wacky wednesday - what's that smell?

As you may have guessed from previous posts, my husband and I like Disneyland... a lot. A few years back, on a tour at Disneyland, we learned that the bakery on Main Street uses a "Smellitizer device" (I did not make that up!) to pump out chocolate chip cookie (Walt's favorite) scent. At Thanksgiving, they use gingerbread scent. And, of course, at Christmas it's peppermint. Disneyland also uses scents in some of their rides - a leather and sea-spray scent in Pirates of the Caribbean and an orange scent in Soarin' Over California, for example.

I was walking through the mall past Abercrombie & Fitch and noticed their scent spilling out past the door.

Hmmm. Do other companies do this?  You betcha.

Cadillac's signature scent, Nuance, debuted in 2003 and is processed into the leather seats. A Seattle bank puts mint-scented money in their cash machines. 7-11 pumps fresh-baked bread scents into their remodeled stores. Cinnabon places their ovens near the front of the store and bakes cinnamon rolls every 30 minutes. Store owners are advised to buy ovens with the least amount of venting allowed by their state so that more of that heavenly cinnamon-scent escapes. And that barely scratches the surface of businesses taking advantage of "scent branding." The idea is that customers will associate these pleasant scents with a particular company or product.

Marketing strategies appeal to our senses - sight (paint color, lighting, wall art, displays), touch or feeling (A/C in the summer, heat in the winter), hearing (the proverbial "elevator music" or the piano player at Nordstrom's), taste (food samples in grocery stores, candy or treats at the bank & liquor store). Sense of smell is the last player to the marketing game which is surprising since marketing research indicates that we remember 1% of what we touch, 2% of what we hear, 5% of what we see, 15% of what we taste and a whopping 35% of what we smell.

Better research techniques in human behavior and advances in neurobiology have contributed to greater understanding of the power of scent. Recent studies conclude that varying scents can alter human behavior by producing feelings of relaxation, comfort, seduction, provocation and even fear, for example. How can that be? Our smell receptors transmit the information to the olfactory bulb which is part of the brain's limbic system, the part of the brain that controls memory and emotions. Our other senses (hearing, vision, taste and touch) transmit information to our right brain, the cognitive center. We can certainly form a memorable or emotional reaction to these senses, but smell is the only one that goes directly to the limbic portion of our brain creating an immediate sub-conscious emotional reaction.

Companies use scenting to create a pleasant environment for customers causing them to spend more time there and to later remember it was pleasurable and want to return. Research studies showed an 84% increase in the willingness of customers to buy a pair of Nike shoes in a scented room over an odor-free room. And that they were willing to pay $12.33 MORE for the same shoes. Not only that, researchers also found that customers spend 40% more time in scented areas of a store versus odor-free departments. Wow!

So.... maybe you really couldn't help buying that cute little something at the mall? ;-)