Have you ever walked into a house that was for sale and smelled the delightful aroma of freshly baked cookies? Chances are you have, and chances are it was very much on purpose. That real estate agent was practicing scent marketing . The smell of freshly baked cookies made you feel warm, welcomed, and at home. It reminded you of pleasant childhood memories. It made you associate that house with those memories and emotions.

The sense of smell is the strongest of the five senses, and the sense most closely linked to memory. Many businesses are using what real estate agents have been using for years. They are linking their product to your strongest emotional link. Scent machines , and even more elaborate scent systems , allow businesses to not only evoke the emotions they want and link them to their product, but also make you think of their product the next time you smell that scent.

This marketing system isn’t just for sales. The right scent can make you feel calmer in a hospital, more alert in a place of entertainment, and more comfortable in your hotel room. There are thousands of scent receptors in your nose, thousands of different smells, and marketers are coming up with thousands of ways to use them. Fortunately, because the emotions and memories marketers want to evoke are pleasant, scent marketing is usually a pleasurable experience.