Laura Skelton Scent Thesis

Scent and Shopping
by Laura Skelton
The Built Environment: Final Thesis

Professor David Smiley
April 20, 2006
Scent and Shopping
Cultures of Scent 3
Food 4
Perfume 5
Incense 6
Street 7
Decay 8
Scent Architecture and Gender 9
Deodorization 12
Re-Odorization 13
Scent and Retail
Scent-Marketing 17
Scent Design Technology 20
Subliminal Scenting 22
Brand Identity Scenting 24
Evocative Scenting 27
Implications
Aura and Autheniticity 30
Optimized Air 36
2
Cultures of Scent
Recent developments in the use of scent in retail architecture stem from a desire
to resurrect the memory of the imagined aura of traditional cultures of scent. These
include the culture of food, perfume, incense, streets, and decay. Smells of food emanate
from the kitchen hearth and remind us of home and feminine domesticity. Perfume is tied
to the boudoir, with connotations of sensuality and femininity. Incense exists in holy
spaces, and is connected with sacrament and ritual. The smell of the street is the signature
distinction of a neighborhood or city. The stench of decay radiates from the corpses of the
morgue or the cemetery, or from garbage and waste, acting as an offensive reminder of
the passage of time. The particular smells of a space define it as a particular type of place,
connecting the scent cultures of food, perfume, incense, street, and decay to the perceived
or imagined aura of a place.
In "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction," Walter Benjamin
defined aura and authenticity, and examined how the perceptions and status of these have
changed in an age where objects no longer have a unique status, and where serial
reproduction is possible.1 The ideas he presents about aura and authenticity and the status
of the "original" in connection with the work of art easily translate into the realm of
"natural" and "artificial" smells. They deal directly with the source of much of the
uneasiness and distrust that some people feel towards the use of artificial scents and
scent-producing machinery in their environments. When the cultures of scent are no
longer bound to the places within which they traditionally existed, the authenticity of the
very identity of the place is thrown into question. With the possibility of serially
1
Benjamin, "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction."
3
reproducing smells of food, perfume, incense, streets, and decay, the unique scent-
identity that once made a place special and gave it its auratic qualities is eliminated. The
emergence of scent machine technology problematizes the idea of the aura of place in
contemporary society. The implications that Benjamin sees of mechanical reproduction's
profound effect on the kinds of art that are produced and on the way we perceive things
in general suggest parallel readings of the effect of the mechanical reproduction of
smells.
Food
Scent has always had strong ties to the aromas of food. Early memories of
architectural origins center around the hearth.2 Its warm smells of cooking foods fill the
space of the interior and become closely affiliated with ideas of domesticity and
nourishment. Food smells are said to remind us of home.
The smell of food cooking in the kitchen is a form of unintentional though
important sensory experience that has roots extending back indefinitely. This form of
smell is tied closely with the programming of our brain.3 It is thought that our large brains
developed originally to distinguish between different smells, and so scent is tied to a very
primitive area of our brains.4 Scent is also involved in our experience of food
consumption, and so its enticements and aversions are central to the quest for
nourishment and the balancing of a diet. Food smells can indicate the content of a
bubbling pot as well as how well it has been tended, foreshadowing the dinner to come.
2
McEwen, Indra Kagis. "Between Movement and Fixity: The Place for Order." Socrates'
Ancestor: An Essay on Architectural Beginnings. MIT Press, 1993, p. 101.
3
Lindstrom, Martin. BRANDsense: Build Powerful Brands through Touch, Taste, Smell,
Sight, and Sound. New York: Free Press, 2005, p. 24.
4
Ackerman, Diane. A Natural History of the Senses. New York: Random House, 1990,
p. 9-11
4
In the context of the city, food smells historically relate to market spaces. The smells of
all of the different kinds of produce, fish, poultry, and meats convey important
information about their quality and their freshness.
Food smells have also been intentionally manipulated for centuries through the
use of specially prepared spices. The prices the aristocracy was willing to pay for
imported spices is in itself an indication of how much value has always been placed on
creating positive smells in the context of food. Spices were used to flavor food in general,
to prevent spoilage, and to cover up bad tastes5.
Perfume
The perfumed boudoir is the connotation raised by the sensual aspect of scent.
The use of perfume for cosmetic enhancement is an ancient practice, dating back to
before the time of ancient Egypt6. The unintentional scents of pheromones and body
odors play a large part in animal and human sexuality and the game of seduction. These
aspects are enhanced in our society through intentional manipulations of scent to exert
influence over those surrounding. Some cultures have rituals of perfuming endowed with
magic powers of seduction7. Violets have been particularly prized as sensual, partly due
to the difficulty in creating a perfume out of the volatile floral essence8. This extended
into architecture in the form of the sensuous female space of the dressing room, gently
scented by the cosmetics of the woman.
5
Le Guérer, Annick. Scent: The Mysterious and Essential Powers of Smell. London:
Chatto & Windus, 1993, p. 71.
6
Forbes, R.J. "Cosmetics and Perfumes in Antiquity." Studies in Ancient Technology.
Vol. 3. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1965, p. 2.
7
Le Guérer, 16.
8
Ackerman, p. 9-11.
5
Perfume and the space of the boudoir connote a sense of privacy and of intimacy.
The individual scent of a woman combined with the intentional scent of her particular
perfume infuses the space of the boudoir, tantalizing and inviting one inside.
Incense
Worship spaces have a long history of the use of scent to control the sensory
atmosphere. The use of incense dates back through the history of churches to that of
ancient temples. Incense is often burned during services in the Christian church,
symbolizing a connection to heaven through the rising smoke, while simultaneously
using this sensory connection to put worshippers in mind of a higher realm. The recipe
for kyphi, an Egyptian perfume, is inscribed in the walls of a temple there where priest-
perfumers do their work9. The Egyptians referred to perfume as the "fragrance of the
Gods"10. The formula for the perfume to be burned in the Jewish temple was given
directly to Moses, and it was only to be used in the temple11. The connotation of this scent
was restricted to the holy space of the temple, and its sweet odor was to be associated
only with God. Paradise was supposed to be scented with sweet odors12. The temples of
Islam had rose-scented mortar, while that of Babylonian temples was scented with
perfumes13.
Emperors capitalized on the powerful connotations of scent in the creation of their
characteristic spaces. Nero, at dinner parties, would install pipes to conduct perfumes to
9
Le Guérer, 111.
10
Forbes, 8.
11
Le Guérer, 115.
12
Le Guérer, 121.
13
Ackerman, 36.
6
diners at each plate14. He also scented his palace with rose petals15. Cleopatra is said to
have been particularly devoted to the use of perfumes, scenting her entire body, lining her
walls with roses, and scenting the sails of her ship16. Temples in China were built of
unlaquered cedarwood, which emitted a sweet scent17. The doors of a palace in
Khorsabad were so scented that they perfumed the air when they were opened and
closed18.
Street
The aura of the city, its distinctive smell that triggers memories in the mind of a
particular place, has existed as long as the city itself.19 Even today, the smell of New
York in the summer brings instant recollections to anyone's mind who has been in the
city during the hottest months of the year. The scent of different neighborhoods in
Chicago communicates the ethnicity of their inhabitants through the residual odors of
cooking spices and the stalls of street vendors. Industrial cities can be smelled from miles
away as the nose picks of traces of chemicals and exhaust carried by the air. The "wet
soot, dank cold stones of London; the sea brine and stagnant water of Amsterdam; the
sweat-soaked felt boots and sourish fetid bodies of Moscow; the dead incense and ancient
dust of Florence; the stale beer, boiled pigs' feet and sauerkraut of Munich, and the bitter
black coffee of Rio de Janeiro" all give an immediate sense of the atmosphere of a
14
Forbes, 29.
15
Ackerman, 36.
16
Ackerman, 59.
17
Ackerman, 60.
18
Ackerman, 60.
19
Illich, Ivan. H2O and the Waters of Forgetfulness: Reflections on the Historicity of
"Stuff". Dallas: The Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture, 1985, p. 47.
7
place.20 As Ivan Illich writes, "Odor is a trace that dwelling leaves on the environment."21
The scent of the street is an instantaneous indicator of the use of a space, the hygiene of
the inhabitants, and the types of cooking that goes on. This city aura locks the memory of
the street in the mind of the visitor and the resident alike, each assured that nowhere else
can this experience be had but in the particular block, neighborhood, or city in which it is
found.
Decay
Parallel to the notion that pleasant smells signify sanctity was the idea that evil
stank. The scent of decay came from hell, witches' dens, graveyards, sewers, garbage
dumps, and sick wards. Vivid descriptions of hellish regions often mentioned their
