In 2007, scent marketing was deemed to be one of the top ten trends to watch after marketers and researchers found that scents prompt immediate and emotional consumer responses. (Bradford, 2009). To keep with the times, retailers, hotel chains, and restaurants have begun investing in distinctive smells that would hopefully amplify consumer spending and create a memorable brand experience. As a result, ad companies spend about $80 million per year on scent marketing. Furthermore, the Scent Marketing Institute estimates that that number will increase to more than $500 million per year by 2016. (Solomon, 2013). Due to the popularity of this growing trend and potential revenue generation associated to it, it is important that marketers have at least a basic understanding for the sense of smell and how it can be leveraged for marketing purposes. This paper will explore how the sense of smell effects consumer behavior, how some of today’s marketers are currently using scent marketing, and the benefits behind this particular type of marketing.

1. 2015
Using the Sense of Smell
to Turn Scents into Cents
WVUIMC612 FINAL
RENEE WATKINS

2. 1
Table of Contents
Overview ...........................................................................................................................................1
How the sense of smell affects consumer behavior ........................................................................2
How marketers leverage the sense of smell in their marketing efforts ...........................................4
Benefits of leveraging the sense of smell in marketing efforts........................................................5
Conclusion .......................................................................................................................................6

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Overview
In 2007, scent marketing was deemed to be one of the top ten trends to watch after
marketers and researchers found that scents prompt immediate and emotional consumer
responses. (Bradford, 2009). To keep with the times, retailers, hotel chains, and restaurants have
begun investing in distinctive smells that would hopefully amplify consumer spending and create
a memorable brand experience. As a result, ad companies spend about $80 million per year on
scent marketing. Furthermore, the Scent Marketing Institute estimates that that number will
increase to more than $500 million per year by 2016. (Solomon, 2013).
Due to the popularity of this growing trend and potential revenue generation associated to
it, it is important that marketers have at least a basic understanding for the sense of smell and
how it can be leveraged for marketing purposes. This paper will explore how the sense of smell
effects consumer behavior, how some of today’s marketers are currently using scent marketing,
and the benefits behind this particular type of marketing.
How the sense of smell affects consumer behavior
A person’s sense of smell is one of the most primal and deeply rooted senses of the
chemical alert system. Humans process aromatic cues in the limbic system, the most primitive
part of the brain, where humans experience immediate emotions. (Solomon, 2013). As a result,
when a person smells something, the odor receptors produce an immediate, instinctive reaction.
Unlike other sensory reactions (hearing, vision, feeling, or taste), a person’s brain responds to the
sense of scent before they even think. (Bradford, 2009).

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In addition, because the olfactory bulb in connected to the limbic system of the brain
(which is the system that governs the human emotion), the sense of smell is considered to be the
sense most closely related to emotional reactions. (Bradford, 2009). In fact, the sense of smell is
believed to affect 75 percent of a person’s daily emotions. (Air Aroma, n.d.).
The sense of smell also directly correlates to a person’s involuntarily human actions. In a
recent study, researchers Krashna, Morrin, and Sayin, set out to discover if real or imagined food
smells increased salivation levels and a person’s desire for various food products. Test
participants were shown images of food and written cues. There were later asked to smell or
imagine scents representing those images. The researchers measured their salivation levels and
consumption behaviors. The researchers discovered that smelling a food scent increased
salivation levels and consumption desires for all of the participants. (Krashna, 2014).
Food retailers such as Cinnabon have taken advantage of these findings. In fact,
Cinnabon places its ovens near the entrances of its stores so the smell of fresh baked cinnamon
rolls is emitted throughout the mall or airport every time their oven doors are open. They bake
their cinnamon rolls every 30 minutes and some stores have even been instructed to head
additional trays of brown sugar and cinnamon to keep a fresh scent in the air. This aroma
infusion has become a huge aspect of the brand’s marketing strategy for that they have found that
stores who placed the ovens in the back of the stores had significantly lower sales. (Nassauer,
2014).
Studies also indicate that a person will remember 35 percent of what they smell. Yet
only remember 1 percent of what they touch, 2 percent of what they hear, 5 percent of what they
see, and 15 percent of what they taste. (Accuscents, n.d.). The sense of smell is also the only
sense that consumers can’t voluntarily turn off or avoid. Therefore, today’s marketers are

