How to Create Your Blog’s Perfume Page
Written by Jason Boom on February 14, 2008 – 4:04 pm
Mrs. Boom had an interview this afternoon. She’s looking to change jobs. I took her to her interview and waited patiently for her return.
In the meantime, I ate lunch and read a magazine. You know what popped out at me from my Men’s Health magazine? No, not the scantily clad women or the brutish men — the perfume pages! You know those fragrance samples that come inside popular magazines. For years I have associated magazine reading with the light scenting of CK or the robustness of Bvlgari. After reading an article, I realized I was awash in nostalgia brought on by simply holding and smelling a magazine.
Reloading Your Blog Magazine
I have heard the arguments that we are not bloggers anymore, but web publishers. I know some blogs carry themselves as magazines rather than weblogs. One of my favorite new sites, Trend Spike, has a magazine feel to it. I wonder, can we create the same nostalgic, yet subtle presence that a perfume page brings to a magazine on a blog.
What’s that Smell?
What is a perfume page? For those who don’t know, a perfume page is a full page ad for some cologne, as was the case for my Men’s Health magazine. The page is unique because in the flap along the side they have sprayed, gelled, or otherwise deposited the scent of the fragrance. That flap can be like opening the long forgotten Tupperware dish in the far recesses of the refrigerator, the smell hits you like a ton of rotten eggs. But even if you don’t open the flap, the fragrance saturates the pages and give a light smell to your reading.
Your Blog’s Smell
I’m still waiting for the scratch and sniff webpages. Until that time, we’ll have to create our own olfactory stimulation. Our pages may not give off the scent of fresh flowers but we can harness the power of nostalgia that perfume pages create for magazines.
A fragrance sampler gives users something new with each magazine, and it’s usually pleasing. It may peak a reader’s interest enough to seek out the fragrance in a department store. So the secondary effect of the ad was actually the aroma saturated magazine pages. The primary goals was to move product.
How can this help bloggers? We sell ourselves with each post. Our blog is our product. We move ourselves.
If we emulate the fragrance sample pages, we need a secondary nostalgic reaction for visitors to our blog.
Creating Nostalgia
We cannot supplant ourselves into the past experiences of our readers. We can however relate to them. We can connect and forge a bond that creates the subtle fragrance sample page experience. Here are a few things that will give your readers a sense of having been there before, and associate that feeling with a positive memory.
- Use a memorable theme that compliments your niche.
The right theme can bring back memories from a previous visit. Hopefully, they encountered fantastic content on that earlier visit and remember it. The positive memory may be enough to encourage them to subscribe to your RSS feed. - Create a Persona
A persona, like Regis, Oprah, Dominick Dunne. You get the idea. These TV figures have distinctions about them that keep people watching. While their schtick might not be your fancy, a quality persona can endear readers to your blog. - Use Memorable Graphics
Our graphics become our face on the Internet. If we use cheesy, overused images, then that’s the image we’re portraying -literally. Use quality, memorable graphics and readers will remember them just as they remember a certain smell. With the right picture, it will detail what type of content exists on the site.
Conclusion
The moment wasn’t long. The smell from that magazine wafted up from the pages, triggering memories. This was marketing, I thought. An institutionalized marketing ploy. It’s been around forever. Why not use it on our blogs? Can you think of ways blogs have used perfume pages throughout the years?
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Tags: creating readers, memorable experience, perfume pages, persona
Posted under Blogging Inspiration |
February 14th, 2008 at 8:54 pm
There’s a pretty funny ad for cat litter that comes up on websites every so often.
It says “Scratch here”, then “Sniff your computer screen”.
Then it says “See? That’s what kitty litter is supposed to smell like”
Made me chuckle the first time. It’s probably not long until we can smell websites, now that I think about it…
February 14th, 2008 at 9:12 pm
A very interesting post. The beauty of the magazine ploy you discuss has to do with it being a secondary sense that get’s catapulted into an equal arena with your sight. I mean you’re “looking” at a magazine (not really intending to smell one), and wham, there comes that scent. I think the closest thing on line maybe the PPP audio ad phenomenon (I said close), but when and if scratch and sniff makes it to the web, you’ve got something. I encourage you to develop this theme further. You’re onto something!
Peace………T
February 14th, 2008 at 11:20 pm
Tommy, thanks! My thoughts exactly. If we can capture something like that with blogs, then I think we’re doing ourselves a favor. When people return, they’ll want to keep that association our blogs gives them. It’s a win-win. I need to think on it more. Maybe there’s a business idea in there.
February 15th, 2008 at 6:23 am
Lol, what an idea..
February 15th, 2008 at 10:43 am
What a brilliant way to put it! People talk about branding, etc. but this one really brings it home for me. I can so relate to this! Fragrances are memory triggers for me so this post and your whole concept is really something I can grasp. I get it because you get it! Men rarely confess to fragrant memory triggers… not out loud anyway… except for food!
I’m an emotional sap and the idea of trying to make this work… it has, but only by accident. I don’t know what people have done or what they remember. The oddest things move people. Now I’m going to spend the day thinking of things that might ignite a passionate memory.
I’m so glad I subscribed to your feed. I can go on but that would just make me sound… sappy!
February 15th, 2008 at 11:46 am
Let me know what you come up with!
February 15th, 2008 at 1:42 pm
Way to relate perfume to blogging — very interesting, unique post. I like the Boom fragrance you’ve got going on here. Keep it up Jason.
February 15th, 2008 at 1:47 pm
February 15th, 2008 at 7:36 pm
Grreat post on the fragrance of blogging and how it can relate to our inner senses. I always thought those scratch and sniffs would bring on all kinds of results depending on what was for sale- I guess we will find out with different blogs what sells and what gets left behind when we see great blogs like this and other blogs will be left behind!
February 16th, 2008 at 12:52 pm
Interesting thoughts on sensory branding. An NLP expert (which I’m not) would probably talk about using “anchoring” and “triggers” to link the smell, the positive emotions and the product.
Appealing to multiple senses is a good idea, unfortunately it’s still impractical to do so literally (I *hate* intrusive webpage music). An alternative might be to make a point of including different sensory modalities (”I think…”, “I feel…”, “I hear…” etc) when writing posts.
Hmm. I’ve wandered off the original point re branding, but you’ve got me thinking now. Thanks!
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March 2nd, 2008 at 5:35 am
Thanks for the plug there. Glad you like my site Jason. By the way, awesome post. An articles of yours caught my eye a few days ago. I’ve been reading more of them and I’ve subscribed. I decided to back track and see what other articles you had. Much to my surprise, Trend Spike was mentioned.
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