Autumn: the mere whisper of the word conjures up images of trees turning bright colors, porches adorned with pumpkins and fires warming us on chilly October evenings. It’s also the time of year when autumn scents like cinnamon, nutmeg and vanilla waft from the kitchen, taking us back in time to comforting memories which energize us, lower our stress and perhaps even nudge us to take out our wallets.
More and more companies understand the power of scent marketing, which uses familiar scents to connect with memories that affect our feelings and actions. Choosing from thousands of available scents, companies are using cold diffusion scent machines to disperse fragrances in their spaces and help achieve desired results.
With the fall season well on its way, here are some ways you can use familiar autumn scents to energize your staff, decrease stress and increase sales.
Energize Your Staff with Cinnamon
Research has shown that the scent of cinnamon can help boost brain function by improving cognitive activities such as visual-motor response, working memory and attention span. The sweet spicy-hot fragrance is also known to invigorate and warm the senses, produce feelings of joy and reduce drowsiness and irritability.
Hospitals, for example, are using the scent of cinnamon to do just that: keep their employees alert, energized and engaged during long shifts of patient care.
Decrease Stress with Nutmeg
Nutmeg’s strong, sweet and warm flavor make it a favorite spice for use in sweet and savory dishes. But the rich and earthy aroma of the spice has also been shown to relieve stress and enhance memory.
A patent by International Flavors and Fragrances details research showing that nutmeg oil has stress-reducing effects. Four separate studies showed that nutmeg significantly reduced systolic blood pressure in response to a mild stressor.
Nutmeg has also been found to lower anxiety, tension and anger as well as increase calmness, relaxation and happiness.
Who wouldn’t want these qualities wafting through the air, making for a more positive workplace?
Increase Sales with Vanilla or Pine
When it comes to nudging shoppers toward spending more, warm scents such as vanilla or cinnamon have been proven to make the cash register ring.
Researchers determined that a warm ambient scent causes shoppers to perceive their environment as smaller and more crowded, which makes them feel less powerful. The theory is that shoppers then compensate for the perceived loss of power by spending more on luxury products to gain their status and power back.
In addition, simple scents such as pine or citrus have been found to increase shoppers spending as much as 20%.
A study published by the American Marketing Association’s ‘Journal of Marketing’ analyzed 400 shoppers over 18 days and discovered that people spent about 20% more when exposed to a simple orange scent as opposed to a more complicated scent concocted by blending orange with basic and green tea. Researchers concluded that because the simple scent was easily processed and recognized, shoppers could focus on the task at hand – shopping. The more complex scent seems to have distracted the shoppers from buying.
Autumn Scents Finding Work at the Office
As your employees shake off the summer and focus on fall work projects, and as customers pull out their wallets and begin shopping for the holidays, you might want to consider spicing up your office with some of these familiar autumn scents.
Because thanks to scent marketing, popular autumn fragrances such as cinnamon, nutmeg, and vanilla are no longer just for the kitchen.
