coursebook - unit 7 - script

track 23

Interviewer: Welcome to the studio, Dr Patterson. There have been a number of complaints about marketing that makes use of the senses. How far do you feel the complaints are justified?

Dr Patterson: Well, there's nothing new about using the senses to sell products and services. First it was colour, then sound and now it’s the sense of smell. But the use of sophisticated scent technology bothers some people. I don’t think anyone has an issue with bread smelling like bread or coffee smelling like coffee. But there are occasions which do make me slightly uncomfortable with the idea.

Interviewer: Do you mean when the smell of chocolate or bread is artificially strong, for example, and it is used to trick people into coming inside a shop and spending money?

Dr Patterson: Well, if it’s a place where chocolate’s made, there might well be a strong smell, but if it’s just a shop selling packaged chocolate, people won't be able to smell it, so the scent marketer helps things along by pumping out a chocolatey smell.

Interviewer: Ah ... 

Dr Patterson: That's not a problem for most of us, but the approach can backfire if people get wind of the fact that smell is being used to manipulate them. I mean, when a powerful and irresistible scent is used to entice them into a shop only to find nothing identified with that smell actually on sale.

Interviewer: What’s the most unusual smell you’ve come across in a store?

Dr Patterson: Recently, a big toy store used scent marketing to encourage adult shoppers to spend more time looking at toys. The smell they used was pina colada , - you know, the pineapple-coconut cocktail. It seems like a strange choice but it supposedly conjures up visions of I holidays and tropical paradises. I guess that’s why they used it but without access to the marketing company’s brief, I of course, we can’t be sure. The store was in London, so perhaps that was it.

Interviewer: Wasn’t there a complaint recently about a campaign like this?

Dr Patterson: Well, it wasn’t, strictly speaking, a case of subliminal scent marketing, the kind that normally causes people to raise objections. In fact, it was the milk board in the United States that wanted to encourage people to drink: more milk. The smell of milk is not one that most people like very much, so they opted, very cleverly in my opinion, for pumping out the smell of freshly baked cookies. The idea was that the cookie smell would make people want to eat some cookies and, by association, drink some milk. I think they got the idea from campaigns where the smell of coffee had been used to sell plastic kitchen products that don’t have a smell.

Interviewer: So who objected and why?

Dr Patterson: The allergy lobby - and they objected very strongly. They don't like our environment being manipulated through pumping scented oils into the air - because it is potentially dangerous for this group. It’s fair enough, really. If they start having breathing difficulties but can’t actually smell whatever it is that is being pumped out. they won’t realise they need to move away. Into the bargain, scent marketing is increasingly ubiquitous. It's being used on airlines, in hotels and even, somewhat worryingly, in casinos to encourage people to stay and keep gambling.

Interviewer: Why would a hotel or airline want to use something like this? Surely, if we’re guests in the hotel or passengers on the plane already, we don't need to be persuaded to spend more time there.

Dr Patterson: Well, no, but in this case it’s more a question of branding. A lot of companies are now using scents as part of an overall strategy that will include all the other senses as well. They add a kind of scent logo that identifies the company in much the same way that a print logo does. The scent marketing designers are getting lots of commissions to do this kind of work as it’s highly skilled and very demanding. I really take my hat off to some of these people. Get it wrong and the company will lose customers. Get it right and they will become really competitive.

Interviewer: Well. thank you very much, Dr Patterson, for that very interesting glimpse - or should I say ’whiff’ of the pros and cons of scent marketing.