Key points
Functional fragrance
Built to cover odours or signal cleanliness at low cost. Simple, linear and often sharp.
Fine fragrance
Composed by a perfumer for character and balance. Layered, rounded and distinctive.
The visitor notices
People recognise functional scents from toilets, cleaners and car fresheners, even without naming them.
Why some buildings smell basic
Functional fragrance is the scent in household cleaners, washroom dispensers, detergents and car fresheners. It is formulated to do a job cheaply: mask odours, smell “clean” and last. To achieve that, many functional scents rely on a small number of high-impact materials that people have smelt thousands of times in everyday products.
When a lobby uses a scent built the same way, visitors connect it, often subconsciously, with those everyday places. The building smells functional, however premium it looks.
The cost of a functional scent
A Grade A building is priced on its quality. A scent that visitors associate with washrooms, gyms or malls places the building in a lower tier and undercuts the premium it is positioned on. How scent signals quality and value. It is also the difference between scent marketing and air freshening, and between fine fragrance and what most aroma diffusers deliver.
How to tell them apart
Four signs that a building is using functional fragrance. Applied through lobby scenting.
It smells sharp or chemical up close
It reminds you of cleaning products or washrooms
It is flat: the same note from first breath to last
You have smelt it in a mall, gym or hotel
How PrimeScents avoids it
Our rules exclude functional scent from every programme.
No commodity accords
Nothing that reads as washroom, cleaning product, car freshener or catalogue hotel scent.
Signature scent only
Every client has its own fine fragrance, created with DROM.
Restrained intensity
A fine fragrance at the right intensity reads as premium; too much reads as cheap.
Frequently asked questions
1. What is functional fragrance?
Fragrance designed to perform a task cheaply, such as masking odours or signalling cleanliness, rather than to express character.
2. Is functional fragrance bad?
It has its place, in washrooms and cleaning. It is the wrong choice for a premium lobby.
3. Why do so many lobbies use it?
Scent is often bought as a facilities consumable, chosen on price and supplied by hygiene contractors.
4. Can a functional scent be made premium by using more?
No. Higher intensity makes a functional scent more noticeable and more likely to read as cheap.
5. What do washrooms use in PrimeScents buildings?
Odour neutralisation only. The signature scent is never used in washrooms or car parks.
6. How do we find out what our lobby signals?
Ask for a lobby scent tier audit as part of a site assessment.
Get started
Find out what your lobby signals
Our lobby scent tier audit tells you what your building smells like today and what that scent is associated with.