So, is scent-based promotion the last great frontier in advertising? After having your eyes and ears assailed with ads, are you resentful that now advertisers are ready to have a go at your nose? Or, is this a positive trend? Since the modern industrial world makes so many terrible smells, is it good that companies are sharing some nice ones? Finally, how important is your sense of smell to you? It seems that it is often underestimated. For instance, in the sphere of education, we talk about visual learners, tactile learners and aural learners, but not olfactory learners. What role does the sense of smell play in our lives?
Scent-based promotion can be considered a very good tool for making people buy a certain product or service. The article states that certain scents have an impact on our behavior, in particular, it influences our brain, as was said by Majora Carter, “The part of your brain that senses scent can allow you to feel really bad about what you see in front of you—or really good—depending on what it is,". I can tell by personal experience that even I remember places (shops) where there was a scent pumped into the room and I always think of those places very positively. It gave me a feeling of warm welcome and I also felt like if the place was very clean. Therefore I believe what Majora Carter says is true. Our senses are the signal that creates an emotion, and nowadays it seems that sight and touch are simply not enough to persuade the consumer, and therefore the seller has to search for other ways to make the product unique but also demanded for. However, it is questionable, whether this way of promoting a product complies with our moral and ethical principles. In my personal opinion, there is nothing wrong with using all the possible ways to promote a product, and big industries are taking advantage of positive influences of a scent on our smell – even those that I would not think they would need it, such as Samsung or Visa.
ReplyDeleteI was also very pleased when I learned that scents cannot be only used in advertising but also in health care. Maybe fragrances have a bigger influence on our brain than we would assume, as could be seen in cases of two men which started to talk after smelling a certain scent that “had left an imprint from childhood”.
Finally, I would like to say that I consider scents as an important part of life, of exploring, of getting to know, and of justifying an object. Our sense of smell is in reality classified as a part of five senses of a human, all of which are equal, although we don’t realize it. Certainly, we realize using our sight and touch when getting to know every new thing, but smelling the scent becomes a part of a process that runs in the background of our mind.
It seems I never gave enough importance to smell of a particular building. I realize that buildings especially the classy ones have their own smell, but I never thought that this smell could have deeper intentions. I have never thought that scent can affect your mood or action without noticing it. You have to notice at least that it smells good or bad before it will affect you, I think. In fact, as mentioned in the article it is still not proven whether the effect is real, so this topic leaves open door for discussion and further research. But, I would not aim my worries on whether it really exists but whether it is ethical to use a scent for manipulating people action or mood. I know that using “Meeting Sense” in conference rooms may be led by good intention. However, this knowledge may be used to manipulate people, if the scent can affect your thinking or if it may affect your attitude. This is seems absolutely not ethical to me, it seems to me like a form of a drug that they spray all over the area where people buy or do some activities. I suggest that we should make a state department which would control the smell in public buildings and there would be a list of official scents that can be used in public places.
ReplyDeleteOn topic brand scenting, I have Sony or Samsung products at home and they do not have a special scent. This must be really a recent idea since my latest Sony product (headphones) is only one year old. I personally think that scent cannot really influence customers in the electronic sector but may have some effect on people who are buying for example clothes. Clothes which have good smell can be more attractive to customers and that is of course main intention of sellers, to make their goods more attractive to customers.
It seems that olfactory is gaining popularity as we can see it can be studied now on university in New York and there are already 20 companies worldwide specializing on this type of business. I assume that this new trend will evolve and scent designing will become popular and common in modern world. I think that, it will not stay just on one university. Olfactory craft will spread through world and it would be taught on specialized high schools. Therefore, I think as I mentioned in first paragraph we should make a state institution which would control this scenting. It seems that scenting is a type of advertising and we have institutions that controls advertising in TV or in radio, so why should we omit this type of advertising from state monitoring? No, we should not, it is type of advertisement and as we all know there are annoying advertisements, therefore the control is needed.
Mojmir Mutny
We are surrounded by commercials and advertising these days. They affect nearly all our senses. We can see the commercials, we can hear them and now we can also smell them. I consider the scent based advertising as a logical step. The ambient scenting may be very effective as Majora Carter said: “The part of your brain that senses scent can allow you to feel really bad about what you see in front of you—or really good—depending on what it is” Good example of how strong the connection between the part of brain that senses scent and the part that handles emotions and memories is the case of the two patients that started talking when they were exposed to scent they were familiar with.