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looking for ways to leverage the sense of smell into their marketing efforts and hopefully in turn,
elicit a conditioned response from consumers.
How marketers leverage the sense of smell in their marketing efforts
Scents are used for marketing in various ways. Scents can be used as a marketer scent,
product scent, and/or ambient scent.
Marketer scents is when scents are used to attract attention to products and services as
part of a promotional tactic. (Bradford, 2009). Examples include the new car smell at the car
dealership or when Verizon used the aroma of chocolate in its stores to promote LG’s Chocolate
phone. (Bradford, 2009). Interestingly, when it comes to chocolate, a study found that
consumers who viewed ads for chocolate and who were also exposed to chocolate-like odors,
spent more time processing the product information and were more likely to try different
alternatives within the product category. (Solomon, 2013). While it’s not clear if the smell of
chocolate prompted consumers to spend additional time reviewing the LG Chocolate, Verizon
certainly hoped this marketing tactic lead to additional market spend.
Product scents are developed as products for the purposes of providing personal or
general odors to motivate approach behaviors or deodorizing. (Bradford, 2009). A great example
of this is Bath and Body Work’s candles or Wall Flowers.
Ambient scents, which date roughly back to the 1970’s, are general odors that are present
as part of the retail environment. (Klara, 2012). Ambient scents can be objective, meaning that it
was developed with the intention of affecting the attitudes and behavior of consumers for the
benefit of the retailer. Ambient scents can also impact customers covertly, affecting the attitudes

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and behavior of customers for the benefit of the retailer. (Bradford, 2009). A study done in 2013
by the Global Journal of Commerce and Management Perspective said that ambient scent has the
strongest impact when it comes to enhancing consumer behavior in terms of emotion, evaluation,
willingness to return to a store, and purchase decisions. (Smiley, 2014).
Brands such as the J.W. Marriott understand the importance of ambient scents and have
worked to leverage ambient scents in their marketing efforts. Mitzi Gaskins, Vice President of
Global Brand Leader for the J.W. Marriott, said that scent is just as important as music, lighting,
and botanical elements in creating the right mood or experience. (Smiley, 2014). Therefore, J.W.
Marriott invested in developing a unique brand smell and created a fragrance from scratch. The
scent is described as a soft, fresh, subtle citrus smell. Guests can even take a little piece of J.W.
Marriott home with them, as the hotel scent is available for sale on the hotel’s website. (Smiley,
2014).
Benefits of leveraging the sense of smell in marketing efforts
Scents have been found to influence memory, impact perception, and increase sales.
(Winter, 2014).
In recent years, marketing researchers Madzharov, Block, and Morrin conducted four
highly controlled, real-world field studies on ambient scents that differ in temperature (i.e. warm
or cool) and how they affect consumer behavior. While researchers understood the power of
scents on consumer behavior, they were surprised to learn that even the most subtle, warm
ambient scent had a very powerful influence on consumer behavior. In fact, the findings of the
studies concluded that warm-scent environments create perceptions of higher social density,

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power preferences, purchasing of prestige products, and higher dollar spending. (Madzharov,
2015).
Ambient scents are particularly beneficial for marketers. In fact, studies have found that
84% of people were more likely to buy shoes when in a scented room. Moreover, those same
respondents would pay 10 - 15% more for the same product if they were in a scented room. In
another study, a sweet citrus ambient scent increased the average total purchases in a retail
setting from $55 to $90 per customer. (Bradford, 2009).
Researchers have also found that consumers are 100 times more likely to remember
something they smelled over something they saw, heard, or touched. (Bradford, 2009). Another
study concluded that test subjects showed a higher recall of a test brand’s attributes if it was
embedded with a scent. This effect persisted up to 2 weeks after the conclusion of the
experiment. (Solomon, 2013). Therefore, based on these findings, scent marketing can be
extremely beneficial when implemented correctly by the marketer.
Conclusion
Scents have a powerful effect on consumer behavior. If leveraged properly, scent
marketing has the potential to increase brand awareness, improve brand perception, and generate
additional revenue for the brand. As more brands begin to understand and learn about the power
of scent marketing, the more consumers will be exposed to retail experiences that are a feast for
the senses.

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References
Accuscents. (n.d.). Why and How Scent Marketing Workds. Retrieved from Accuscents:
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Air Aroma. (n.d.). Why Scent Marketing? Retrieved from Air Aroma: http://www.air-
aroma.com/scent-marketing
Bradford, K. D. (2009). The Use of Scents to Influence Consumers: The Sense of Using Scents
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scan_tab_contents
Klara, R. (2012, March 05). Something in the Air. Retrieved from AdWeek:
http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/something-air-138683
Krashna, A. M. (2014). Smellizing Cookies and Salivating: A Focus on Olfactory Imagery.
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Madzharov, A. B. (2015). The Cool Scent of Power: Effects of Ambient Scent on Consumer
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Nassauer, S. (2014, May 20). Using Scent as a Marketing Tool, Stores Hope It--and Shoppers--
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http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702303468704579573953132979382
Smiley, M. (2014, December 09). Dollars & Scents: From Clothes to Cars to Banks, Brands
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Solomon, M. R. (2013). Dollars and Scents. In M. R. Solomon, Consumer Behavior: Buying,
Having, and Being - 10th ed. (p. 53). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.
Winter, C. (2014, January 09). What Should a Bank Smell Like? Retrieved from
BloombergBusiness: http://www.bloomberg.com/bw/articles/2014-01-09/what-should-a-
bank-smell-like