Sensory Appeal

While sifting through snail mail at work the other day, I came across a postcard from the Florida Department of Citrus announcing its new digital campaign. While the info about its to-come eNewsletter was noteworthy, I was more drawn to the card’s text and main image on the cover. The headline is kitchy, but the scratch-n-sniff orange underneath it is old-school cool. Nowadays, the worlds of marketing and publishing (in particular) strive to give their target audience multiple avenues to access and experience content. While this postcard’s verbiage does enough to whet the appetite for a coming product, and the obligatory URL at the end serves its purpose for finding more info, it’s the odoriferous scratch-n-sniff orange that makes this piece of mail stand out. It’s a simple element, but one that takes full advantage of a much-forgotten sensory tool---smell. Sure, fragrance ad material uses this method ad nauseam, but you don’t see it too much anywhere else. Produce and garden/landscape industries should take note. If there is a simple and affordable way to capture a key essence of what makes a particular piece of fruit, veggie, and or flowering plant unique and deliver it to potential consumers, would you bite? It makes perfect “scents” to me.