horrible, rotting, sulpherous stench. Witches emitted satanic odors and carefully
cultivated noxious breath to use as a weapon. They developed bodily stench from
spending time collecting ingredients for their deadly brews from graveyards and
gallows22. The idea of the mine as an abyss of hell is referenced in one early 19th century
story. When a young man looks into the entrance to the deep mine, he sees that "In the
abyss there were stones—slag, or burned-out ores—lying around in a wild jumble, and
sulfurous gases rose steadily from the depths as if a hellish brew were boiling, the vapors
of which were poisoning all of nature's green delights"23. Just like the priests created
pleasant fragrances to waft through the holy spaces, witches created foul-smelling brews
to work evil powers.
20
Lohmann, Karl. "The Scents of the Cities." The American City & Country. Dec 1954,
p. 54.
21
Illich, 51.
22
Le Guérer, 5.
23
Hoffmann, 311.
8
This idea of bad scent as connected to evil and dangerous things carried into early
theories of medicine. Physicians believed that diseases were caused by "bad air" or
miasma. It was common knowledge that smelling foul odors actually made people sick24.
The congestion of cities and the lack of sanitization methods led to the concentration of
graves, sewage, garbage, and smoke that fouled the air of the city25. The spread of the
plague and the failure in efforts to combat it led doctors to try many tactics, such as the
burning of incense and the use of perfumes to ward off the disease-causing stench26.
Floors of castles in the medieval age were strewn with rushes, lavender, and thyme to
ward off typhus27.
Scent Architecture and Gender
The changing role of scent in society, and particularly in architecture, is closely
linked to gender roles and their connections to rationalism and the condemnation of the
sensual. The scent-cultures of food, perfume, incense, street, and decay were rejected by
the Platonic pursuit of pure, rational form, which scorned odors as vulgar and feminine.28
Following this mode of thought, Alberti's treatise on techniques of perspective
construction helped to set the path for architecture for centuries. Architecture ceased to be
conceived as a habitable space, and became the purely visual-rational form of plan,
section, and perspective drawing. This mindset infuses modernist ideology as well, with
an increased reliance on the photograph as the defining lens through which architecture is
24
Le Guérer, 40.
25
Illich, 54-57.
26
Le Guérer, 59.
27
Ackerman, 25.
28
Aamodt, Mette. "Architecture Smells." Immaterial/Ultramaterial: Architecture, Design,
and Materials. Ed. Toshiko Mori. New York: Harvard Design School in association with
George Braziller, 2002, p. 66.
9
viewed. The traditional ideas of the Greeks of architecture and the city as being defined
through movement, through a communal ritual dance weaving the city together, was
replaced by a static, sense-deprived, visual conception of architecture as pure form
existing in a world without habitation or decay.29 Architects attempted to elevate the
practice of architecture to the rational level of pure form, into an otherworldly realm of
harmonious lines and planes. This visual hegemony perpetuated throughout the majority
of the western architectural tradition.
Because of this rationalist tradition, and because of the power status of men in
architecture, the history of western architecture is the history of masculine architecture.
Masculine architecture dominates. It is conceived from the exterior, as a display of
power, rationality, and grandeur.30 It is visual architecture, perceived from a distance, as
pure rational form descended to earth to rest upon a hill or in a city square. The eye
perceives the underlying order and the exercise of control. However, this masculine
architecture is not inherently conducive to dwelling. Many see this rationalistic masculine
world as "alien, uncomfortable, and even dangerous."31 It is cold, without personality, and
does not acknowledge real-world human experience. As Ivan Illich writes, "Unlike the
architect who constructed a palace to suit the aura of his wealthy patron, the new architect
constructed a shelter for a yet unidentified resident who was supposed to be without
odor."32 Modernism is a deodorized architecture, with clean lines and white walls
expressing the sensory purity of the form.
29
McEwen, p. 81.
30
Betsky, Aaron. Building Sex: Men, Women, Architecture, and the Construction of
Sexuality. New York: William Morrow and Company, 1995, p. xii.
31
Betsky, xii.
32
Illich, 54.
10
Parallel to the overt tradition of western architecture, the masculine tradition, is
the tradition of the decoration of the interior. This is feminine architecture, the
architecture of dwelling.33 According to Aaron Betsky, it was the role of women "to make
livable the world men made."34 This involved gathering objects that evoke memories,
such as photographs and paintings, lining walls with textiles to soften and warm the
interior space, and arranging the home to be pleasing to the senses, as a refuge from the
harsh exterior world. The room lined with a carpet, woven wall-hangings, curtains,
pillows, soft upholstered furniture, and blankets, evokes the interiority of the womb
space, and acts as the perfect counterpoint to masculine architecture. Female architecture
is not about visual dominance and the view from a distance. The separation required for
the apprehension of a totalistic view is impossible in the interior realm of the feminine.
The interior dwelling spaces by their very nature connect physically with the body, and
are apprehended bit by bit through inhabitation. The world of women is the world of the
home, the space that makes dwelling possible, and mediates the cold abstraction of
masculine space and human needs for comfort and a sense of habitation.
An architecture that recognizes the human potential for a multi-sensory
connection with a physical space is inherently feminine. Instead of mandating distance as
masculine architecture does, multi-sensory architecture necessitates a close physical
intimacy with the materials of the interior. Scent architecture, architecture apprehended
through the sense of smell, is thoroughly feminine. Scent is a primitive, irrational scent,
linked directly in the brain to the centers of memory and emotion. With scent, we feel and
remember before we rationalize, nearly opposite the process of visual perception. Scent
33
Betsky, xiv.
34
Betsky, xiii.
11
architecture requires the inhabitation of a space and the imbibing of its air. Scent
architecture is always interior, even when it occurs outdoors, since it is about the sensory
qualities of the air which fills a space and transmits to us the particles picked up from the
objects which coexist with us in the space. Scent is inherently connected to domesticity.
Food-scents emanate from the hearth, the traditional center around which the home
revolves. Perfume-scents waft from the boudoir, the epitome of intimate interiority. Scent
architecture rejects the masculine hegemony of the visual, recognizing other aspects of
the human need to dwell.
Deodorization
The conception of bad smells as dangerous, and needing to be covered by
perfumes, shifted during the time of the Enlightenment to an ideal of odorlessness35. No
longer was the city and the body to be drenched in characteristic scents, creating an aura
of place. The odors of the city that act as signs of the patterns of use of the inhabitants
were to be effaced. The ideal city conveyed nothing to the nose, and thereby relieved it
from the need to be bombarded by the undesirable information of the city. Paris in the
Enlightenment went about paving and whitewashing the entire city in order to rid it of
noxious odors and to make it seem more sanitary36. This process was only furthered by
the advent of refrigeration technology. The traditional scent of the marketplace, with its
information about the freshness and quality of the foods for sale, was replaced by a
deodorized, whitewashed space, perfectly clean but perfectly bland. However, this new
deodorized city lost much of the emotional ties that smell can bind to the memory. Even
35
Illich, 47.
36
El-Khoury, Rodolphe. "Polish and Deodorize: Paving the City in Late-Eighteenth-
Century France." Assemblage 31 (1997): 6-15, p. 7.
12
without being able to identify a particular smell, we can immediately recall the place it
emanates from if we smell it again37. This rationalist need to deodorize the cityscape
created a prejudice against odor and a desire to rid all places of their defining smells.
Along with the hygienic process of deodorization, the evocative, defining odors of
the pre-enlightenment city were obliterated from the perceptual realm. The aura of the
city, its distinctive odor that set it apart from every other place and defined its
specialness, was stripped away. The deodorized city, although it lacked the sickening
stench of decomposition and decay, also lacked the sweet smells of food, the indications
of habitation, and the fragrance of perfume. City dwellers increasingly experienced
sensory deprivation, and became more and more detached from the intimate connections
they once had with the spaces and objects of their daily lives, their interactions limited
solely to visual perception.38
Re-Odorization
After a long process of attempts at deodorization of the city, the body, and the
retail environment, a new trend emerged in scent design. The modern ideals of city life
trumpeted sanitation and cleanliness, and bound them to ideals of deodorized space.
However, something seemed to be lost in the process. Writers recalled the aura of the city
in a nostalgic way, and wrote about the ability of the smell of a certain neighborhood to
instantly trigger memories and associations of place. Marcel Proust, in his novel Swann's
