Ford: That Smell

Carmaker Looking Into A New Type of Branding

People love new car smell, but what if there was a smell that was tied to specific cars?  Much like a design or handling feature, Ford is looking at ways to make their vehicles distinct.  Instead of the standard ways, they're looking to appealing to drivers' olfactory senses. 

Ford is on a mission to identify that certain scent that will become part of Ford's brand around the world. The company wants every car it makes to look, feel and even smell like a Ford.

"Our ultimate goal is to find a scent that produces a sense of well-being inside a Ford," Derrick Kuzak, Ford's VP for global product development, recently told Forbes.com.   While Kuzak acknowledged that some might say this is extreme, he believes that attention to detail is key to customer satisfaction. 

Ford has appointed a "smell panel" of five engineers to sift through odors and determine the "Ford scent."  The engineers assess odors emitted by anything found in a car; floor mats, seats fabrics, air bag covers and much more.  How's that for a job?The "smell jury"

Ford is also considering the regional and multi cultural implications of smell branding.  They've even assigned Linda Scmalz from their body interior materials engineering to look into odor differences across regions.

"What smells bad to us does not always smell bad to people in other parts of the world," Schmalz says.

With automakers constantly offering customizable options, imagine the implications of this smell branding.  Customer may, at some point, be able to choose a smell for their own car.  But lets not get ahead of ourselves.

Before Ford figures out their smell of choice, come by West Herr Ford of Hamburg or Amherst for the latest and best Ford products.