Scented signals from consumers ...

Have you ever thought of the effect on your behaviour in a restaurant where lemon and lavender aromas were diffused and compared to a no-aroma control condition?
You’ll be surprised to know that odours have an effect on consumer behaviour. Experiments show that lavender—but not lemon aroma—increased the length of stay of customers and the amount of purchasing. The supposition is that lavender produces a relaxing effect is offered to explain the results. We can take this explanation as most probably correct because this is one of those behavioural aspects of humans on external factors which can’t be conclusively explained and justified with some numbers. Similarly various experimental studies have shown that aromas have a positive impact on human behaviour, emotions and cognition. It was also found that human behaviour is effected when diffusing a pleasant perfume and there increase in the performances of difficult cognitive tasks and there is also improved and rapid performance in computation task.

Scents appear to be relevant to two forms of consumption: product evaluation (for example scent products) and sale’s environment (for example ambient aroma). The scent that was appropriated with a product increased product evaluations. A pleasant ambient scent improved brand evaluations especially for unfamiliar brands while ambient scent increased recall of unfamiliar brand names. Helping behaviour is also positively affected by ambient aromas. Some researchers observed that people in a region of a mall with pleasant food odours (pastry, coffee shop) were more willing to accept a request for change from a male associate than persons in a zone with neutral odours (clothing shops, etc.). Research has shown that students agreed to spend more time on voluntary work when they were exposed to a vanilla or lavender odour before the request. Also, some other observers showed that people exposed to a pleasant odour during a learning task offered their collaboration more easily to the experimenter asking for help at the end of the task. Odours environment in a sales area seems to have a positive effect on consumers’ behaviour. The ambient aroma had a positive impact on the duration of time spent by consumers at a jewellery counter.

Ambient aromas also affect gamblers’ behaviour. During one weekend a slot-machine area in a Las Vegas Casino was odorized. The amount of money gambled in this area was compared to the amount of money gambled in the same area before and after odourization. The results showed that during the experimental weekend, the amount of money gambled was greater by an average of 45.1% compared to the weekend before and the weekend after the diffusion of the aroma. Researchers found no difference between the three weekends when comparing the amount of money gambled in a control slot-machine area which was non-odorized. The study also found that when the concentration was higher, larger amounts of money were gambled. As seen from various research results it is very clear how a consumer is unknowingly influenced by the aroma in his surroundings. Thus, pleasing scent can create a wonderful ambience and add to the customers’ shopping experience, particularly if it is sample of one of the products retailer is selling. In some cases, the best scent may be the absence of any noticeable scent at all, adding to the impression that the store and environment are clean. So make sure that you do notice the fragrance around you while visiting any place and figure out the behavioural changes you go throughout the course.