Science: Smell Is the Key!

 
Smells have the power to awaken memories and associations in us, which are otherwise lost to our consciousness. Our minds conjure impressions from no more than our imaginings and memories. Extracts from the book ‘Das Maigloeckchen-Phaenomen' (The Lily-of-the-Valley Phenomenon) by Professor Hanns Hatt and his co-author Regine Dee, with some exciting findings for the foodservice sector.
 

Sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch - a major assault on the senses. On a walk through any city centre we are met on every corner by enormous hoardings and flashing messages, without our paying any great attention to them. Nowadays, according to a recent study, everyone in Germany has contact with a branded product of some kind 3,000 times per day: through a hoarding, a television commercial or an advertisement. For a long time now, individual products have been sinking into the flood of advertisements with ever more similar words and images. Which detergent does not wash clean and bright? Which cream does not leave your face soft, smooth and youthful? For this reason, extra dimensions have had to be found, to ensure customers' attention and to make the product stand out from the rest. After the floods of visual and auditory stimulation, an assault on our subconscious using scents seemed to be the next logical step. It was in the City of Lucerne, that people were first to be amazed by posters, where the Swiss fashion company, Kofler, used fragrant roses to advertise their new collection. Austrian hoteliers surprised their guests at the time of the European Football Championship with a rather more dubious delight: their toilet paper smelled of freshly mown grass. Entire scented trails lead through exhibitions for bathrooms, saunas and whirlpools. Temples of luxury entice us with the aroma of mango, sweet shops with the smell of chocolate and we can no longer enter a supermarket without sensory overload. Bright advertisements and background music are things of the past; today there is the smell of oranges in the fruit department and vanilla near the biscuits.
 

Read more about:
 
"Tasting is smelling"
 
"Creating aromas in the head"
 
"Scents as marketing tools"
 
"The irresistible fragrance for everyone"