The Hard Smell

By Vicki Lee Parker
The News & Observer
March 3, 2006

How sweet is the smell of success?

Well, to Julie Jennings, it's really more of a green tea and lemongrass scent.

That's the aroma wafting through her Uniquities clothing shop in Chapel Hill.

"It definitely makes people stay in the store longer," Jennings said. The longer people linger, the more likely they are to buy.

A growing number of businesses - particularly stores, hotels and home builders - have figured out that the right smells can attract customers.

Some use the smell of fresh flowers, a spring shower or baby powder to reel customers in. Others hope the scent works subliminally. Smell a cookie, buy a cookie. Still others would like you to associate a particular smell with their brand.

None of these businesses is walking around lighting candles. Instead they hire scent companies to concoct the smells from oils and fragrances, and lease their customers blowers that disperse the scents through the air.

A leader in the business is ScentAir Technologies, a Charlotte company that has concocted more than 1,500 scents. Jennings started using ScentAir in November to help mask the smells from the bar below her shop.

Now she said that the aroma helps her business stand out. "Retail is very competitive; anything you can do to get customers to stay in your store longer gives you a competitive edge," Jennings said.

David Van Epps, ScentAir's president and CEO, said that the company doesn't promise that its products will increase sales. But researchers who have studied the effects of aromas on retail sales say the right smell can help the bottom line.

"Scent does matter," said Deborah Mitchell, an adjunct associate professor of marketing at the University of Chicago who has done two studies on aroma and retail. Not just any pleasant smell will do, she said.

In her studies, Mitchell said she found that people were more willing to try brands and linger longer when the smell corresponded with the products being sold.

"Smell has the most powerful effect on the memory cue; much more than sight and sound," Mitchell said. "If you smell chocolate and that makes you think happy thoughts and you are shopping with chocolate in front of you, there is a real synergy."

Which is why one convenience store contracted with ScentAir for a fresh-brewed coffee scent. Once the store had switched from old glass pots to enclosed containers, the coffee aroma that had once permeated the store was gone.

Bakeries have a similar issue. They typically bake breads and pastries in the morning. By late in the day, that warm, fresh-baked smell has faded. Some bakeries blow an oven-baked-bread scent all day.

Chocolate, tobacco and leather shops also play the game. A museum might order a skunk or dinosaur-breath smell to use in an exhibit.

Improving business by using aromas isn't new, Mitchell said. Some specialty retailers and large casino hotels have been using scents for years. But the practice is becoming more popular as competition in the service industry intensifies.

"This has been an underutilized marketing tool," said Robert Lauterborn, professor of advertising at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. "It has always been there on a conscious level when you walk through a mall and smell popcorn and coffee. But now there is an unconscious level that businesses are starting to explore."

That has meant more business for ScentAir, which has doubled its staff in past year to 25 employees. More than 1,000 businesses have turned to ScentAir to help brand their scents or attract customers including Kroger, Super Target, Busch Gardens and Nordstrom.

Bloomingdale's uses various ScentAir fragrances throughout its stores: lilac in the intimate apparel department, baby powder in infants and coconut in the swimsuit section. During the holiday shopping season it uses sugar cookie, chocolate and evergreen scents.

When Hard Rock Hotel at Universal Orlando Resort was having a rough time attracting people to its basement-level ice cream shop, it solved the problem by putting a sugar cookie smell at the top of stairs and a waffle cone aroma at the bottom.

ScentAir was founded in 2000 using patented technology created by a former Walt Disney scientist, David Martin, whose charge was to find a way to pump specific smells into Disney's theme park attractions.

Martin tried to develop a business around the technology by running the ScentAir operation out of his garage in 1994. In 2004, a Connecticut-based investment firm, Alerion Partners, made a significant investment in the company and expanded the management team.

ScentAir's customers rent ScentWave blower machines and cartridges for $99 month. The toaster-size blower fits in a wall and can sit in a corner of the room or right inside a ventilation system. A cartridge inside the machine holds oils and fragrances for at least a month. The blower can disperse scents within a 4,000-square-foot area, using a timer or by motion, such as when a customer walks by.

Kristin Misnick, property manager at Camden Manor Park, a new apartment development in Raleigh, began using ScentAir products in December. She started with a pine aroma for the holidays and is now scenting the office with lavender and vanilla.

"I think potential residents associate the smells with a positive experience," she said. "If it smells clean and is clean, it makes them want to leave here and rent from us."

ScentAir Technologies Inc, founded in 2000, is the leading provider of aroma marketing solutions for brands and retailers. ScentAir enables businesses to create a unique in-store experience by engaging memory and emotions through patented scent delivery systems. Proven to enhance the appeal of any environment, these pioneering scent machines can be customized to reflect even the most challenging environment or brand. ScentAir is a privately held company located in Charlotte, NC.

For additional information contact Murray Dameron at 704-504-2320.