ReplyDeleteI am personally skeptical about the actual impact on the customers. Even in the article is written that there is a lack of independent research in this area. I do not buy anything according to how it smells or how it looks. For example if I want to buy a computer I don’t chose it by its design or its smell. Instead of it I look on its technical specifications and price of course. If the shop has a pleasant scent I think it’s OK, but it doesn’t affect my willingness to buy anything. On the other hand I know many people that are more affected by their senses than by reasons. I think that the effect of ambient scenting is individual.
I don’t think that ambient scenting is something really bad. It’s just another type of advertising and we should ignore it and become immune to it the same way as we ignore commercials in TV or in radio. Maybe in the future will someone invent “ambient tasting” and commercials will affect our taste as well.
A few years ago, I realized the importance of olfactory part of people’s perception. It was when I came across the perfume my mother used to wear when I was little. It didn’t take me longer than a second to associate the familiar scent with the pleasant memories from my childhood. And that is why I suppose that the use of smells in advertisement was only a question of time and it did not really surprise. However, the 20 companies that are currently in the scenting market should be aware of the risks. Like every person is unique, the perception of the same smell by everyone is different and it might not be only positive. On the other hand, this does not seem to be happening. As Jovanovic states, the customers got used to the store-smell to such an extent that the bottle version of the scent is demanded by many of them. I really cannot imagine being one of them, since shopping does not belong to my favorite activities, but the unusual advertisement seems to work.
ReplyDeleteIn contrary, I find the other use of smells very advantageous and important. Although the idea of using scents in medicine might seem a bit like charlatanism, the results are saying something else. And I strongly believe that the 2 patients mentioned in the article were not the only ones whom this method helped. Scenting is not some kind of universal cure, but it is helpful in the area of memory losses which should not be underestimated, since one loses a whole piece of personality when they cannot remember anything from a certain period of time. The odds of getting them back are not very high, and yet something as simple as scent can help to improve them. That is why I think that the main point of concern for people should be finding out how to do it more efficiently, not the use of them in advertisement. But here we go again, it is a commercial world that we live in…
Responding to Rado:
ReplyDeleteFew interesting ideas were mentioned and I agree with them but your opinion is very skeptical and you do not pay enough attention to topic, I think. For example I agree with that this is a new way of expressing the media- scent. The producers attack on our senses and advertisers even more. Smell is their new approach to still evolving market. You have mentioned that you do not buy thinks based on your smell impression, but are you sure that when the scents will be stronger and more concentrated that you still keep your open mind. We must not be so ignorant to this idea. This advertising contains risks since it attacks directly on your conscious, without you noticing it. Furthermore an idea came to my mind while reading your entry, that the concurrence sellers may sabotage stores and products of other sellers. They can spray the goods with the particular smell which evolves bad feeling and nobody would want to buy a TV that makes you sad or cry. This whole idea may lead into thing which I would call smell terrorism which is more dangerous than we might think. Therefore I would not be so ignorant to this topic and pay more attention to this smell matter.
Mojmir
@ Rado
ReplyDeleteI agree with you except for the part where you say you are skeptical about scents affecting your mind. I think you contradict yourself a little bit, in the first paragraph you say
““The part of your brain that senses scent can allow you to feel really bad about what you see in front of you—or really good—depending on what it is” Good example of how strong the connection between the part of brain that senses scent and the part that handles emotions and memories is the case of the two patients that started talking when they were exposed to scent they were familiar with.”,
whereas in the first sentence of the second you state that you personally are very skeptical of the actual impact on consumers. In my personal opinion you certainly get affected by scent but you don’t realize it. It’s like with the music. It was proven that in shops where dynamic and rhythmical music was played, people bought more and more quickly, most of them not even realizing that their mood has changed due to this fact. This type of advertising is aiming at our personal emotions and it seems to work. And of course everybody uses reasons when deciding on what to buy, but imagine you would have two same computers (from the technical point of view) but of different brand and you couldn’t decide. If one of them smelled nicely, won’t you admit that you would probably choose the one with nice smell?