What’s that smell?

A recent purchase of a deodorant multi-pack brought this interesting product packaging add-on to my attention.

When one buys a personal hygiene product, the scent of the product can be very important; for example deodorant, shampoo, lotion, cologne, body soap or hand soap.  A customer may be unlikely to buy a new product unless they can confirm that they like the smell, but most stores do not encourage patrons to open the package before buying it. That is certainly reasonable from the stores’ perspective, but it leaves a disconnect between what the customer wants and what the store and manufacturer provide.

This “Scratch ‘n’ Sniff” sticker fixes that disconnect and it certainly cannot be very expensive to add to the product. Since the scents are chemically created in the product, reproducing them nearly perfectly on the sticker ought to prove simple.

If one is buying one’s usual product, perhaps a smell test is not necessary, but even then, perhaps the brand has introduced a new scent. This could be a good way for a customer to test the new scent option before buying the new product.

There are plenty of other products outside of the personal hygiene section which could benefit from this approach as well; air fresheners, laundry detergent, candles and cleaning solutions, to name a few.