Scent Marketing Blog

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.”

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 Scientists have developed a new test that can measure the condition of old books and precious historical documents on the basis of their aroma.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.