The Effect of Scent on the Human Brain and Its Possibilities for Marketing.
1. Introduction De flood of different marketing activities and advertising led to consumers’ information saturation leading to a lower perception and a reduced efficiency of the many campaigns and activities. Marketers have been seeking to find new ways to manage this situation; amongst others, neuromarketing is very promising. In my paper I will focus on the use of scents in marketing.
Every single moment of our life we are surrounded by scents, even if we are not always aware of them, smells are accompanying us. They have a much larger impact as most people are oblivious of. Our social life for instance is affected by scents as people can leave a positive or negative impression as a result of how they smell. Behavioral manipulation through fragrances often stays unnoticed; it can influence our emotions and our sense of well-being.
Scents create images in our head and remind us of events from our past. The marketing industry has started to look at the human olfactory sense as an important sensory organ and has begun to study possible use of it for its targets. Practical examples are for instance the use of sprays to make used cars smell new and unused or utilize of odoriferous scents at the point of sale to create a more enjoyable atmosphere which increases the buy-impulse.
2. Function and anatomy of the brain, logic of emotions, principles
2.1. Function and anatomy
The human brain regulates and steers our bodies. All processes happening to make work certain parts of the body, have a biochemical or biophysical basis1. For instance: if signals wouldn´t be send through nerves to the heart to make it pump blood through the veins, it would simply stop beating. The central nervous system consists of different parts, including the brain, the spinal cord, the nerves and the nerve endings. This system is controlled by the brain,
1
Cp. Traindl, A. (2005).
1
which again is build-up of three main parts: the forebrain (Frontal lobe), the midbrain
Every single moment of our life we are surrounded by scents, even if we are not always aware of them, smells are accompanying us. They have a much larger impact as most people are oblivious of. Our social life for instance is affected by scents as people can leave a positive or negative impression as a result of how they smell. Behavioral manipulation through fragrances often stays unnoticed; it can influence our emotions and our sense of well-being.
Scents create images in our head and remind us of events from our past. The marketing industry has started to look at the human olfactory sense as an important sensory organ and has begun to study possible use of it for its targets. Practical examples are for instance the use of sprays to make used cars smell new and unused or utilize of odoriferous scents at the point of sale to create a more enjoyable atmosphere which increases the buy-impulse.
2. Function and anatomy of the brain, logic of emotions, principles
2.1. Function and anatomy
The human brain regulates and steers our bodies. All processes happening to make work certain parts of the body, have a biochemical or biophysical basis1. For instance: if signals wouldn´t be send through nerves to the heart to make it pump blood through the veins, it would simply stop beating. The central nervous system consists of different parts, including the brain, the spinal cord, the nerves and the nerve endings. This system is controlled by the brain,
1
Cp. Traindl, A. (2005).
1
which again is build-up of three main parts: the forebrain (Frontal lobe), the midbrain