Scent Branding: What do you smell like?

As mentioned by both Leigh Durst and Linda Tischler, scent is becoming more and more the most popular and innovative key attribute among brands. 

‘Scent Branding is a discipline of sensory or experiential marketing. It has been promoted by Gerald Zaltman and many others including the Scent Marketing Institute and has become a 14 billion dollar global market for retailers and marketers looking to enhance brand experience.
Some may think “scent marketing”

Learning How to Smell Better in Our Odiferous World – Part 1

Many people have asked how they can learn to “smell” more proficiently.  While each of us is born with the techniques of smelling (smelling through the nose and smelling through the back of the throat – the latter being lumped together with the sense of  taste – actually only the sensations of salty, sweet, bitter, sour, umami (savory)) – we seem to think that improving our ability to smell requires something magical and probably well beyond our “normal” capabilities.  That is not so.  Smelling better – improving our ability to be more discriminating and more capable of identifying odor types as well as specific odors – is mostly a function of experience.  Practice and more practice is the key to learning how to become better and better at it.

Start with things that are fun and that are easier to

On the Beach – Part 2

In my last blog post, we explored the types of smells associated with the seashore. However, there is one other important aromatic found, very occasionally, on the beach – ambergris. The name translates as ‘grey amber’ which gives a clue to its appearance. Ambergris can be found washed up on the shores of New Zealand, Australia and the Indian Ocean, and it has long held an important place in perfumery, as a medicine, aphrodisiac and incense. Originally it was thought to be bird excrement, or congealed gum or bitumen, or even a

A Scented Instrument? Nothing new…!

The “smell organ” as illustrated by Frank R. Paul in the June 1922 issue of Science and Invention

This week I ran into something really, really, really cool. Have you ever thought of an instrument that can play…scents?? I swear when I read this is I was totally shocked! Although there’s no evidence this was ever actually constructed, the idea is

Scents-able Diets

It is a common fact that our ability to taste is disproportionately based on our ability to smell. Seventy-five percent of what we eat is enjoyable in flavor due in part by our personal preferences molded by the strength of our olfactory. Using this knowledge, we can employ the senses all around us to either stimulate or prevent the desire to eat. If you struggle with adapting a new diet, cannot shed however many pounds, or need to put on a healthier weight, the problem can be remedied in more ways than ordinarily considered. Scents are powerful tools to assist

“Smell” your headache off!

Photo Credit office headache image by John Keith from Fotolia.com

You know that annoying feeling when your head hurts and you feel you can’t think or do anything? Of course you do.

Aromatherapy can be very useful when it comes to natural methods to cure headaches and helps reducing the use of drugs. Livestrong.com specifically said that “essential oils can be used to treat almost any ailment whether physical or emotional”, so

How do we Know that Scents are Safe? Part 3

We have covered a lot of ground on this topic and have discussed “gray areas” that require our personal judgment be exercised.  Here is one more for you to consider.

More and more people expect that any “smell experience” that they might have encountered should be able to be reprised.  We get into areas where simply identifying the chemistries that define the smell and then re-assembling them may not be prudent.  A recent blog, seen here and not authored by me, addressed the smell of a rain storm and is a case in point.  Many classes of compounds that are created when a rain storm arrives were categorized.  All in all, thousands if not many, many times that number were bundled into three categories: ozone (and effects); petrichor (natural and not natural origin ingredients found on the ground and on pavement, etc.); and geosmin (mostly natural-origin materials deriving from flora and fauna directly or indirectly and associated with “dirt” = earth).  However, the collateral

What if I can’t SMELL?!

Have you ever wondered of how would it feel if you couldn’t see well, taste well, hear well….? From my perspective, that would be an extreme challenge to deal with, especially because I’ve been lucky enough to experience all my senses so far. But have any of you ever wondered how you’d feel if you couldn’t smell properly? Or at least, not being able to easily identify basic smells? This condition is called Anosmia, which is identified as the inability to

On the Beach

Pacific Ocean

Over the last few months, we have been exploring the types of odours that are found in the natural world; and the environments where we like to meditate, seek peace and wellbeing, or simply feel good. Many of us like to be close to the sea. The sea shore can deliver some unique sensations, depending on the landscape, weather, tides and waters. An intimate, crescent shaped, sandy beach on a tropical island in the Indian Ocean might evoke

Humans Can Smell Fear

 A few weeks ago one of our regular bloggers, Tin Dao, wrote about the smell of danger. It was quite interesting to learn that animals are able to communicate through smell and alert one another . A new study has found that humans can actually smell fear and disgust, two emotions that can be regularly expressed.

Research shows