December 20th 2009
Scent enhances memory
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.”
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