Ambient Scent and Brand Recall: Marketing Research Review

Introduction and Overview

This paper reviews a study examining the effects of scents on brand recall. The authors noted that, despite a lack of prior research, ambient scents are already being used in a variety of retail settings, including grocery stores and restaurants, as well as in offices and subway stations. In two separate experiments, participants viewed photographs of brands — some familiar, some unfamiliar — displayed on a computer for specific lengths of time. During these exposure sessions, a diffuser distributed scent into the room. Twenty-four hours later, participants were tested on both brand name recall and recognition.

In both studies, the presence of an ambient scent improved both recognition and recall. The authors provided supporting evidence for their research, including studies demonstrating a connection between scent and memory, a possible scientific explanation for that connection, and a literary example of this link from Marcel Proust's novel Remembrance of Things Past, in which the protagonist smells a cookie and the scent triggers waves of forgotten childhood memories.

The researchers also examined the interplay between ambient scent, participant attention, and later recall, analyzing these factors in relation to both familiar and unfamiliar products. Follow-up analyses indicated that ambient scent improved memory for new brands, though the benefit to recall specifically may have been limited by the short 24-hour interval between the encoding phase and the retrieval phase.

Discussion of Research

The authors' purpose was to explore how ambient scents might improve brand recognition and recall, and to determine what association, if any, exists between scent and the strong recall of memories — including memories of people, products, or events. They observed that ambient scents are currently used in supermarkets, restaurants, office buildings, casinos, and subway stations to influence behavior, and that at least one company was exploring ways to tie scents to internet sites.

The researchers examined the conceptual background for ambient scent use and noted that some researchers believe ambient scents evoke moods in people. Others, however, point to scent affecting state-dependent memory mechanisms — that is, if an event is accompanied by a scent, then re-encountering that scent can help retrieve the associated memory. The researchers speculated that mood enhancement via scent could also strengthen memory formation for a given incident or item.

Another possibility is that an ambient scent increases an individual's arousal — their level of alertness — which in turn improves cognitive functioning and, specifically, memory retrieval. The authors found research suggesting that all of these possibilities may have merit.

The researchers cited a variety of studies to support their work, including scientific research linking scent to memory (Goldman and Scamon, 1991; Laird, 1935) and a possible neurological explanation for why this link exists (Holloway, 1999). The example from Proust's novel served as an effective real-world illustration of this phenomenon. The authors also provided numerous examples of contexts where scent is already being used to influence consumer or other behavior.

The authors found evidence in the literature that associative memories tied to scent are stronger than memories formed without scent. Taken together, the body of literature — approached from multiple theoretical angles — suggests that scent could plausibly be used to enhance product recall in marketing contexts.

Methodology and Experimental Design

The authors did not present an illustrated model for their research. They conducted two separate experiments. In the first, they selected two markedly dissimilar scents to use alongside toiletry and household cleaning products. In the second experiment, because the literature suggested that pleasant scents are most effective for evoking memory, the researchers chose two scents that were equally preferred by respondents, ensuring that individual scent preference would not skew the results. Extensive preliminary work was conducted to identify appropriate scents: undergraduates at a university rated their opinions of various scents, revealing that some were significantly more preferred than others.

For the main experiments, the researchers also used college students as participants and restricted the study to English speakers so that language differences would not introduce confusion. Ninety students were randomly assigned to one of three groups: a congruent scent condition (a scent appropriate for the product), a non-congruent scent condition (a scent unrelated to the product), or a no-scent control condition. All participants viewed images of both familiar and unfamiliar products individually rather than in groups. During the encoding phase, participants were exposed to the scent of geraniums, cloves, or no scent. Half the product images depicted obscure brands participants were unlikely to recognize.

Twenty-four hours later, participants returned to the room for the retrieval phase. They were asked to list every product they could remember from the previous day. Because they had not been told in advance that they would be tested, they had no reason to mentally review the products after leaving. Participants also answered questions about their experience, such as whether they had noticed anything unusual about the room's atmosphere. Their responses were recorded by computer for statistical analysis, and researchers used established scales to measure both mood and level of arousal.

Conclusion

Practice trials: Preliminary tasks involving stimuli unrelated to the study, designed to familiarize participants with the computer equipment. By using unrelated content for practice, the researchers ensured that any unfamiliarity with the equipment would not affect the actual research outcomes. Further information on experimental design principles can be found through resources on experimental design methodology.

From this research it is clear that it is possible to take marketing assumptions and test them quite precisely in a controlled experimental setting. This kind of rigorous methodology would be a valuable aid in fine-tuning marketing strategies to be as efficient and evidence-based as possible.