Newsreader
17th Aug 2004, 17:53
A dealership chain selling second-hand cars is to spray the inside of its vehicles to make them smell brand new in a ploy to win-over potential buyers.
http://www.landrovernet.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=9598&stc=1
Network Q, which has 440 UK outlets, has worked with experts to design a special scent which is meant to recreate the odour of a new car. It produces a mixture of smells including leather, air freshener and fresh plastic. The company will use the scent on used cars at one dealership to test customer reaction.
The fragrance was created for Network Q by The Aroma Company, a firm based in Wallingford, Oxfordshire, which designs scents for “marketing solutions”. Sarah Harrop, a scentologist at the company, said: “We’ve been pre-conditioned to have certain assumptions of what a car should smell like when we drive off in it for the first time. In the short space of time in which a person decides whether they like the car the smell plays a big part in whether they ‘bond’ with the vehicle and can be a small but important factor when it comes to buying.”
Network Q is owned by Vauxhall Motors but also sells other makes of used cars, mainly up to six years old. A spokesman for the company said: “If you can pump new car smells into used cars then it can affect consumer attitudes. It is not underhand. It is part of a number of factors from Network Q that make the buying process easier.”
The trial will start later this month at a dealership yet to be decided and, if successful, could be extended to the rest of the chain.
http://www.landrovernet.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=9598&stc=1
Network Q, which has 440 UK outlets, has worked with experts to design a special scent which is meant to recreate the odour of a new car. It produces a mixture of smells including leather, air freshener and fresh plastic. The company will use the scent on used cars at one dealership to test customer reaction.
The fragrance was created for Network Q by The Aroma Company, a firm based in Wallingford, Oxfordshire, which designs scents for “marketing solutions”. Sarah Harrop, a scentologist at the company, said: “We’ve been pre-conditioned to have certain assumptions of what a car should smell like when we drive off in it for the first time. In the short space of time in which a person decides whether they like the car the smell plays a big part in whether they ‘bond’ with the vehicle and can be a small but important factor when it comes to buying.”
Network Q is owned by Vauxhall Motors but also sells other makes of used cars, mainly up to six years old. A spokesman for the company said: “If you can pump new car smells into used cars then it can affect consumer attitudes. It is not underhand. It is part of a number of factors from Network Q that make the buying process easier.”
The trial will start later this month at a dealership yet to be decided and, if successful, could be extended to the rest of the chain.