Shops scent sales success with in-store odours
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Hard-nosed bargain hunters are being targeted by retail companies using smell-to-sell technology. New chemicals to entice customers to spend money have been developed by one of Britain's leading industrial gas manufacturers.
The new technology, developed by the gas company BOC, has been seized by the high-street retail company Woolworths and harnessed for use as an in-store shopping incentive. This Christmas, 20 of the retail company's largest stores will be filled with the aroma of cinnamon and a subtle hint of cloves.
But customers recognising the rich aroma of mulled wine will have to go elsewhere if they want to drink some. The company does not sell alcohol, and the tempting scents emanate from the air-conditioning system.
A panel of Woolworths' staff decided that mulled wine created the right relaxed ambience to put customers in a suitably mellow and festive mood.
The use of smell to influence people is not new: Estate agents have known for years - if you want people to buy your house, put on a pot of fresh- brewed ground coffee just before they arrive. Japanese corporations have experimented with devices to keep drivers and night-shift workers alert; when they become drowsy a blast of cold air and the smell of mint is released. Household cleaning- product manufacturers use lemon because people associate its sharpness with cleanliness.
Supermarkets will be able to attract customers with the fake smell of baking bread; and pubs could lure punters with the essence of real ale.
Evelyn Shervington, BOC's business development manager, said: "We have been working on this for some years but it is in the last 12 months that we have developed some innovative technology enabling us to do it."
BOC buys artificial smells from fragrance manufacturers, who can offer up to 17,000 different scents. The company dissolves these in tiny quantities in liquid carbon dioxide and stores them in ordinary gas cylinders.
Once connected to the air conditioning system, a timer releases the scented gas. It mixes evenly with the air and remains there.
Smells are already used as aids in some museums and historical displays. At the Yorvik Centre in York, which depicts Viking life in the city a thousand years ago, visitors smell everything from fresh fish to pig sties and cesspits.
But the smells at the centre are produced by heating a container of liquid containing the appropriate scent. The BOC research means that it will be possible to control the use of smells much more precisely.
Dr Robert East, a psychologist at Kingston University said: "As yet there is no proof that smell can affect the amount you spend.
"But there is a general theory that what will happen is it will relax you in this environment and you will slow down and look more at the things around you . . . A slow tempo slows people down in supermarkets and they are likely to spend 30 per cent more."
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