Scent Marketing Blog

Researchers at Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute have developed a manufacturing process that injects microcapsules containing malodorous oils into the helmet itself, causing it to smell when damaged. This alerts you that it’s time to replace your helmet, and making it difficult to try and make do with a less than safe one, at that.

With the launch of the Arodrive™ Premium car diffuser, Air Aroma introduces an entire new category to the car air freshener market. Thanks to a sophisticated diffusion technology in combination with easy-to-use fragrance cartridges, the Arodrive™ Premium safely diffuses your chosen fragrance throughout the car in no time, creating the perfect environment. Another key feature of the Arodrive™ Premium is the selection of three 100% natural essential oil blends exclusively designed to work with the Arodrive™ Premium: Mint Focus, Citrus Joy and Floral Relax.


Mint Focus (refreshing): niaouli, spearmint, frankincense, lemon Citrus Joy (uplifting): mandarin, pink grapefruit, ylang ylang Floral Relax (relaxing): lavender, ylang ylang, geranium, orange, pink grapefruit, rose geranium


Consisting of nothing but pure essential oils (no chemicals, additives or carrier oils), each blend offers the natural benefits that are present in the individual ingredients. On top of that, all of the Arodrive™ Premium essential oil blends naturally come with either anti-bacterial and/or anti-septic properties. Driving your car will become a spa treatment on the go!


Available soon through the AIr Aroma online store and through your local Air Aroma distributor.


Read more here

Researchers in the United States and Singapore confirmed scent helps consumers remember product information.


Aradhna Krishna of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, May Lwin of Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and Maureen Morrin of Rutgers University in Camden, N.J., found scent enhances a product’s distinctiveness.


However, the study, published in the Journal of Consumer Research, also found a distinctive scent in the marketplace was not all that helpful in remembering particular products.


The authors had 151 study participants evaluate pencils that were unscented, or scented with either common pine scent or more uncommon tea tree scent. They also had participants react to scented items vs. items in a scented environment.


“We found that the memory for the scented pencils was much greater than memory for the unscented pencils, and that this effect was especially pronounced after a time delay,” the authors said in a statement.


“Our studies show that product scent significantly enhances recall of product information, and that this enhanced memory for product information persists over time — for at least two weeks after the time of exposure.”

Lavender and Apple Crumble Men’s Favorite Smells. Lavender, a popular scent for female pensioners, has been revealed as one of men’s favorite smells by a list which also places bacon higher than newborn babies.


A OnePoll survey of 4,000 Britons found that freshly-baked bread was the number one smell, followed by clean sheets and freshly-mown grass, reported the Telegraph.


Fresh flowers and fresh coffee made up the top five of the list, which placed bacon seventh, gasoline 12th and babies 18th.


The survey also revealed that vomit, body odour and public toilets were the worst smells.
Some respondents said that certain scents can trigger a change in their mood.


Stephen Weller, director of communications at the International Fragrance Association, told the news provider:

”Scent has always played an important part in our everyday life – wherever we go, we are surrounded by different smells, some good and some bad.”

The research also revealed that eight out of ten men said smells made them happy, while 48 per cent admitted to using scent in the home and 94 per cent said their home smelling nice was important to them.

Perhaps you can’t judge a book by its cover, but there’s a wealth of information to be gleaned from its scent.


Old books give off an unmistakable, musty odor. Scientists have developed a new test that can measure the condition of old books and precious historical documents on the basis of their aroma.


Strlie and his team surveyed the VOC emissions from 72 paper samples in different stages of decay. From those results, the researchers developed a series of scent markers for the structural stability of documents, books and other paper materials.


The familiar odors of old books, which Strlie’s study describes as “a combination of grassy notes with a tang of acids and a hint of vanilla” varies depending on the chemical reactions and oxidation rates of paper ingredients, such as ash, cellulose, rosin and lignin.


The paper manufacturing era of each book can also reveals a lot about its condition.

“It’s really the technology revolution after 1850 that led to what we call ‘acid paper’ that degrades very rapidly,” Strlie told Discovery News. “Today, for books produced from 1890 to 1900, the pages are already very brittle.

With current testing technology, analyzing such fragile books and heritage documents for preservation and exhibition is often a tedious process. This new scent test, however, could save conservators time and allow them to examine the papers nondestructively.

Only recently have companies begun assigning smells to everyday products: frangipani-scented sewing threads, tires that smell like roses. A paper soon to be published in the Journal of Consumer Research confirms the wisdom of this tactic, finding that scented products linger in the memory.


In one experiment, the researchers, posing as marketers, asked 151 college students to examine a brand-name pencil, along with a 10-point list of its selling points. Some of the pencils were unscented, and some had been dosed with pine or tea tree oil. Two weeks later, the average student could not remember a single attribute of the scentless pencil, but remembered more than three attributes of the scented pencils. Students were not provided with the scent, which could jog their memory.

3.27Average number of attributes of a scented pencil that tests subjects recalled, two weeks after handling it.


0.87Average number recalled of a unscented pencil.

“The human memory for smell is very strong, and researchers have known all along that people remember smell,” said Aradhna Krishna, a professor of marketing at the University of Michigan’s business school who is one of the paper’s authors. “What we’re saying is, it’s not just the smell that people remember. It’s other things associated with the smell: the brand name, or the shape of the product’s box.”

In his opening address at SCENTworld 2009, Harald H. Vogt, Founder of the Scent Marketing Institute in New York, announced that his organization has reached a close cooperation agreement with UNLV.


UNLV will take a prominent role in the development and delivery of the Scent Marketing Institute’s upcoming certification program, a way for professionals from the marketing and branding community to obtain critical knowledge in the field of multisensory marketing.

“We are excited about the opportunities for our organization and the Scent Marketing Industry as a whole. This collaboration will lend us additional credibility and lets us further solidify our global leadership role,” says Vogt.

According to Dean Stuart Mann, UNLV is about to break ground for an on-campus hotel and entertainment complex that will serve as a testing facility for all aspects of a multisensory approach including architecture, the fine arts and entertainment. In addition, all of UNLV’s current and new initiatives will be mirrored on the International Campus in Singapore which opened in the Fall of 2006.

For more information about the Institute visit www.scentmarketing.org

Bob Nixon from CBC interviews Dmitri Gailit from Air Aroma Canada and finds out how scent marketing is making an impact on retail sales. Take a look as they discuss the scent of Freshly Baked Bread, Apple Pie, Vanilla and even Green Tea.


View the video here

Consumers are savvy, busy, and let’s face it, just plain hard to pin down so you can advertise to them. This results in the increasing need and appeal of ambient advertising which gets to the consumers’ subconscious. Until recently, the only truly efficient guaranteed form of ambient advertising was through Instore Radio advertising. But thankfully, those crafty scientists have come up with something new. Scent Marketing.

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Jean Touitou, founder of A.P.C., never thought he would create a perfume. Until he met essential oil perfumist Haley Alexander Van Oosten in L.A. After trying one of her essential oil blends and liking the idea of a little glass bottle inside a wood container, Touitou decides otherwise.

The end result is Sustain, a balanced blend of 12 essential oils like a 12-string guitar. Sustain is based on the idea of the smell of a guitar case lined in velvet in which rose petals have been scattered. With a reassuring persistence, the scent of Sustain lasts the perfect amount of time.

To launch Sustain in its stores in Paris, New York and L.A., A.P.C. partnered with Air Aroma to diffuse a derivative version of Sustain through Air Aroma’s stylish Aroslim diffusers. The result is a subtle scent lingering throughout the stores, clearly leaving Touitou’s mark.