Way, writes about his plunge into vivid memory triggered by the smell of a Madeleine.
Writers recalled that home always had a welcoming smell, whether of familiar foods
37
Judd, Dennis R., and Susan S. Fainstein, eds. The Tourist City. New Haven: Yale
University Press, 1999, p. 82.
38
Pallasmaa, Juhani. "Hapticity and Time: Notes on Fragile Architecture." Architectural
Review, p. 78.
13
cooking in the kitchen, or of traces of perfumes worn by loved ones, or simply the
materials that filled the space. While deodorization attempted to free us from the
inescapable stench of modern industrial life through modern sanitization procedures and
later through new environmental control technologies such as HVAC systems, they
removed the positive scents that evoked the aura of place along with the stench of filth
and decay.
The sense of smell, long ignored in our culture, began to regain a foothold in our
world with the 1960's love of scented candles and incense. It came back into its own in
the early 1990s with the sudden rise in popularity of aromatherapy. Self-help enthusiasts
devoured scented products of all varieties with purported healing benefits. Peppermint for
energy, chamomile for relaxation, jasmine for sensuality… Many companies added
aroma-therapeutic aspects to their products to draw consumers with promises of salutary
effects through self-indulgence. Side by side with the aromatherapy trend came new
research into olfaction and the effects of different scents on mood.39 The belief that
pleasant smells could have healing powers, which had vanished from western discourse
centuries earlier, had suddenly reappeared. The positive findings of these studies linking
certain scents to effects on mood further fueled the scent trend. Aromatherapy moved
from a niche market to a ubiquitous part of products in many stores.
Until recently, smell had eluded the grasp of modern rationalism. Scientists little
understood how olfaction worked, and even today there are many lingering questions.
One problem stems from the fact that, unlike colors, there do not seem to be a limited set
of primary scents from which all other scents can be derived. Because we can distinguish
39
Peltier, Mark. "Conditioning Indoor Environments Using Aroma Technology." DCI.
New York. March 1998: 18-21.
14
such an incredibly wide range of smells, the most those interested in the study of smell
could do was to create awkward systems of classification for smells, based on a variety of
shaky systems of logic, that still had too many groupings to be practical. Finally, with the
aromatherapy research, some progress was made in harnessing primal scent with the reins
of rationalistic thought.
In 1990, at the same time aromatherapy took off, some of the first retail scent
companies were started.40 With the increasing indications from different studies that scent
played a major role in shaping our emotions, moods, and even our productivity, scent-
marketing companies such as AromaSys saw ways to capitalize on the findings. Research
was conducted that linked certain ambient smells to increased time spent in a store, more
money spent in malls, and a higher value estimate of products. Companies developed that
offered to make the benefits of this new knowledge available to retailers. Though many
details of the workings of smell, and of the rules of its components, still eluded science,
smell was brought under the control of rationalistic thought through the desire to
optimize profits.
By focusing only on sight and sound, these new companies advocated, retailers
were missing out on an important opportunity to connect with their customers.41
Individuals in our consumer society were being bombarded with more and more visual
advertising messages all the time, and the messages were becoming less and less effective
as time went on. Consumers had become adept at tuning out advertising, navigating their
world with habitual mental blinders that let them ignore advertising messages. Scent,
40
AromaSys, Inc. AromaSys, Inc. – Environmental Aroma Systems. 2006.
<http://www.aromasys.com> (19 April 2006).
41
AromaSys, Inc.
15
however, is unavoidable by its very nature. While customers might close their eyes,
sooner or later they must use their nose to breathe. The olfactory system is located in the
evolutionarily oldest part of the brain.42 Scent acts as a direct link to memory and
emotion, bypassing the rational processing facilities that sight and sound go through, and
connecting with us on a much deeper and more primal level.43 Instead of rationally
evaluating scent, our olfactory system works to trigger instantaneously memories of
where we have encountered a scent in the past, and all of the emotions that we have
associated with it. In a world of increasingly aware consumers, the medium of scent held
invaluable opportunities for brands to connect to consumers on a deep-seated, emotional
level.
In essence, what the scent-marketing companies were offering retailers was the
opportunity not only to reclaim the positive aspects of the odors they had banished from
their stores, but also to intentionally manipulate the olfactory aura of their stores to
influence the behavior of their customers. While retailers in the days of real smells could
control the timing of when and where they baked bread or displayed flowers in order to
draw customers, the retailers of the 1990s and 2000s had free reign to "design" the scents
they thought would have the optimal effect. And optimize they did. Research institutes
such as the Smell and Taste Treatment and Research Foundation in Chicago,
International Flavors & Fragrances in New York, the Olfactory Research Fund in New
York, and Morell Chemical Senses Center provided data on the use of smell in
influencing behavior, and on the remarkable effects of certain smells on certain target
groups. With all this new science at their fingertips, retail companies could find the best
42
Aamodt, "Architecture Smells," 66.
43
Lindstrom, p. 24.
16
way to influence their target audience. Whether it was by wafting imperceptible odors
through their store to subliminally influence spending behavior, or by creating a signature
scent as a kind of exclusive incense to identify their brand, or by pumping scents that
created pleasant atmospheres of nostalgia to put customers in a mood to purchase their
products, many retailers found ways to use scent that they would not have in the past. A
new era of manufactured aura had arrived.
Scent-Marketing
With the new research on the potential applications of aromatherapy, scent-
marketing companies began offering their services to retailers as a way to take advantage
of the untapped potential of smell. They offered retailers new ways of using smells to
their advantage. They provided proprietary scent machines with different smell inserts at
a fee to retailers, many of whom began to run scenting trials in some of their stores.44 The
firms began to build scent libraries of basic essences and exclusive blends, which they
pledged would create certain atmospheres.45 They offered customized scent creation
services for retailers that wanted a distinctive aura to pervade their stores.46 By offering
their services to big-name companies, the scent-marketing businesses created a buzz
about their new, subtle way to influence consumer behavior and to create emotional
connections between customers and brands.
One of the earliest scent-marketers to emerge was the St. Paul, Minnesota-based
AromaSys Inc. Founded in 1990, the firm took off during the aromatherapy boom of that
44
Enis, Matthew. "The Smell of Success—Literally; New Wave of POP Marketing Has
Customers Following Their Noses." CSP. June 2004.
45
ScentAir, Inc. ScentAir: The Market Leader of In-Store Scent Solutions for Brands and
Retailers. 2005. <http://www.scentair.com> (19 April 2006).
46
AromaSys, Inc.
17
decade.47 The company takes a different approach from some of the other firms in that it
does not claim that its scents will increase retail sales.48 Instead, they see "controlled
scenting" as a new aesthetic tool that designers can use "to add aromatic elements to the
design process, harmonizing with architectural themes and specific location features."49
AromaSys sees smell as adding to the aesthetic pleasure of a space, much in the same
way that a pleasant color of paint and an attractive design scheme would make customers
feel more positive about their store experience. They refer to their blends as "aromatic
symphonies," to be appreciated in much the same way as music.50 Currently AromaSys is
the supplier of "environmental aroma blends" to many casinos and hotels, as well as to a
handful of retailers.51
The industry leader in scent-marketing is the six-year-old Charlotte, North
Carolina-based company ScentAir.52 Unlike AromaSys, ScentAir stands by their claims
that carefully scented retail spaces show increased sales. They emphasize that their
systems "help enhance environments, communicate brands and create memorable
experiences."53 They have a far larger library of pre-blended scents than AromaSys,
grouped on their website into the categories Fresh, Environmental, Floral, Bakery, Drink,
Candy, Fruit, Fun Food, Holiday, and Entertainment.54 ScentAir provides environmental
47
AromaSys, Inc.
48
Lee, Elizabeth. "Dollars and Scents: The Nose Knows, or Does It? Businesses Using
Artificial Aromas to Get Customers in Right Mood." The Atlanta Journal – Constitution
22 Aug. 2004: MS.1.
49
AromaSys, Inc.
50
AromaSys, Inc.
51
AromaSys, Inc.
52
"Scent System Creates Perfect Atmosphere In Candy Store; Chocolate Scent Draws
Customers Into Store." ScentAir Press Release. Mar 2004.
53
ScentAir, Inc.
54
ScentAir, Inc.
18
scenting services to a long list of businesses, including retailers, entertainment centers,
hotels, food companies, groceries, convenience stores, and the government (rotting
