TEXT C Travelers arriving at
Heathrow airport this year have been met by the smell of freshly-cut grass,
pumped from a discreet corner via an "aroma box", a machine which blows warm,
scented air into the environment①. It can scent the area of an
average high street shop with the smell of the chocolate, freshly-cut grass, or
sea breezes, in fact any synthetic odors that can be made to smell like the real
thing. Heathrow’s move into "sensory" marketing is the latest
in a long line of attempts by businesses to use sensory psychology—the
scientific study of the effects of the senses on our behavior to help sell
products. Marketing people call this "atmosphere” using sounds or smells to
manipulate consumer behavior. On Valentine’s Day two years ago the chain of
chemist’s Superdog scented one of its London shops with chocolate. The smell of
chocolate is supposed to have the effect of reducing concentration and making
customers relax. "Chocolate is associated with love", said a marketing
spokeswoman, "We thought it would get people in the mood for romance." She did
not reveal, though, whether the smell actually made people spend more
money. However, research into customer satisfaction with certain
scented products has clearly shown that smell does have a commercial effect,
though of course it must be an appropriate smell②. In a survey,
customers considered a lemon-scented detergent more effective than another
scented with coconut despite the fact that the detergent used in both was
identical. On the other hand, a coconut-scented suntan lotion was rated more
effective than a lemon-scented one. A research group from Washington University
reported that the smell of mint or orange sprayed in a store resulted in
customers rating the store as more modern and more pleasant for shopping than
other stores without the smell. Customers also rated the goods on sale as
better, and ex pressed a stronger intention to visit the store again in the
future. Music too has long been used in supermarkets for
marketing purposes. Supermarkets are aware, for ex ample, that slow music causes
customers to stay longer in the shop (and hopefully buy more things). At
Leicester University psychologists have found that a specific kind of music can
influence consumer behavior. In a supermarket French wine sold at the rate of
76% compared to 20% German wine when French accordion music was played. The same
thing happened in reverse when German bierkeller music was played. In one
American study people even bought more expensive wines when classical music was
played instead of country music. Writers and poets have often
described the powerful effects of smell on our emotion, and smell is often
considered to be the sense most likely to evoke emotion-filled memories.
Research suggests however that this is a myth and that a photograph or a voice
is just as likely to evoke a memory as a smell. Perhaps the reason for this myth
is because smells, as opposed to sights and sounds, are very difficult to give a
name to. The fact that smell is invisible, and thus somehow more mysterious, may
partly explain its reputation as our most emotional sense. The use of music in supermarkets ______.
A.may lead customers to pay more for a product B.can increase sales of a specific product C.makes people buy more foreign wine D.causes customers to buy more in the shop