Olfactory identity: why create one for your brand?
Updated: 5 days ago
In short: an olfactory identity is a brand's own fragrance, together with its formats and rules of use. Brands create one to be recognised, to make the experience consistent from one place to another and to stand out with something competitors cannot copy. It is the olfactory equivalent of a logo, but a logo you breathe.
Brands look after their logo, colours, typography and sometimes their sound signature. Smell, on the other hand, is often left to chance: cleaning products, new furniture or an ambient fragrance bought without much thought. Yet it is the sense most closely linked to emotions and memories.
This article explains what an olfactory identity is, why a brand benefits from creating one, how it is built and how to choose between an existing fragrance and a bespoke creation. To place the subject in a broader approach, see our guide what is scent marketing?
What is an olfactory identity?
An olfactory identity is the combination of a brand's fragrance, its formats (diffusion, sprays, candles, objects) and the way it is used. People also speak of scent branding, olfactory logo or scent signature, the last term referring rather to the fragrance itself.
Like a visual style guide, an olfactory identity sets rules: which fragrance, in which places, at what intensity, on which media. It belongs to the brand identity just like the other distinctive signs:
Dimension | What it uses | How customers encounter it |
Visual identity | Logo, colours, typefaces, images | Signage, website, packaging, décor |
Sound identity | Jingle, music, voice | Advertising, on-hold music, in-store playlist |
Olfactory identity | An exclusive fragrance and its formats | Spaces, linen, products, gifts, parcels |
The difference lies in how it is perceived: we look at a logo, we listen to a jingle, but we breathe a fragrance without deciding to. That is what makes scent both so discreet and so lasting. We explore this idea in our article on olfactory communication.
Why create an olfactory identity for your brand?
For five main reasons: to be recognised, to offer a consistent experience, to stand out over time, to extend the brand into objects and to anchor memories. These benefits build up over time, through repetition of the same fragrance.
Being recognised
A scent diffused consistently becomes a landmark. Customers who find it again from one place to another, or on a product received at home, associate it with the brand. This recognition cannot be decreed: it comes from repetition.
Making the experience consistent
When the scent tells the same story as the décor, the light and the welcome, the whole feels right. A hotel with natural materials, a minimalist shop and a pharmacy that wants to soothe do not call for the same fragrance. An olfactory identity puts scent at the service of what the brand wants people to feel. For zone-by-zone implementation, read how to improve customer experience with scent.
Standing out with something hard to copy
A competitor can borrow a colour or a décor style. A bespoke fragrance whose formula is kept and protected is much harder to imitate. It is a distinctive sign that belongs to the brand's world.
Extending the brand into objects
An olfactory identity does not stay within four walls. It extends to room sprays, candles, reed diffusers, corporate gifts or linen mist. These objects carry the brand into customers' homes and can also become products for sale.
Anchoring memories
Smell is closely tied to emotional memory. A brain-imaging study by Rachel Herz and colleagues (2004) found that memories triggered by a smell were rated as more emotional than those triggered by a picture of the same object, with stronger activity in the amygdala. A brand with its own scent therefore has one more chance of leaving a trace.
Which brands have an olfactory identity?
Brands from every sector, from toys to hospitality and retail. Three examples presented on our blog show very different approaches.
Corolle. Since 1979, the brand has scented its dolls with vanilla. The scent has become its signature and is part of many adults' memories: Corolle and the scent of vanilla.
Hôtel La Ponche. Its floral, aldehydic and musky signature was composed for Eco French Lab by perfumer Isabelle Ferrand, and extended with a linen mist: inside the scent of Hôtel La Ponche.
Les Nouvelles Galeries in Annecy. Eco French Lab created four olfactory identities, one per season, designed to echo the architecture of the venue.
How is an olfactory identity created?
It is created by translating the brand's world into raw materials, with a perfumer, then validating the fragrance on site before extending it. The process follows several steps.
The brief. Values, clientele, spaces, desired emotions, things to avoid: a questionnaire structures this step.
The perfumer's proposals. The perfumer translates the brief into olfactory directions, presented as trials.
Adjustments. The trials are smelled, discussed and reworked until the right direction is found.
On-site test. The chosen fragrance is tried in the real space, with the planned diffusion equipment.
Formats and rules of use. Zones, intensity, media (diffusion, sprays, candles, gifts) and how to present the fragrance are defined.
Our perfumer Karine Boudot sums up the heart of this work:
"Creating the scent of a brand means translating into raw materials what words cannot say: an emotion, a region, a way of welcoming people."
At Eco French Lab, this process is offered in the Pack Créateur, and in the Pack Prestige for larger projects. With the Pack Créateur, allow about 2 weeks between the questionnaire and the approval of your fragrance. Fragrances are developed by Eco French Lab, produced in Grasse and compliant with IFRA standards. Formulas are kept and protected at Eco French Lab and in Grasse, which guarantees exactly the same fragrance with every reorder.
Existing fragrance or bespoke creation: which should you choose?
An existing fragrance suits a quick, lower-cost start; a bespoke creation is necessary if you want an exclusive scent that belongs to the brand. The choice depends on your ambition and the number of sites.
Criterion | Existing fragrance | Bespoke creation |
Choice | More than 500 perfumes from Grasse | A fragrance composed for the brand |
Exclusivity | No: other venues may use it | Yes |
Set-up | Quick | Several rounds with the perfumer |
Best use | Ambient fragrance, first trial | Olfactory identity, network of sites, branded products |
Formats | Possible | Possible, in the brand's image |
Many brands start with an existing fragrance to test the effect on site, then move to bespoke once convinced.
Which mistakes should you avoid?
The most common mistakes come from a lack of consistency or continuity.
Choosing a fragrance according to personal taste rather than the brand.
Changing fragrance too often, which prevents any recognition.
Diffusing too strongly: an olfactory identity is noticed, it does not impose itself.
Forgetting formats and rules of use, which gives different results from one site to another.
Examples of our work
We created the scent signature of Barnes Immobilier with its brand collections, a fully bespoke fragrance for the Grande Chancellerie de la Légion d'honneur, and the olfactory identities of Harcour, Lachaume and Bergamotte.
See all our client projects.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between olfactory identity and scent signature?
The scent signature is the brand's fragrance. The olfactory identity covers that fragrance, its formats and its rules of use.
Can a small brand have an olfactory identity?
Yes. A shop, a clinic or a restaurant can start with a single site and a few scented objects. What matters is consistency, not size.
Can the brand's fragrance be sold to customers?
Yes. Room sprays, candles or reed diffusers in the brand's fragrance can be given or sold, made to order in France.
Can an olfactory identity evolve?
Yes, with care. Seasonal variations or a version adapted to one area are possible as long as they remain recognisable.
Conclusion: giving a scent to your brand's story
Creating an olfactory identity adds to your brand a sign that customers do not look at but do remember. It takes the right fragrance, built with a perfumer, used consistently and extended with care. To start your project, discover our bespoke perfume creation offer.
Written by Anne-Marie Spencer, co-founder of Eco French Lab.
Sources
Herz, R. S., Eliassen, J., Beland, S., Souza, T. (2004). Neuroimaging evidence for the emotional potency of odor-evoked memory. Neuropsychologia, 42(3), 371-378. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/14670575/
IFRA, International Fragrance Association, fragrance safety standards. https://ifrafragrance.org
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