corpse scent for battlefield simulation).55 They have gotten a significant amount of press
coverage with the addition of scents to various stores across the world, and they share
stories of some of their successful solutions for different companies with their potential
clients.56 ScentAir has established itself as the firm to go to with questions related to scent
and its connection to brand identity.
While AromaSys and ScentAir are the main companies that specifically offer
scent-marketing services, there are other research firms and marketing companies that
also offer scent services to retailers. Marketing Aromatics, a subsidiary of Behavioral
Dynamics, which was set up in 1989 by a group of Swiss businessmen, offers to tailor
custom corporate identity smells that businesses can use to mark their interactions with
the public.57 BrandEmotions, a subsidiary of New York-based International Flavors &
Fragrances, offers to match appropriate scents to brands by studying the demographics of
the target customer and identifying the most appealing aspects of the brand, then finding
a suitable fragrance.58 Georgia-based EnviroScent has super-strength aroma machines
capable of scenting areas within a baseball stadium.59 Orlando-based Fragrance
Technologies is responsible for scenting the Christmas store at Disney World.60 Aroma
55
ScentAir, Inc.
56
Hall, Matthew. "Making Dollars from Senses; See It? Smell It? It Must Be Retail."
VM&SD Magazine. July 2003.
57
Bidlake, Suzanne. "Scents of Real Purpose." Marketing 15 Oct. 1992: 21.
58
Tischler, Linda. "Smells Like Brand Spirit." Fast Company 97 (2005): 52-57.
59
Sutter, John David. "Marketing to the Senses." Knight Ridder Tribune Business News.
Washington: Dec 3, 2005, 1.
60
Murphy, Kate. "A Sales Pitch Right Under Your Nose." New York Times. Sept 13,
1998: 8.
19
Co., based in Oxfordshire, England, also markets both localized scent samplers and
environmental scenting machines.61
Scent Design Technology
During the aromatherapy craze of the 1990s, many retail products went on the
market purporting to be able to scent interior spaces in pleasant ways. Sprays and
aerosols could leave a residue on interior surfaces. Heated oils and ceramic devices were
inexact, messy, and difficult to control precisely.62 Artificial scents were also much more
primitive, and with the lack of control that the distribution methods had, they had a high
potential for being cloying and nauseating rather than pleasing. The advances that recent
years have brought in the creation of artificial aromas and in systems for distributing
them in a controlled manner throughout retail environments, therefore, played a large part
in making the scent-marketing trend possible.
AromaSys was the first to develop an effective method for distributing scent over
a space. Instead of using messy, inaccurate heating units to activate and release aroma,
their EAS 2000/5000 Aroma Systems use an electric charge over a liquid scent medium
to release precisely controlled quantities of scent.63 The AromaSys scent machines also
can be installed to use existing HVAC systems to distribute their scents, solving the
problem of achieving an even scent distribution.64
ScentAir uses a similar system for their scent distribution machines. Their
ScentWave machines can disperse scents over areas of up to 2,000 square feet, and are
61
Enis, "The Smell of Success—Literally.
62
Hall, "Making Dollars From Senses."
63
AromaSys, Inc.
64
AromaSys, Inc.
20
programmable to release scents in specific quantities at different times.65 The machines
come with fragrance cartridges that are easily replaced by store employees.66
EnviroScent's ScentHawg machines are made for larger purposes. A fan belt
sends air across trays of scented gel made from natural oils. Friction then releases the
scent molecules from the gel base. The machines are two feet wide and are made to sit
near concessions areas in a ballpark.67
ScentAir has a separate system called ScentPOP, which covers areas of up to 200
square feet with fragrance. The ScentPOP technology is intended more for applications
such as vending machines, where an aroma of that which lies inside can induce customers
to purchase the sealed products.68 This product allows retailers to create "scent zones"
within their stores, targeting different smells at different points in their customers'
wanderings and creating a dynamic scent experience.
More recently, Japanese scientist Yasuyuki Yanagi and his collegues at the
Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute in Kyoto developed a scent-dispensing
device called the air cannon.69 The machine uses cameras to track the eyes of passersby,
and when they pass it aims a blast of scent just below them to hit them right in the nose.70
The machine is so exact that someone standing a mere 20 inches away will smell
65
ScentAir, Inc.
66
67
Sutter, "Marketing to the Senses."
68
"ScentAir Technologies Introduces Scent for Vending Machines; Chocolate Sales
Increase When Scent Was Added to Vending Machine." ScentAir Press Release. Jul
2003.
69
Knight, Will. "Where's That Funny Smell Coming From?" New Scientist. London.
April 3, 2004: 22.
70
Knight, "Where's That Funny Smell Coming From?"
21
nothing.71 This micro-scenting increases the possibilities for targeted scent-marketing,
beyond an ambient, lingering scent, and opens the potential for a space that has different
scents in neighboring areas.
Just as important as the advances in scent distribution were the advances made in
technology for scent analysis. Scientists created new forms of electronic sniffing devices
that could create a chemical signature for the atmospheric aroma of a space. Smell
research organizations collected new scent signatures by traveling around the world with
this sniffing apparatus, collecting the scents of different places and plants and bringing
them back to the laboratory. By finding the specific chemicals that created different
smells, the researchers were able to create scientific smell databases, some with over
20,000 distinct odors, that they could then use to design intentional synthetic aromas.72
Subliminal Scenting
Definitely the most covert of retail scent design tactics, subliminal scenting is
when stores infuse the air with imperceptible quantities of fragrance that are supposed to
have a subconscious behavioral effect on their customers. Several studies by different
researchers led to new findings about the effects of certain smells on buying behavior.
The opportunity to psychologically influence their customers into spending more money
enticed some retailers into imperceptibly scenting the air of their stores.
Dr. Alan Hirsch of the Smell and Taste Treatment and Research Foundation in
Chicago was one researcher who believed in smell's ability to subliminally influence
shoppers. He conducted an experiment where he demonstrated that when a room was
71
Knight, "Where's That Funny Smell Coming From?"
72
"Science and Technology: The Sweet Smell of Success." The Economist. London: Sept
5, 1998. 348.8084: 75-77.
22
scented with a floral fragrance, shoppers were willing to spend more money on a pair of
sneakers and were more likely to want to purchase them.73 Interestingly, his findings were
true whether the scent was perceptibly pleasant or imperceptible and subliminal.
According to Hirsch's data, 84 percent of test subjects preferred the sneakers in the
scented room, and also that they would pay $10 more for them.74 The idea that scenting a
dressing room in an athletic shoe store like flowers could have such a dramatic effect on
the customers' evaluation of the product and willingness to spend money is a strong
indication of the potent powers of smell to subliminally influence our attitudes and
emotions.
Mall designers have taken advantage of subliminal scenting research as well. A
mall in a suburb of Montreal was scented different odors.75 According to researcher Jean-
Charles Chebat, when "clean" scents were present, such as lavender or citrus, mall
patrons spent on average twice as much as when the mall was unscented.76 The Fragrance
Foundation in New York found that floral smells influenced shoppers to spend more time
and more money in shopping malls.77 In a similar study, a fruity-floral scent infused in a
jewelry store increased the lingering time of shoppers.78 Steven W. Schussler, the senior
vice president of development, at the Rainforest Café, says of the chain's practice of
pumping floral scents into their retail areas, "It makes you curious and makes you more
73
Stiefel, Chana. "Does a Floral Scent Make You Buy?" Science World New York. Sept
20, 1999: 7-9.
74
Stiefel, "Does a Floral Scent Make You Buy?"
75
Daks, Martin C. "Smell, Listen and Spend Money Like Crazy." NJBIZ 18.24 (2005): 1-
2.
76
Torabi, Farnoosh. "A Nose for Business." Money Oct 2003: 34.
77
Hunter, Beatrice Trum. "The Sales Appeal of Scents." Consumers' Research Magazine.
Oct 1995: 8.
78
Murphy, "A Sales Pitch Right Under Your Nose."
23
likely to spend money. Call it a subliminal awakening."79 Peppermint and vanilla,
however, are apparently not so effective in influencing spending behavior.80 According to
research by Maureen Morrin, "contemplative" buyers, those who spend more time
making their purchase decisions than impulse buyers, were the most influenced by the
presence of a pleasant odor.81 While shoppers might consciously perceive the air coming
from the shopping center's HVAC system no differently from how they did in the past,
the subliminal influence of the subtle scents still seems to encourage shoppers to desire to
spend more time in the store and to be willing to spend more money.
Since subliminal scenting is perceived by many as being as manipulative as
flashing subliminal messages on a movie screen to get people to buy something, it seems
to be the area of scent-marketing tool that companies are the least willing to admit to
