alpha aromatics®Any company that manufactures automotive detail and car wash products, such as window cleaners, air freshener products, polish, wax, tire shine and carpet shampoos just to name a few, is well aware of how important freshly cleaned and detailed car interiors are to the customers who bring their vehicles to a car wash or car detailing specialist.
They’re also aware that it’s the fragrances within these products that ultimately help to provide that invisible gratifying touch to all detailing jobs.
But what types of fragrant notes are more appropriate for “Away From Home” car wash products and does scent play such an important ingredient to so many commercial auto detail and car wash product applications?
Our team explains!
Connecting Scents To Commercial Applications
Research has shown that the unique interaction of scent with the limbic section of our brains links human experience to emotions and memory formations.
Generally speaking, no matter what the product or service, modern consumers shop with their feelings and not their wallets.
Visual trappings in the form of glaring ads, catchy slogans and fanciful celebrity-endorsed products have lost their power to emotionally ensnare the modern consumer the way they once did.
Retailers often run the risk of going too far with visual ads and fail to nurture their fragile connection with the dynamic needs of today’s shoppers.
They do not address their quest for a multi-sensory experience enhanced by the power of scent that makes them feel a brand rather that watch it flash incessantly before their tired eyes.
According to research conducted by the Harvard Business Review (HBR), over the course of a company’s lifetime, emotionally connected customers are more than twice as valuable as highly satisfied customers.
A 2005 study conducted at the Taste Treatment and Research Foundation, Ltd, by neurologist and nationally recognized smell and taste expert, Dr. Alan R. Hirsch, involved participants who were asked to compare a pair of shoes in both a scented retail establishment and an unscented store.
Eighty-four percent of customers reported that they were more likely to buy from the scented boutique.
Car Wash Products And Nose Blindness
Car wash malodors can arise form a number of unpleasant sources.
One of the most common is a faulty reclaim system, which takes water that has been used in the wash process, cleans and reuses it in an effort to offset operating costs.
If a customer smells the reclaim system during the wash, the experience is likely to create a negative impression, which in turn may influence that customer to never return.
Other common smells include: stale smoke, left over food, baby throw-up and spills.
Nose blindness affects employees as well as customers.
It is a phenomenon that occurs when workers in a car wash are subjected to the same odors frequently.
They develop a sensory adaptation leading to nose blindness, and after a while, don’t even notice them.
Explore our odor control additives.
Nose blindness, however, is insidious, and it can affect mood, loss of productivity and interest.
Humans are naturally curious and thrive on fresh experiences.
A new, market-trending fragrance infused within an Away From Home car wash product is the perfect awakening, as it immediately registers subconsciously in a customer’s mind and is very likely to prompt return trips to the car wash.
A Brief History Of The Car Wash
Fully-automated car washes are ubiquitous in these modern times, but they have been around for more than one hundred years, albeit in different manifestations.
The first car wash business was opened in 1914 in Detroit, Michigan, under the name: The Automated Laundry.
It was a sort of assembly line in which cars were pushed manually through a tunnel, within which workers soaped, rinsed, and dried each vehicle with each worker assigned to a specific cleaning task.
The first “automated” conveyor-style car wash opened in Hollywood, California in 1940.
It was a vast improvement, as it provided a winch system (devices used to wind a cable or rope in or out so that resulting tension pulls the car being washed through the cleaning tunnel).
Workers inside the tunnel soaped rinsed, and dried the car.
Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, car washes began to appear all across the American horizon equipped with the many innovative advances of automated technology.
Other inventions, such as recirculating water systems, soft cloth friction washing, and wraparound brushes, also came about during this time.
The evolution of the modern car wash is still in progress to this day and many options are available, from self-to full-services, which meet the specific demands and price demands of a diverse customer base.
In addition, an awareness of the environment has brought about the introduction of milder soaps, technology that requires less water and energy to operate, and water recycling systems that allow up to 95% of used wash water to be reused on future washes.
Why Is Scent Important To Car Wash Detail Products?
The final touch on any car detailing job, no matter how large or small, is without question the application of highly nuanced, quality scents for Away From Home car wash products.
The ultimate consumer question after all is said and detailed is: Does my car smell beautiful?
If the answer is no, then the next inquiry must logically be: How do you know what you really need in order to make your car smell beautiful or of you are on the other side, your car wash business?
