Don’t just trust your eyes…

April 26, 2012
Categories: Member Acquisition

Most people think of themselves as visual –learning first through sight and then everything else. We believe our eyes are the primary input device. We value and trust what we see more than any other sense. But I learned that senses are not distinct experiences but rather interactions, and our minds make associations that intensify and embed an experience. Marketers have understood this and take advantage of it by branding using multiple senses. We see a Harley-Davidson and hear a Harley-Davidson (side note, the sound a Harley makes is actually patented along with a handful of other sounds). So why is this important …

As a gym owner, we spend thousands of dollars creating, and marketing our brand. We create big signs that we put on the side of building, on billboards, t-shirts and just about anything with a flat surface, like my abs. All in the hopes that when a person sees the logo they think of us, and when a person hears the name they can associate it with the logo. Sight and sound working in unison.

But why not smell? This silent (insert totally inappropriate fart joke here) sense is often overlooked for the ritziness of sight, and the beat of sound. But ignored mainly because marketers have not yet figured out how to create “smelly” ads. But you know who has figured it out? The fast food guys. Depending on your source, roughly 60% of all fast food sales are impulse buys. And most attribute this to the smell as you pass by.

Your facility is a place of sensory overload. There is cold steel, soft pads, hard bodies, and loud music. And there are smells. Lots of them. A few good ones, some acceptable ones, and then all the other ones. The ones we cover up with cheap pine and lemon spray hoping beyond all hope that nobody will notice.

But there is a better way. Take a look at ScentAir that, for a small fee, will create a custom smell just for your gym. Something that will brand you to your members (and prospects). And the best part, smell is one of the original 5 senses, so you don’t have to worry about seeing dead people too. (Although if they pay on time, who are we to say…)

We’ll be covering Scent Air and the idea of scent based branding in an upcoming webinar but I encourage you to take a look now and see what it can do for your brand.