using. While in some ways it can be seen as simply creating a more pleasant environment
for shopping, it could also be seen as an underhanded means to increase sales. As more
and more shopping malls, restaurants, retail stores, and casinos use subliminal scenting as
another means to influence spending behavior, consumers should be aware of the
likelihood that every sensory outlet through which they interface with their environment
may be used as a means to influence them.
Brand-Identity Scenting
Nowadays scent-marketing companies offer to create "signature scents" for
brands and for corporations. The intention of this brand-identity scenting is to create a
unique odor which customers and employees will come to associate strongly with the
79
Murphy, "A Sales Pitch Right Under Your Nose."
80
Torabi, "A Nose for Business."
81
Daks, "Smell, Listen and Spend Money Like Crazy."
24
brand. When they smell it their memories of (it is hoped) pleasant past experiences in the
store and with the product will rush back to them, strengthening their emotional ties to
the brand. This type of scenting is the modern-day equivalent of the incense of the
temple. The ancient Hebrews had a recipe for special incense that was only to be used in
the temple for the worship of God. Whenever someone smelled that unique odor, they
knew they were in the sacred space. Taking a lesson from religion, retailers see that by
creating a scent that is exclusive to the space of their store, shoppers will come to form
emotional memory ties linking the pleasant odor to the pleasant experience of the store.
Retailers can create an artificial aura for their retail environment.
Victoria's Secret is one example of a store using a signature fragrance to trigger
emotional attachments in their customers.82 The interior of every Victoria's Secret store is
infused with the aroma of their fragrance products. What many customers don't realize,
however, is that this identifying Victoria's Secret odor is not a simple result of the
juxtaposition of their beauty and fragrance sampling areas with the lingerie area of the
store. The scent machines, or "environmental aroma systems," in the store, supplied by
AromaSys, waft a carefully selected, seductively feminine scent throughout the store
environment.83 The smell subtly infuses the clothes, so that even upon returning home,
purchasers can sniff their new acquisitions and be transported back to the sensual
femininity of the Victoria's Secret experience. Similarly, Abercrombie & Fitch retail
stores use ScentAir machines to diffuse a distinctive aroma throughout their stores.84
Though some of the scent is from the perfume test sprays in the stores with A&F's
82
Tischler, "Smells Like Brand Spirit," 56.
83
Torabi, "A Nose for Business."
84
ScentAir, Inc.
25
signature scent, they enlist ScentAir to ensure that their unique aroma evenly pervades
the stores and the clothing under all circumstances.
Sony Style enlisted the services of ScentAir to design a custom scent for their
stores. In keeping with their innovative image, they wanted a scent that was noticeable
and memorable.85 They particularly were targeting female shoppers at their 16 mall
locations.86 By combining notes of mandarin orange and vanilla87 with other "secret
ingredients," they created a unique olfactory experience.88 This olfactory marketing effort
was soon followed by an attempt by the Samsung Experience store in the AOL-Time
Warner Building to create its own scent identity. The smell Samsung designed was "a
unisexy, modern fragrance along the lines of Calvin Klein's cK One."89 Although both
Sony Style and Samsung sell electronics, which have virtually nothing to do with smell,
both companies saw the benefit of creating a distinctive aura that could be found only in
their stores. ScentAir also lists Best Buy as a client, further indicating the trend in the use
of scent to brand electronic retailers.90
Brand-identity scenting is a way for companies to create a unique aura for their
brand that deepens the emotional associations that connect them to their customers.
Fashion retailers use signature scenting to create an identifying trigger to remind
shoppers about what their store and their brand are all about. Even when customers take
the clothes home, they can relive the scent of the store that pervades their purchases. For
electronics stores that may sell very similar products, having an emotional impact that
85
ScentAir, Inc.
86
87
88
ScentAir, Inc.
89
90
ScentAir, Inc.
26
sets them apart from other retailers plays a vital role in keeping them ahead of the
competition. By using signature scents, retail environments connect with shoppers and fix
an impression of their space in customers' minds.
Evocative Scenting
Many retailers use scents that they hope have strong nostalgic connections to
trigger emotional responses and pleasant memories in their targeted shoppers. The scent
might be an intense blast of something they are selling which customers cannot for some
reason smell in the modern store environment. It might also be something that is not
directly related to their product, but that is somehow closely associated with memories of
using it. Perhaps these scents can be seen as helping us to visualize how enjoyable it
would be to use the products by triggering our memories of using products like that in the
past. Companies use scents that trigger our emotions and memories in an attempt to
create a positive environment that makes us want to buy their products.
The Hershey's Store in New York's Times Square uses scent machines to
recapture the aroma that is lost when their products are sealed into airtight packages.91
The store blasts shoppers with an artificial chocolate smell as they enter.92 With the
advances the past century made in refrigeration techniques and in hermetically sealed
packaging, customers no longer are able to connect with Hershey's products in the way
that they would have been able to in a past era. With everything wrapped up in plastic
and foil, customers would smell mainly cleaning products and each other when they
entered the store, not the enticing aroma of chocolate. With the advances in technology,
91
Higgins, Kevin T. "Surround Sound, Meet Surround Smell." Food Engineering. June
2004.
92
Lee, "Dollars and Scents."
27
one of the major selling points of chocolate, its tempting smell, was lost.93 Scent
technology is able to solve the problem and then some. With a simple scent machine
carefully equipped with a calibrated aroma, customers as they enter the store can feel as
though they have been transported to the core of a chocolate factory paradise. ScentAir,
the company responsible for the Hershey's Store chocolate aroma, also applied the
technique at places such as Harry and David Chocolate, Dylan's Candy, and Chocolat.94
Many grocery stores are applying the same techniques in their different
departments. The aromas that in the past let customers know that their produce was ripe,
their bread fresh, and their flowers fragrant was overcome by modern refrigeration
techniques. The smells of the marketplace were replaced by the deodorized space of the
air-conditioned supermarket. While these advances helped greatly in promoting health
and reducing spoilage, they also eliminated the wonderful smells that tantalized shoppers'
palates and assured them of good quality. Grocers such as Kroger's supermarkets, Piggly
Wiggly, Shop Rite, Super Target, and Bi-Lo turned to scent design to recapture the good
smells of the marketplace.95 In the bakery departments, smells such as honeynut bread,
butternut bread, apple pie, chocolate chip cookies, sugar cookies, or cake waft through
the air even when there is nothing in the oven, or when the supermarket doesn't even have
in-store baking facilities.96 In the produce departments, strawberry, melon, and citrus tell
customers that the goods are fresh.97 Floral departments are artificially enhanced with
smells as well, making up for the loss in fragrance caused by refrigeration and breeding
93
Hunter, "The Sales Appeal of Scents," 8.
94
ScentAir, Inc.
95
ScentAir, Inc.
96
97
Harper, Roseanne. "Bi-Lo, BJ's Test Scents in Produce, Other Areas." Supermarket
News. May 3, 2004.
28
techniques.98 ScentAir even has a special machine for individualized scent-sampling for
various products that it has used in promotions within grocery stores for Post Banana Nut
Crunch Cereal and Pillsbury Cookie Dough.99 Although the reality of a connection with
the product and a true evaluation of its quality based on smell has been lost in the modern
supermarket, a sensory connection has been reestablished between shoppers and goods
through the use of artificially enhancing scent machines.
While food-related stores use artificial scent machines to simulate the experience
of the pre-sealed food market, stores that are not so directly tied to scent use aromas of
nostalgia to put shoppers in the mood for buying. In the baby department at FAO
Schwartz in New York, as well as at several other department stores, the odor of baby
powder reminds customers about the pleasant, sweet-smelling side of babies.100 At the
entrance to the same store, the smell of birthday cake invites shoppers to relive the
excitement of shiny new toys.101 The swimwear department at Bloomingdale's exudes a
coconut smell reminiscent of suntan lotion, making swimsuit shopping seem appropriate
and fun even in the middle of winter.102 Saks Fifth Avenue, Marshall Field's, and Toys
"R" Us use scent in different departments to similar effect.103 Sporting goods stores waft
smells of freshly cut grass throughout, reminding shoppers of the playing field. The
appliance store H.H. Gregg sent the aromas of home cooking drifting through their
98
99
Higgins, "Surround Sound, Meet Surround Smell."
100
101
102
103
29
kitchen appliance areas.104 The smells of warm apple pie and sugar cookies were so
enticing that some customers wanted to get the machines for themselves.105
