Fragrance is the strongest intangible identity asset in the beauty industry. It is directly linked to emotional memory, bypassing rational filters. Vietnamese domestic brands often allocate budgets to packaging and social media imagery, neglecting the olfactory dimension. As a result, customers remember specific products but not the brand name. Building fragrance identity requires a strategy, not just selecting a pleasant scent and incorporating it into a formula.
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A serum bottle sits on a Watsons shelf. Pure white packaging, clean typography, a soft golden tint at the shoulder of the bottle. A customer picks it up, opens the cap, takes one breath, then puts it down. They remember the scent for a few seconds, but by the time they get home, what they remember is "the golden serum I smelled yesterday," not the brand name. This is not a problem of one product. It is a systemic problem for most domestic Vietnamese cosmetics brands, which build their identity on one leg.
Why scent is a memory asset
Among the senses, smell is the only channel that connects directly to the limbic system, the area that processes emotions and long-term memories. It does not pass through the thalamus like sight and hearing. Therefore, a scent can evoke memories and emotions before the brain has time to recognize and name it.
Psychologist Rachel Herz, in her research on olfactory memory at Brown University, found that memories tied to scent are usually recalled with stronger emotion. The feeling of "going back in time" is also more vivid than with visual or auditory memories. This is exactly the mechanism premium brands have long exploited, yet most domestic brands in the beauty industry have not treated it as a strategic question.
When almost every product can be copied in terms of formula and packaging within months, the hardest thing to replicate is often the least invested in. That is a consistent sensory signature, where scent is an invisible layer of identity.
Similar crises and the third dimension left empty
The Vietnamese cosmetics market is importing over 1.3 billion USD annually, a 17% increase compared to the previous year (according to the General Department of Customs, 2023). Domestic products account for less than 10% of market share. In this context, many domestic brands choose the shortest path to compete. They invest in beautiful packaging and social media advertising, hoping that differentiation will come from visual appeal.
The problem is that everyone is doing the same thing. When fifty serum bottles on a shelf all have minimalist design, clean type and neutral colors, no one is truly different. The visual dimension is saturated. But the scent dimension is still left open, and that is the white space where the first brand to step in gains an advantage that grows over time.
A brand is the feeling in the gut of the user, not the logo, not the packaging.
Marty Neumeier, The Brand Gap
If a brand is a perception, then each time a customer opens a jar, it is a moment when the brand reaches them through a channel that most competitors are neglecting. Ignoring this dimension is giving up the identity territory to others.
Scent identity is not about choosing pleasant smells
The most common misunderstanding is confusing "choosing a scent for a product" with "building a scent identity for a brand." These two things are different in nature.
Choosing a pleasant scent is a product decision. The fragrance mixer often decides based on market trends, raw material costs, and blending capabilities. As a result, each product in the line may have a different scent, or worse, the same scent that no one remembers as a brand identifier.
Building a scent identity is a brand decision. It starts with the question: what feelings does this brand want to evoke, and in what usage context? And which scent can become a distinctive asset, as understood by Jenni Romaniuk, meaning it is both easily recognizable and not confused with others.
A brand can decide that the entire line of night skincare will share a common scent: oud, light jasmine, and a hint of soft musk. Each time a customer opens a product in the evening, that signal is repeated. According to the mental availability mechanism described by Byron Sharp, this consistent repetition helps that scent become a recognition point for the brand. It is no longer just a characteristic of one product.
Cocoon and the lesson on consistent feelings
Among Vietnamese local cosmetic brands, Cocoon is a rare example that has built a consistent sensory system. This brand not only invests in packaging or the story of local ingredients but also has a clear sensory personality: fresh, natural, approachable, and not overly complex. The scent profile across many products accurately reflects that personality, creating a connection between visual and olfactory senses.
The measurable results in a specific product line are noteworthy.
Three questions to answer before choosing a scent
If you are building or repositioning a cosmetics brand, here are three strategic questions that need answers. Answer them before talking to the fragrance creator or formula mixer.
- What feeling this scent stands for, not what ingredients it contains. "Shea butter scent" describes a formula. "The feeling of being cared for as if at home, on a quiet evening" is a sensory positioning. The second is the real brief for the fragrance house.
- Can this scent be consistent across the product line? If each product has a unique scent due to formula or cost reasons, you are not building an identity. You are selling each product individually, with no relationship to one another.
- Can this scent become a distinctive asset, or is it just a pleasant smell? By Romaniuk's definition, a distinctive asset must be familiar to customers who have used it and unique enough not to be confused with others. A scent that is too generic, such as neutral rose or bergamot orange, may be pleasant but will not build an identity of its own for you.
Packaging is still important, but not enough on its own
That does not mean investing in packaging is wrong. Packaging is the layer of visual identity. It attracts customers to stop at the shelf and creates the first impression in just fifty milliseconds, according to research by Lindgaard and colleagues (Behaviour and Information Technology, 2006). But packaging is what customers see, while fragrance is what they feel and take home.
A complete cosmetics brand must excel in both dimensions. Visual identity builds recognition on the shelf and on screen. Olfactory identity builds recognition in real usage spaces, every morning and evening when customers open the bottle. These are two touchpoints with very different frequencies and emotional intensities. Neglecting the second dimension leaves open the opportunity to build the greatest brand value that this industry has.
Customers remember the box because they see it. But they remember the brand because they feel it, every day, through a scent that their brain has learned to associate with your name.
References
Marty Neumeier, The Brand Gap (2003). Jenni Romaniuk & Byron Sharp, How Brands Grow Part 2 (2016). Rachel Herz, The Scent of Desire (2007). Tuyết Minh Phạm & colleagues, "Multisensory Brand Experience," Journal of Business Research (2022). McKinsey & Company, The Business Value of Design (2018). Kantar BrandZ Global Report (~2020).