The sweet smell of success has taken on a whole new meaning.
Retailers are increasingly turning to enjoyable scents, pumped into stores, to make shoppers comfortable and more willing to spend.
Alan Hirsch, neurological director of the Smell & Taste Treatment & Research Foundation, told Forbes.com, "Smell has a greater impact on purchasing than everything else combined. If something smells good, the product is perceived as good."
Smell as a marketing tool is growing in importance with retailers. Bloomingdale's, Food Lion, HEB, Kroger, Macy's, Nordstrom, Petco, Saks Fifth Avenue and Sony Style among those using fragrance to stimulate positive emotions along with product and service sales.
ScentAir Technologies, which bills itself as "the market leader of in-store scent solutions," counts Bloomingdale's among its clients.
According to ScentAir's web site, Bloomies uses different scents throughout the store depending on the department. A baby powder scent is used in the infant department, lilac in intimate apparel, coconut in swimsuits and sugar cookie, chocolate and evergreen in use during the Christmas holiday selling season.
The Hard Rock Hotel in Orlando, Florida is also among ScentAir Technologies' clients. According to Forbes, the hotel began pumping a waffle-cone and sugar-cookie fragrance into the air to attract shoppers to an "out-of-the-way ice cream shop" in the facility. Sales jumped 45 percent in the first six months after the hotel began using the scent.
Discussion Questions: Where does scent generally rank in retailers' strategy to encourage consumer purchases? What stores, if you are aware of any, smell the best or worse to you?
This from a BBC report: "When your olfactory receptors are stimulated, they transmit impulses to your brain. This pathway is directly connected to your limbic system, the part of your brain that deals with emotions. That's why your reactions to smell are rarely neutral - you usually either like or dislike a smell. Smells also leave long-lasting impressions and are strongly linked to your memories. The scent of mown grass, for example, might remind you of a childhood summer holiday, and the smell of chocolate chip cookies may make you think of your grandmother."