Retailers use evocative scenting to recreate the ambiance of special experiences
that are connected with their brand. This may be as direct as the smell of the experience
of eating the food that is packaged and inaccessible. It may be the lost experience of
smelling food in a store, which through simulation is made accessible to the shopper. It
may also be some smell that is connected to the use of the product, which enhances an
atmosphere that encourages shoppers to fantasize. These smell environments replace
some of the realism that was lost in the process of deodorization and environmental
conditioning with a simulation of what was once there, or with a projection of what could
be.
Aura and Authenticity
With the deodorization trend of the eighteenth century, much of the aura of the
city and of the retail environment seemed to be lost in a whitewashed odorlessness.106
Instead of having the scents that characterized the marketplace or the shop-lined street,
there was nothing but whiteness and odor-free zones. All smell was bad smell, and all of
it was sought to be eliminated. While this led to vast improvements in the hygiene and
sanitizing of the city, it annihilated the indescribable aromas that imbued each place with
a unique identity. With advances in refrigeration techniques, the smells of fresh produce
104
105
106
El-Khoury, Rodolphe. "In Visible Environments: Architecture and the Senses in
Eighteenth-Century France." Diss. Princeton University, 1996.
30
or fish was replaced by a smell of deodorized chill, a lack of sensory stimulation.107 The
traces left by the users of the place, the materials it was made of and that it housed, and
the realities of its environment, were erased through whitewashing, paving, and
refrigeration. This obliteration of olfactory stimulation, while initially perceived as
wholesome and as freedom from the inescapable stench of the old city, at the same time
eliminated much of the uniqueness of place that distinguished each space from every
other by the information conveyed through the nose.
To recapture the pleasant side of what was lost with deodorization while
disallowing the foul stenches that used to accompany the sweet fragrances, scent
machines were employed to reodorize space. The re-scenting of deodorized objects and
spaces calls into question the perception of authenticity of this manufactured aura. Since
the former requirements of a unique scent source that was subject to the transformations
of time and had a particular existence in a specific place and context were eliminated by
the implementation of machine-smells, the unique nature of the aura of a place became
reproducible indefinitely. Flowers that bloomed only in one place at one time a year
could be smelled year round at an even level of intensity throughout the air of a space.
Reading into this phenomenon through the lens of Walter Benjamin's analysis of aura and
authenticity in the age of mechanical reproduction illuminates some of the issues that this
recreation of scent stirs up.
Benjamin writes, "The presence of the original is the prerequisite to the concept
of authenticity." The "unique existence" of the original, with the chemical and physical
markings of its unique history, as well as the changes in ownership and position in space,
107
Mayo, James M. The American Grocery Store: The Business Evolution of an
Architectural Space. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1993.
31
keeps it separate from any copies made, and is the source of the view that other instances
are merely copies or forgeries.108 This existence of some more "real" or "original" object
is necessary for the idea that another type of object is less real, or unoriginal, since it does
not share the unique identity of the original.
Similarly, the perception of machine-smell as artificial, simulated, or inauthentic
seems to stem from the nature of its source. The existence of an original scent source, a
"natural" source such as a flower, a fruit, or a cookie, is the prerequisite to the idea that
machine-smells are somehow forgeries, a kind of inferior or dishonest approximation of
the original scent source. The concept is similar to the idea of a recorded sound versus an
"original" sound. With the technological improvements of recording media and improved
quality of recorded sound (eliminating the identifying scratchy sounds of the vinyl record
of previous decades), it is possible for there to be little essential difference between the
"live" sound coming from the original source, whether it is the voice of a speaker or an
instrument, and the sound coming from the recorded sound-machine. With new
technologies of scent-atmosphere or "headspace" sampling, in which a smell is
effectively recorded, the smell coming out of an advanced scent-machine could be
essentially (chemically) the same smell that surrounds a plant, a slice of cake, or even a
person. This smell would still be perceived as somehow inauthentic. This is not because
of what it is, but because of the nature of its source. The idea that the scent machine is
approximating the smell of something that exists outside of it, in a particular
environment, with particular temporal qualities that affect it, makes the machine-scent
somehow less authentic than the originally emitted odor of the "natural" source.
108
Benjamin, "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction," II.
32
The temporal disconnect that the scent-machines effect is one aspect of the
perceived inauthenticity of their smells. In the "real" world, smells are not static. An even
number of parts per million of a particular combination of chemicals does not sit in the
air smelling the same for an indefinite period of time. Only the scent machines make this
at all possible. Smells shift with changing weather and winds, and with the inevitable
changes over time that occur in their sources. As scent molecules are emitted from a
source, the source must change as it loses these volatile pieces of itself to the atmosphere.
Flowers wilt, fruits ripen and rot, cookies cool off and harden. The floral smell that
comes from scent-machines does not take on a sickly-sweet smell of decay as time
passes. Citrus machine-smells never become overripe and putrid. The machine-smells are
carefully crafted to smell consistently the same every time they are activated. Changes
occur only in the intensity, in the parts per million of the smell in the atmosphere. In
smelling a rose, part of the uniqueness of the experience is in knowing that as each day
passes, the scent of the rose will slowly change as it loses vitality and begins to wilt. The
transitory nature of the experience of smelling a flower, and the knowledge that
tomorrow the smell may fade, heightens the experience of smelling as we try to take in
all that we can and connect the smell with a unique moment in time. The smell of a tray
of cookies baking in the oven is to be savored, and also has a unique place in time. The
smell of baking cookies can follow the work of mixing dough and following a recipe, and
the smell contains the anticipation of eating the cookies once they come out and cool off.
A spatial disconnect separates the machine-smells from their originals. The
originals are dependent upon a particular environment to support them and by which they
are affected. Benjamin points out this aspect of the reproduction of a work of art, writing,
33
"technical reproduction can put the copy of the original into situations which would be
out of reach for the original itself."109 Certain plants may only grow a certain way and
smell a certain way in an obscure part of the rainforest. Certain food smells might be
impossible without a full kitchen with an activated oven releasing volatile odor particles
into the air. Scent machines disconnect smells from their usual required environments
and place them in surroundings that they might never be found. Smells of cooking
emanate from places with no kitchens, a store in winter smells like the ocean in summer,
and a dressing room smells like a grassy meadow. The spatial impossibilities of the
presence of the original smell add to the perceived distinction between the original smell
source and the reproduction of the scent machine. The machine-smell can bring a faraway
environment, the air of a distant place, into the breath of a customer in a store or a person
in their home.
Benjamin writes, "The situations into which the product of mechanical
reproduction can be brought may not touch the actual work of art, yet the quality of its
presence is always depreciated."110 With smells, the effect of taking them out of their
normal surroundings and allowing them to "meet the beholder halfway" by reproducing
them elsewhere is that smells that once were unique to a certain place or to the presence
of a certain object are disassociated from that prerequisite. While this allows the sensual
experience of places and things that are inaccessible, it destroys the intensity of the
unique bond that previously was activated only in the presence of the original. Its aura is
reproduced through the scent machines, but it is placed in a distanced context. The
original emotional bonds to the aura of the original are weakened since the sensory
109
110
34
qualities that trigger that bond are experienced in a situation separated from the original.
The experience of everyday life is made richer and multilayered with sensory triggers to
emotions and memories that would normally lie dormant for long periods of time. The
overall sensational level is heightened, but the unique aura of "original" places and things
is diluted as more and more disparate, disjointed associations are made to the original
smells. Certain flowers begin to smell like baby powder, and pine forests take on the
smell of cleaning solution.
Benjamin defines the aura of natural objects as "the unique phenomenon of a
