But while traditional marketing assaults your eyes and ears,

there's another industry quietly fighting for your attention —

and they're doing it through your nose.

So, scent marketing is the idea of using scent and incorporating to all the touch points of the customer experience.

It's very subconscious – so it's not like a logo

or something where you can see and everybody sees it the same way.

Depending on people's experiences and their upbringings, and their history,

they might perceive the scent to be a little bit different.

It's more emotional.

Chances are, you've already experienced scent marketing --

and know it can have a profound impact on your mind.

Research has found that combining scent with visual marketing strengthens our memory of it in the long term,

which can affect how we feel in a very physical way.

For example, an ambient coffee scent can emulate a feeling of alertness even if you haven't had any coffee,

and scents that we commonly attribute to cleanliness – like lemon or tangerine –

could make a messy store seem cleaner.

Various research over the years also found that shoppers in scented environments may linger longer,

perceive the merchandise as better and are more willing to pay higher prices.

And when casinos started pumping smells into the air to negate the stench of cigarettes,

they saw slot machine usage double.

People are actually more comfortable, they feel warm they feel invited, they feel welcomed.

It's really about creating an amazing experience for customers when they walk in.

Using scent to enhance an experience is actually pretty common.

For example, Museums have used "scentscaping" to intensify their exhibits –

like adding the smell of gunpowder to a civil war exhibit

and hospitals use scentscaping to create a more soothing environment for patients –

but scent marketing is a bit more complicated.

Scent marketing and branding is about using one scent for the whole experience.

If you're a millennial, the first thing coming to mind might be...

Abercrombie and Fitch – or Hollister.

These stores are the most extreme form of scent marketing called billboard scenting.

Every store smells the same regardless of where you are,

and chances are, it's really overpowering – like an oversized billboard.

But when you separate that scent from the store,

you can start to understand exactly what they want you to feel.

It smells very masculine. Male clothing store.

Sexy.

Manly.

Smelling this, kind of, weirdly, makes me feel intimate.

Believe it or not – to an ex-boyfriend I had.

It smells like an Abercrombie model, you know.

You see, the scent matches the visual branding –

and there's a careful process behind that.

So we have to learn a lot about the brand, the history, what sets them apart.

It's a Men's spa?

Woman's spa?

Is it in a country club?

Is it in a luxury hotel?

Who their target demographic is – the people that are coming in.

And then it's really about understanding their aspirational attributes,

and then capturing those qualities as adjectives and turning them into a scent.

In most cases, the scent is carefully diffused through the store – sometimes through stand alone systems

and sometimes directly through the HVAC systems.

It's a delicate process designed to release just a hint of aroma into the air.

Because in general, overpowering people with an aroma isn't a good thing.

This is why with most places you won't even realize there's a particular scent,

unless, of course, it's completely out of place.

In the same way that scent marketing can generate a positive experience,

when the aroma doesn't match the demographic, location, or brand identity, the public reaction is often negative:

In 2006, Got Milk? Ads dispersed at bus stops in San Francisco were equipped with cookie scented strips.

While chocolate chip cookies smell delicious, placing that scent at a bus stop completely backfired –

and the company pulled the scent marketing one day after releasing it.

Then, in 2008, Starbucks had to put the sale of breakfast sandwiches on hold.

The sandwich smell was competing with the coffee aroma, ruining the ambience.

Think about that: If a coffee shop doesn't smell like coffee, would you still start your morning there?

Once you start to be conscious of it you'll notice that it's everywhere.

when you walk into certain banks, when you walk into certain malls,

when you walk into stores — all types of businesses are using it.

And if it's working properly, scent marketing is helping to create a positive experience for both the business and the customer.

The reason why people stay longer in a store is because it's a better experience.

So they're happier.

Their mood is lifted and who doesn't want to have their mood lifted and be happier?

Hey, thanks for watching The Goods and thanks to our sponsor American Express.

AmEx has a credit card feature that gives you choices for how to make payments, big or small, called "Pay it Plan It."

"Pay It" helps reduce your balance by making small payments throughout the month.

And "Plan It" can help you split purchases over $100 up over time.

You can check it out at americanexpress.com/payitplanit.

And thanks again to American Express, their support made this series possible.