“Next time you’re at a hotel, chain store, large concert venue, or casino, stop and take a big sniff. It’s not unlikely that you will smell a subtle, carefully concocted scent created by fragrance specialists at ScentAir, the nation’s largest scent marketing and branding company. Their olfactory potions have an obvious purpose: to encourage customers to linger longer and return more often.
But it isn’t all sugar and spice (and lemon balm and ocean mist). ScentAir’s scientists also recreate — and sell — the odors of feces, blood, guts, and even burning flesh, for use in medical and military simulation training.
A former Disney Imagineer, David Martin, is the brains behind the company. At Disney, he helped introduce the use of different smells to amusement parks; Disney first utilized them at special events, then expanded their use to its indoor rides, stores, and hotels.
“Disney creates the happiest place on earth by engaging all the senses and thinking of every level of detail. They are the masters,” ScentAir spokesperson Ed Burke told BuzzFeed. “We try to bring that to other types of businesses.”
ScentAir’s founder took his work to other amusement parks and entertainment venues; you can thank him for the dung smell at the dinosaur exhibit at the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis, the Shrek fart on the Universal Studios ride, and the whiffs of cotton candy during Katy Perry’s 2011 tour. But he also found steady business bringing smell to stores, hotels, casinos, bars, and restaurants.”
Quoting from Justine Sharrock at BuzzFeed.
The story continues at http://www.buzzfeed.com/justinesharrock/how-manufactured-smells-are-making-people-shop-longer-and-ki