distance, however close it may be."111 In experiencing visually natural objects, you are
always in a relationship to them of position and distance that makes your particular
experience of them unique. Your position and distance relative to them makes your
experience of them special, and something you would never be able to bottle up or
recreate in quite the same way. Benjamin sees a desire in society to bring things ever
closer, and to destroy the uniqueness of experience by accepting the reproduction in place
of the original. In a Benjaminian view, by accepting the reproductions of scent machines
in our desire to bring everything closer to us, we destroy the uniqueness of a special
experience of a natural smell.
As Benjamin realizes with regards to the photograph, "the work of art reproduced
becomes the work of art designed for reproducibility."112 With the growing use of scent
machines and scenting techniques, more and more scents are created instead of being
recreated. As retail stores attempt to create unique aromas to mark their territory and to
define a sense of place in their branded environments, some begin to use "artificially"
111
112
35
created scents instead of mimicries of natural odors. The growing impact that these
artificial auras have on our collective consciousness is indicated by the results of the
study by Alan Hirsch on the generational differences in smells that evoked nostalgic
sentiments.113 While those of an older generation were nostalgic for the smell of tree, hay,
and horses, the younger generations had stronger nostalgic associations with the smell of
artificial scents such as Play-Doh, Pez, and jet fuel.114 To search for the authentic
"original" for an artificial smell is nonsensical. There is no original that Play-Doh is
mimicking, it is just Play-Doh, and it smells like Play-Doh. Even though the scent is
entirely artificial, in that it was intentionally created to smell that way by people, the
concept of authenticity does not come into play because it is not pretending to be
something it is not. For many members of the younger generations, Play-Doh has a
powerful aura, even though that aura is entirely man-made.
The question then becomes: just as the photograph arguably transformed the
entire perception of the work of art, has the scent machine changed the way that we
smell? When smell no longer conveys information inherent to an object close at hand or
to the nature of the environment we are in, but instead carries man-made messages to our
nose and indicates the presence of created aura, is the entire way we use our noses
changed?
Optimized Air
Along with all the findings on the ways in which certain scents affected consumer
behavior, researchers discovered that there were dramatic differences between the scent
113
Barrie-Anthony, Steven. "On the Radar: On Scent, We've Barely Scratched the
Surface." Los Angeles Times 4 Nov. 2004: F.1.
114
Barrie-Anthony, "On the Radar; On Scent, We've Barely Scratched the Surface."
36
perceptions and responses between different consumers. Internationally there were
dramatic differences in smell sensitivities and preferences, and even regionally within the
United States, people waxed nostalgic in response to different aromas. Generation played
a role in preference for artificial or natural odors. Gender was a major factor in tests on
consumer response to certain smells and their effects on spending behaviors. When stores
were trying to influence their customers to feel a certain way by counting on their having
certain associations and emotions tied to particular aromas, it was important that their
target customers actually did have these desired emotional ties. More and more,
businesses realized that scent architecture must be tailored to the target audience each
store was trying to attract.
Dr. Alan Hirsch's study analyzing generational differences in the perception of
odors indicated that there was a striking difference between different age groups in which
smells made them feel nostalgic, with older generations preferring natural smells, and the
young preferring the artificial. Different scent preferences by country have also become
apparent. According to Martin Lindstrom, author of BRAND sense and leader of a study
on multisensory approaches to branding, people in Moscow are partial to "freshly washed
clothes, hanging on a line in subzero weather."115 Those in Japan prefer apples, while
Hispanics like vanilla.116 Those in the United States seem to enjoy the smell of a brand
new car more than those in other countries.117
Dr. Eric Spangenberg discovered in his study that there were dramatic gender
differences in consumer responses to scent. In a clothing store, he infused the women's
115
116
117
Lindstrom, BRAND sense, 93.
37
department with a subtle vanilla smell, and the men's department with the aroma of rose
maroc, a sweetly spicy scent.118 Receipts almost doubled the days that the departments
were scented.119 However, when he reversed the smells, customers spent less than when
the departments were unscented.120 The gender differences in smell preference have huge
implications for retailers who redesign their store environments to optimize sales through
smell control. Not only do different genders have different preferences in fashion, but
they even need to breathe different air to be in the optimal mood to spend.
With all of the work on analyzing the differences between countries, generations,
and genders and their effects on scent perception, it seems that the end result is a world in
which everyone has optimized air. When companies are calculating the scent that will
have the optimal effect on their target audience, they take into consideration the
demographic effects of generation, gender, and nationality, plug that into the formula of
their more specific target audience and the perception of their product that they wish to
promote, and out of the formula comes pre-calculated scented air. Air that is optimized to
deliver the most favorable financial returns is targeted at demographic segments of the
population. Those who may not appreciate the air they must breathe being used as a
marketing device, or those who are allergic to fragrance, cannot avoid being advertised
to.
Optimized air is necessarily simulated air. With scent machine technology, there
is no longer a connection between perceived scent and an underlying reality. The world
of scent architecture is a world of simulation. Inauthenticity is no longer possible,
118
119
120
38
because in a world where scent can be created, and can no longer be accepted as a fact of
nature indicating the presence of a natural scent source, then the line between true scents
and artificial scents disappears, and the distinction becomes meaningless.121 We can
infuse our offices with the scent of "holiday", or take in "summer" scents in the midst of a
blizzard. The reference to an underlying reality has been taken away, and instead we have
a simulated atmosphere of scent.
With the advances of new directed scent technologies, the air that each person is
smelling could potentially be totally different. Isolated individualized simulated
environments could be created for each and every customer in the store. Undesirable
customers could be shot with unattractive scents to drive them away. A young woman
could be blasted with eau de vanilla and crayon, while her father would be fired at with
sandalwood and hay. Each person could live in their own little reality created by the all-
simulating new retail environments. Through nationality detection the scent recipes could
be tweaked as well. No longer would shoppers have to smell odors that were more
preferable to others. No longer would aura have to be a shared experience. While the age
of the automobile made it possible to enter into the public sphere and travel through it
while remaining in the private bubbles of our cars, as Margaret Morse notes in her essay
"An Ontology of Everyday Distraction: The Freeway, The Mall, and Television," the age
of optimized air eliminates the need for the bubble.122 We can exist in our own private
sensory worlds without the need for bulky barriers such as the windows of an automobile,
the ideal of privatized mobility.123 With the new scent control technologies, and
121
Poster, Mark, ed. Jean Beaudrillard, Selected Writings. Stanford: Stanford University
Press, 1988, p. 166-184.
39
optimized targeting, everyone has the potential to coexist side by side in completely
different sensory worlds, infused with an eternal scent invulnerable to decay.
Increasingly, we are able to escape into sensory closets within our world. These
closets of perception are becoming portable, so that when we are forced to travel through
the public environment we can carry our own micro-environment with us, totally private
and utterly controlled. With an ipod, we have total control over the sound of this micro-
place. With micro-scenting, we soon may exist in isolated scent-worlds. We are now able
to play CD's of scent in our homes with Febreze ScentStories machines, infusing our
personal world with a selected narrative in odor. We are no longer susceptible to the
constraints of time, which alters smells and forces us to confront mortality through the
odors of decay. We may exist in a world where these unpleasantries are eliminated,
replaced by an eternal scent optimized to our demographic characteristics to create
maximal sensory pleasure. The eternal scent will never wilt, cool off, overripen, rot, or
fade, but accompanies us in our isolated world ever arousing memories of imagined aura.
122
Morse, Margaret. "The Ontology of Everyday Distraction: The Freeway, the Mall and
Television," in Patricia Mellencamp, ed., Logics of Television (Bloomington, 1990) 193-
221.
123
Morse, 212.
40
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Laura Skelton Scent Thesis

