The Sweet Smell of Success: Olfaction in Retailing

Abstract

This paper focuses on the use of ambient scent within retail environments, and investigates those mediating factors that help shape the emotional and behavioural responses that are stimulated. In doing so, it draws on the work of Mehrabian and Russell (1974), and attempts to contribute to the work on ambient scent in retailing by extending and elaborating the Gulas and Bloch (1995) model to encompass current research on human olfaction. The paper also introduces and specifically considers the ability of smell to communicate a ‘sense of place’, and its potential as a differentiator in a crowded marketplace.