“Dwell time”, in case you’re unaware, is the length of time you spend in a shop before getting out your cash. That is likely to get longer and more pleasant as branding with scent becomes the newest reaction from bricks-and-mortar shops to competition from e-commerce. Case studies show that ambient scenting can increase customer spending by 17.5 per cent.
Fragrance designer Raymond Matts is in town this week to talk about creating scents, or "olfactive poems", for big business. Forget air fresheners – this is hidden couture. "A perfumer writes the actual formula, builds the chords. I work a lot from my gut and how I feel. It's liquid emotion," says the nose behind Clinique Happy and Tommy Girl. Smells are a powerful emotional trigger, and we're craving our lost youths after a rough winter, according to Matts. "I'm hoping to capitalise on memory, whether of walking in flower fields or the beginning of spring".
Abercrombie & Fitch was the first brand to engineer the multi-sensory experience, and Armani has followed. Walk into A&F’s Dublin branch and you are subtly assaulted by the fern, citrus, and wood notes of Fierce, the brand’s cologne, which it distributes around the shop every 30 minutes.
“It’s loud. I can’t even see the clothes in their store. It’s about light, vibrancy, being alive; the sense of being in a club – and all of a sudden this scent is permeating. It entices people to linger longer. They remember the brand,” says Matts, who was planning to work for the secret service before he changed to fragrance retail 20 years ago.
With “interior landscapers” Ambius, Matts is now designing scents for casinos, gyms, spas, cruise ships, tech companies and car dealers (including Hyundai and Mercedes Benz), and hotels, including the Hilton and Ritz Carlton, and, closer to home, the Shelbourne, Dylan and Westbury. Hoteliers all play it too safe and want “clean”, apparently. “You create something for who your worst customer is,” says Matts.
So what is new in hotel flavours? “I’m tired of vanilla,” he says. “I’m looking at milk, amber, saffron. It’s not overpowering, it doesn’t hit your sinuses or give you a headache. It’s almost like a hug.”
