The automobile industry, which manages invisible odors, even verifies 'indoor odors' to secure customer trust
Mar 27, 2025
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Perfection is a sense that deeply affects human emotions and memories. According to the American Sense of Smell Institute, about 75 percent of a person's emotions are known to be affected by the sense of smell. Due to these characteristics, marketing using scent and smell is actively underway in various industries.
As vehicles are recognized as living spaces beyond simple means of transportation, the smell of automobile interior is becoming an important factor in product satisfaction. Accordingly, major automobile manufacturers are focusing on creating a pleasant environment by manufacturing car seats with eco-friendly materials or applying new technologies to purify the air inside the vehicle to reduce the smell of chemicals unique to new cars.
Even in the used car market, the smell inside the vehicle is considered an important criterion that greatly influences consumers' purchasing decisions. Used cars vary greatly depending on the management status of previous users, and professional deodorization is required if the smell remains due to smoking, companion animals, and food intake. However, this smell is difficult to grasp unless you ride the vehicle yourself, which can act as an unsettling factor for buyers in non-face-to-face transactions.
In particular, with the recent spread of non-face-to-face transactions in the used car market, consumers can easily check the appearance and major performance of vehicles online. On the other hand, indoor smell or air quality had to rely on subjective judgment, and objective information provision was insufficient.
In fact, in some used car companies, there are many cases in which consumers who have received vehicles non-face-to-face request refunds due to unexpected smells of cigarettes or life. In this case, the odor is temporarily removed through an indoor cleaning service, but if the underlying cause is not eliminated, the odor may leak out again over time. In response, Ribboncar, a used car platform certified by non-face-to-face, introduced the "smell care" service for the first time in the used car industry in 2020, solving odor problems that are difficult to remove through cleaning and information asymmetry arising from non-face-to-face transactions.
The ribbon car's 'smell care' service is a service that measures and selects smells inside the vehicle, and systematically manages the vehicle interior environment after evaluation by fragrance experts with precision measuring equipment that measures indoor air and perfumer certificates. Ribboncar's perfumer has a certified perfumer certificate and is conducting a more precise evaluation based on expertise in car interior odor analysis and fragrance composition.
The ribbon car classifies the vehicle into five levels of odor and then selects and sells only the top three grades (▲pleasant ▲ good ▲ normal) to provide customers with a more reliable vehicle. In particular, vehicles classified as "pleasant" by carefully inspecting even fine odors that are difficult for professional perfumers to detect by machines guarantee a pleasant indoor environment close to odorless.
In addition, the vehicle's smell rating is transparently disclosed through the 'Indoor Smell Rating' item in the AQI report, a patented used vehicle quality control process. This allows customers to objectively check not only the appearance and performance of the vehicle but also the state of the invisible indoor smell. In 2021, Ribboncar became the first in the industry to obtain a patent for the "Sniff Care Customized Used Car Sales System and Method," recognizing the objectivity and technical reliability of odor management standards.
Marketing using scent and smell is being actively conducted not only in the used car industry, but also in imported car brands and automobile goods companies. Volvo introduced a limited-edition natural candle 'Swoodish' with the perfume brand 'DS&Derga', while automotive goods company BullsOne also operates a fragrance research institute and is focusing on product development.
"Smell is a factor that determines the first impression of encountering a vehicle and directly affects customers' purchase decisions," a ribbon car official said. "In the automobile market where non-face-to-face transactions are active, ribbon cars thoroughly manage invisible areas so that consumers can trust and choose vehicles through odor care services."
Editor Song Moon-cheol mc.song@carguy.kr
This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
