The Nose Knows

Do you believe that what you smell can have an impact on your emotions? I do. I love those ginger peach candles from Pier One. When I'm trying to get a lot of writing done, I light 'em up all around me, and breath deeply.  And when I want to head off to the land of nod, from my pillows and sheets waft the lavender I spray on my bed every couple of days to gentle me into slumber.

The idea that what you smell can influence your emotions and your behaviour isn't new. Lavender helps you sleep. Mint wakes your brain up and makes you more aware. And no matter how good your diet intentions, if you get a whiff of fresh-baked bread you can watch your self-control go out the window. These are just some of the truths in the aromatherapy domain.

It seems that fresh-baked bread can also cause drivers to speed. So say some researchers at the West Virginia Wheeling Jesuit University, who link the hunger that the smell generates to drivers' hurrying to quell their appetites.

In 2004, Richard Axel and Linda Buck were awarded a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their pioneering research on our sense of smell. They found that we humans have some 1,000 olfactory genes, and for the first time they clarified how our olfactory system works. So now there's support for all that aromatherapy mumbo jumbo: cinnamon can improve your concentration; coffee can clarify your thinking; sweet smells can increase your tolerance for pain.

Marketers are taking advantage of all the new research and using "ambient scenting" to leave you with a good feeling about their products. Do you think that if they spray a certain scent in your direction, you'll be more likely to buy?

An article in Business Week says, "Researchers believe that ambient scenting allows consumers to make a deeper brand connection, and data has led many other non-scent-related companies to join the fray." Research has shown that there is evidence of a powerful relationship between the olfactory bulb and the brain's limbic system, which is the part of the brain that handles memories and emotion.

Did you know that when a facial tissue is imbued with a scent, consumers' recall of the brand's other attributes increase significantly… up to two weeks? Could this be why laundry detergent, which used to come in lemony fresh, now comes in a b'zillion different scents?

Not only can your nose be pulled into the buying decision, so can your ears. A research study done at Penn State showed that when ambient scent and music dovetail, consumers rate the environment significantly more positive and are more likely to impulse shop.

Research projects are popping up everywhere to try and fine-tune the use of scent and music to manipulate consumers. So if you see me walking around the mall with a clothes pin on my nose, I'm probably trying to compensate for all the smells those wily marketers are throwing at me. And if you call to me and I don't answer, I'm not ignoring you. It's just my earplugs.

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