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Scent and Shopping

The Built Environment: Final Thesis

Scent Architecture and Gender 9

Scent and Retail

Scent Design Technology 20

Brand Identity Scenting 24

Aura and Autheniticity 30

or imagined aura of a place.

In "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction," Walter Benjamin

scent-producing machinery in their environments. When the cultures of scent are no

contemporary society. The implications that Benjamin sees of mechanical reproduction's

in general suggest parallel readings of the effect of the mechanical reproduction of

nourishment. Food smells are said to remind us of home.

The smell of food cooking in the kitchen is a form of unintentional though

information about their quality and their freshness.

to prevent spoilage, and to cover up bad tastes5.

scented by the cosmetics of the woman.

symbolizing a connection to heaven through the rising smoke, while simultaneously

Emperors capitalized on the powerful connotations of scent in the creation of their

unlaquered cedarwood, which emitted a sweet scent17. The doors of a palace in

to work evil powers.

ward off typhus27.

Scent Architecture and Gender

The changing role of scent in society, and particularly in architecture, is closely

Following this mode of thought, Alberti's treatise on techniques of perspective

replaced by a static, sense-deprived, visual conception of architecture as pure form

existing in a world without habitation or decay.29 Architects attempted to elevate the

of the western architectural tradition.

architecture, the history of western architecture is the history of masculine architecture.

Masculine architecture dominates. It is conceived from the exterior, as a display of

power, rationality, and grandeur.30 It is visual architecture, perceived from a distance, as

expressing the sensory purity of the form.

An architecture that recognizes the human potential for a multi-sensory

connection with a physical space is inherently feminine. Instead of mandating distance as

masculine architecture does, multi-sensory architecture necessitates a close physical

the human need to dwell.

The conception of bad smells as dangerous, and needing to be covered by

perfumes, shifted during the time of the Enlightenment to an ideal of odorlessness35. No

of habitation, and the fragrance of perfume. City dwellers increasingly experienced

solely to visual perception.38

aroma-therapeutic aspects to their products to draw consumers with promises of salutary

from a niche market to a ubiquitous part of products in many stores.

were missing out on an important opportunity to connect with their customers.41

evaluating scent, our olfactory system works to trigger instantaneously memories of

invaluable opportunities for brands to connect to consumers on a deep-seated, emotional

through their store to subliminally influence spending behavior, or by creating a signature

created pleasant atmospheres of nostalgia to put customers in a mood to purchase their

new era of manufactured aura had arrived.

With the new research on the potential applications of aromatherapy, scent-

their services to big-name companies, the scent-marketing businesses created a buzz

connections between customers and brands.

symphonies," to be appreciated in much the same way as music.50 Currently AromaSys is

The industry leader in scent-marketing is the six-year-old Charlotte, North

Carolina-based company ScentAir.52 Unlike AromaSys, ScentAir stands by their claims

systems "help enhance environments, communicate brands and create memorable

and its connection to brand identity.

also offer scent services to retailers. Marketing Aromatics, a subsidiary of Behavioral

the public.57 BrandEmotions, a subsidiary of New York-based International Flavors &

Fragrances, offers to match appropriate scents to brands by studying the demographics of

a suitable fragrance.58 Georgia-based EnviroScent has super-strength aroma machines

capable of scenting areas within a baseball stadium.59 Orlando-based Fragrance

environmental scenting machines.61

Scent Design Technology