspective matters because companies often approach branding from the outside in. They begin with a name. A visual identity. Advertising. A campaign. A slogan. A social media presence. But consumers experience brands from the ins...
Read more

Choong Whan Park USC on Why Brand Recovery Must Be Proven

Image
  How brands rebuild trust through repeated evidence, customer experience, and long-term consistency Choong Whan Park USC, based in California, is a globally respected marketing scholar, author, and branding thought leader whose work has helped shape modern understanding of brand strategy, consumer psychology, loyalty, and long-term value creation. One of the most important ideas in brand strategy is that recovery cannot simply be announced. A company can say it has changed, but customers only begin to believe that change when they experience proof over time. This is the central difference between brand recovery as a message and brand recovery as a reality. When a brand loses trust, weakens its meaning, or disappoints customers, the damage does not exist only in headlines or sales reports. It exists in the minds of customers. They remember the delay, the poor service, the confusing message, the product that failed, or the promise that was not kept. Once customers begin to doubt...
Read more