The role of smells in decision-making

Do consumers make different choices based on the scents they experience? A new study in the Journal of Marketing shows that the "temperature" of scents can influence what and how much consumers buy. People smelling warm scents like cinnamon perceive the room they are in as more crowded and, as a result, feel less powerful. This may cause them to compensate by purchasing items they perceive as more prestigious , write authors Adriana V. Madzharov (Stevens Institute of Technology), Lauren G. Block (City University of New York), and Maureen Morrin (Temple University). A warm scent contrasted with a cool aroma Scientists conducted several experiments to test how warm and cool scents might affect consumer perception and decision-making. When people in a room experienced a "warm" scent, such as cinnamon, they felt the room was more crowded than when they experienced a "cool" scent, even though the room contained the same number of people each time. The warm scent encourages you to buy it As a result of the perceived crowd in the "warm, crowded" room, people felt less powerful. They were more likely to compensate for this loss by purchasing items they perceived as prestigious and that helped to enhance their personal status. The actual temperature and crowdedness of the room were never increased; the experience was simply a result of sensing a warm or cold scent. The "warm, crowded" scent not only pushed customers to choose exclusive items but also to buy more products. The smell distracts the customer, who instinctively reaches for the product "This study, to the best of our knowledge, is the first to demonstrate how a fragrance can influence how we experience the space around us. This, in turn, can motivate customers to choose reputable products. We demonstrate that retailers can easily manipulate consumer perceptions through the subtle and relatively inexpensive application of scent in the store environment, " the authors conclude.