Salinas-Bentley 1

Juan Salinas-Bentley

ENC 1102-0M37

Dr. Guenzel

April 4, 2020

Smells Like Money

This was a question that came to my mind almost as soon as I thought of the idea for my

paper, “Do smells actually affect whether a customer buys something or not?” and at first really

didn’t believe it would have so much impact. Turns out after hours of researching and reading

articles it is a huge marketing tactic that is so hidden. To the naked brain you really do not think

about the little things like smell when you walk into a store. You may think “Wow! This store

smells really good!” or even “Man! It smells horrible in this store”, but have you ever thought of

it from a marketer's standpoint. When you walk into a movie theatre and the first thing you smell

is popcorn it can really get you in the mood to buy popcorn even if you really don’t want to eat

it. You probably think of a restaurant or a food stand being the main businesses that use this

tactic to lure in people to eat food but restaurants are not the only ones that truly use this as a

huge marketing tactic. Based on seasons and what they are trying to sell and type of store will

use the smell to lure people into the store and also to mind trick the brain into feeling a certain

way. When you go into some stores during christmas time and you smell that cinnamon in the air

it makes you feel like it is Christmas, which can put a mindset of happiness which can result into

you purchasing an item because of the mood you are in. Some of the perfect ideas for stores that

I know that use the holidays for marketing tactics include Yankee Candle, Pier One Imports and

Nordstrom. If you are looking for an amazing way to grab a customers attention without
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overloading their face with small signs on the store then I would have to say smell is a very

strong tactic to use since it subconsciously grabs a customers attention.

Fresh Smelling

The importance of this marketing tactic is something that is very well hidden but also

anyone can notice it. I mean I would say around the holiday seasons people tend to notice the

change in smells but think it is just for the seasonal mood. It makes customers feel more excited

about the holidays and typically gets them in a better mood. Since the holidays are huge for

sales, stores everywhere try and take advantage of every possible thing so they can become a

very successful company or continue to make profit. In this day in age it can be very complicated

to start a business rather than 100 years ago because now it feels like there is a business for

everything. So in whatever business you do you have to go that extra mile to stand out to

customers so that they remember you and return for future business. Have you ever noticed when

you have gone to a car dealership the whole inside of the dealership smells like a new car. It is

not just the inside of the cars that smell like that but it is the whole dealership. Besides when you

walk by their brand new tires they are trying to sell you, you have that amazing scent of new car

which the dealerships are told to use to get customers more influence on buying a brand new car.

Each car company produces their own scent to use in their cars and stores every year and

depending on how sales are, the smells are either kept or changed. Each company even has its

own team that solely works on producing a smell for the company. Even though all the scents

can have a very similar smell they are made sure to be unique so when you step foot in the car

you know what kind of car you have. That is one of the reasons why car companies are able to

draw in people and be strong standing businesses. They make sure to do every little thing right
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and each car company is so unique not only in their cars but the presentation of the cars and the

stores, which includes the smell.

The Affect Smell Can Have on the Mind

Another example of using scents to work the brain in an easy mood is when Sony puts

certain scents by their products. In an interview with ABC News, Gino Biondi said “the smell of

vanilla puts women, typically intimidated by electronics, at ease” (Fahmy) which he uses. This

tactic as you can see helps companies sell electronic products to both men and women as it

relaxes the women around electronics. Gino Biondi does not directly work for Sony but is the

chief marketing officer for ScentAir, who is hired by Sony to help market their products

indirectly with smells. ScentAir is a company in which they specialize in creating smells that

become brand recognizable, which means that their job is to create a smell that will stick into a

customer's head and when they smell it they know what company’s product is nearby. ScentAir

is one of the best companies in the world that does this and it shows by having customers like

Sony since Sony is one of the biggest electronic companies in the world. One of their big

customers is Sony which is a huge electronics company and would say that men are their top

buyers so to market to the females they have the help of ScentAir. In this case they are using

smell to put females at ease when watching their boyfriends or husbands drool at the electronics.

Electronics are typically known for being purchased by or for males since they seem to be more

fascinated more in their products according to Sony. After learning more about this it really

made me think about how much smell can really affect how a customer purchases products.

Smells With Food

Obviously, one of the biggest ways smell is used is in the restaurant business and it

correlates perfectly. When you smell food and it smells really good you naturally can become

very hungry and influenced to buy that food to eat whether you were hungry prior or not. One of

the best chains that has their own smell that markets perfectly is Cinnabon. I think so many

people can agree that they use their smells to perfection to lure in people to buy them. So many

food chains use this to their advantage because smell is one of the most direct marketing

products when it comes to food. Before you eat food you smell it without even thinking about it.

So for restaurants to lure in customers this can be huge. You smell it from a mile away and you

just want to get it. But since it is food it can have a huge profit but also a big disadvantage. When

you are walking by a restaurant or a food pop up store and if the food smells horrible, it can

leave a bad first impression with someone who is just walking by and not even going in there to

eat. So if they walk by and it smells horribly it can make that first impression with the customer

the last impression. As effective as a billboard can be since you have the ability to attract

customers from miles away, when you are able to bring in the customers that are right outside

your doorstep it will be a much more effective tactic. You want to bring in the people that are

always walking around the area since that would mean more business. This is also a huge tool for

non food markets but it may not have as much reward as a restaurant would, but there is less risk.

For restaurants, the risk is bigger than a non food business because you can spray objects that

you purchase in non food restaurants so if furniture doesn’t smell good you can just spray it. But

if you do not like the smell of it but food is consumption and you don’t get appetized by smelling

bad food. For example, Sony can get away with the area of their products smelling bad because

people are not interested in the smell of electronics, while food smells is the first impression on

whether you want to eat it or not.

Conclusion

I was able to learn so much about how smells can manipulate the brain in so many

different ways whether it was making you feel more calm and relaxed, made you feel in a way

better mood, or even way more hungry than you anticipated. You have to remember that smell is

one of your five senses and you use it 24/7 without even thinking about it. It is one of the most

powerful parts of a human and if used correctly businesses can be able to thrive so much. Smell

is one of the biggest marketing tactics that literally goes right under our noses and can be so

beneficial for businesses to use. For someone to tell me now that smell will not affect how you

purchase an item, I would call you crazy because there are so many different ways that this can

affect you. It is a subconscious affect on your brain that makes you feel or act a certain way

without you even realizing it, while also being very harmless. You have to remember when you

are working in a business and you need a way to market, that this is a very small thing that any

store can do and if you do it properly then it can only help you and not hurt you. No matter what

kind of business you are doing it can help you out in some way shape or form. This is not just

any marketing tactic but one of the best marketing strategies in the world.

Works Cited

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Scents Influence Product Evaluations?” Journal of Marketing, 70 (July), 32–43.

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1509/jmkg.70.3.032

Chebat, Jean-Charles and Richard Michon (2003), “The Impact of Ambient Odors on

Mall Shoppers’ Emotions, Cognition, and Spending: A Test of Competitive Causal Theories,”
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Journal of Business Research, 56 (7), 529–

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Eveleth, Rose. (2013). How do we smell? https://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=snJnO6OpjCs&feature=emb_logo

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