To put the use of scent in the most positive terms, the aromas emanating from a car wash can positively or negatively affect the profitability of a car wash.
Happy customers are returning customers and a pleasant fragrance goes a long way in helping to maintain a competitive edge in the market.
Research and statistics back this up, as 59% of customers have been known to spend more in a store that smells good.
If a car wash has a waiting room for customers or small retail area, the addition of an ambient fragrance for Away From Home car wash products such as: warm, inviting cinnamon, lush and elegant vanilla or fresh, invigorating orange could lead to additional spending in the form of bigger tips, gift cards and the impulsive purchase of other related items.
Our Recently Designed Fragrances For Car Wash Products
We are known as a leading manufacturer and purveyor of standard, customized, industrial and institutional fragrances for all business sectors and have been designing and suppling scents to producers of away from home products for decades.
Their moniker derives from their ultimate purpose, which is to make places away from home smell just as good as being there.
Fragrances infused in their many diverse products are developed in our state-of-the-art facilities that have been the bulwark of our enduring success.
Our formulations are made for every type of application, including but not limited to: institutional and industrial products; cleaning, maintenance and laundry products; air fresheners and odor control; janitorial and housekeeping products and automotive and car wash supplies.
All of our fragrances are made with the finest quality essential oils, and we are always seeking innovative and sustainable options that are naturally sourced and biodegradable.
Away From Home fragrances are long lasting and efficient and are perfectly suited to car washes.
The following represent a list of the more popular scents, which serve to eliminate everything from an old cigarette smell to malodors caused by spills, pet and baby accidents.
Blue Raspberry
Mellow streams of sweet, tart and almond-like cherry, sugary grape, fresh sharp lemon, crisp apple, green, spicy strawberry and tangy and woody wild raspberry open this fruit-inspired bouquet.
These facets soon fuse with a floral heart note of intensely exotic and intoxicating jasmine and sweet, powdery violet.
A base note comprised of lush and elegant vanilla complete this intriguing scent.
Cinnamon Stick
This full bodied, potent and richly spiced fragrance opens with a blast of fresh, juicy orange rind and warm, honeyed and balsamic cassia.
These aspects soon meld into a spicy, heart note mélange of warm, alluring cinnamon, cozy, piquant and robust clove bud and herbal, floral-nuanced bay.
The scent finishes with base notes of dry, clean cedar, sugary and noble vanilla and sharp, sensual musk.
Luscious Lemon Drop
A citrus rush of sour-sweet, fresh lemon and keen, immaculate juicy lime introduce this delightful fragrance.
Streams of intense and gingery lemongrass and earthy greens emerge only to be fused into final base notes of aromatic, sensual white musk and sugary, ambrosial candy sweet.
Mango Madness
Exotic, gingery mango, green, tropical papaya and succulent, honeyed tangerine form the top notes of this sultry, alluring fragrance.
A heart note of dreamy, musky and romantic rose combined with sugary, juicy passion fruit finally coalesce into a base note featuring dark, rich, warm and sweet vanilla musk.
Watermelon Sorbet
Aromas reminiscent of this frozen dessert, which is also known as Italian ice, can be sweet or sour depending on the fruit used in the formulation.
The scent opens with a burst of fresh, clean lemon, sweet, tart cherry, buttery, fresh honeydew and green watermelon.
A heart note of spicy, peppery leafy greens and subtle floral facets soon follow, which eventually fuse into a finishing base note featuring dewy, succulent and tropical melon nectar.
Wild Cherry
This scent opens with redolent aspects of sugary tart bing cherry, smooth, fruity and creamy vanilla, smooth, fruity and creamy black raspberry and velvety, aromatic peach.
A middle note of fruity, green and juicy banana peel and inviting warm and spicy ground cinnamon. Alluring, noble and sweet vanilla finishes this memorable fragrance.
In Conclusion
If you are manufacturer, product formulator, chemist, brand owner or purchaser of car wash products, seeking to improve your profits, consider adding one or more of the above-mentioned fragrances to your away from home product line, or work with our teams to create an entirely new fragrance that suits your needs.
Call our teams today!
Final thought about car smells: To attract men, I wear a perfume called ‘New Car Interior~ Rita Rudner
Photo Credits: Pixabay
