According to scientists, our sense of smell is our most powerful of all the senses.  And, aromas travel directly to the brain's emotional centers.  And, what might that mean in your future marketing?  Let's see.

With the power of scent, no wonder most men and women love "smelling" that just right scent.  Especially on someone who interests us!  Part of our animal instincts, I trust.  Anyway, perfume and fragrance manufacturers had this figured out eons ago.  And, since our most important buying decisions are typically driven by feelings, and later supported by logic (the supposed decision maker), the effects of olfactory senses in marketing seems nothing to ignore!  I say this for large and small business alike.

Perceptions registered by our other sensory centers travel through interpretive brain centers first.  In other words, those more "logical" ones.  Since I'm no expert on brain sensory centers, I'll leave it at that!  Anyway, our senses that travel through this logical route first only arrive much later at the emotional centers.  Not good news for marketing and buying decisions for our brands!

C. Russell Brumfield, author of Whiff, says, "Our relatively recent understanding of the prominence and influence of scent in our lives is rapidly changing the paradigm of how we market, sell, and deliver products and services to consumers."  That's a pretty powerful statement from this expert in World Trends & Forecasts, Nov-Dec 2008, p.9.  

With online internet marketing and local business marketing being the future, I have to ask myself - how do we incorporate olfactory marketing into our online strategies?  I'm thinking it will take a much brainier techno wizard than me to figure out how we'll squeeze an olfactory mist out of our next iPad, or phone. 

But, I do know this is an important aspect of future marketing.  And, I'd love your comments and suggestions - based on your experience with this.  I find this a whole new world of marketing for those of us involved in small business and internet marketing!