The impact of smell on brand recognition and examination of differences acording to demographic factors: An application in the garment industry

The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of scent diffused in stores on brand recognition.In this study, the scent of a brand that operates in ready-made clothing sector and created specifically for its own brands in agreement with a scent marketing company was used. This scent is spread in the entire store with a special scentdiffuser device. The research data was collected with face-to-face questionnaire technique with 399 participants who visited a shopping mall in Bolu, Turkey and were selected by convenience sampling. The scent used by the brand in its storeswere sniffed by 399 participants and they were asked questions about measuring the brand recognition. The collected data was transferred to SPSS software and analyzed with factor analysis, ANOVA test, t-test and mean value calculation. As a result of analysis, within the scope of the sampling, it was concluded that ambient scent in stores created brand recognition. In addition the recognition of the scent belonging to the brand used in the study was found to be higher with female participants than male participants in terms of gender, with 18-27 age group than the other age groups in terms of age, with associate degree graduates than the others with different education level and those with monthly income less than 1450 TL than the other income groups.