The Use of Consumer Neuroscience in Aroma Marketing

Smell is one of the most sensitive senses and is closely connected with emotions. Everyone has experienced a moment where a scent changed their mood and brought up memories. In this book monitoring of the effect of aromas on consumer emotions is described. It starts with a general overview of the role of scents in marketing and the use of neuroscience tools in monitoring the impact of the stimuli on consumer emotions. Tools used by the authors are a consumer neuroscience tool - electroencephalography (EEG), a biometric method that monitors the galvanic skin response or skin perspiration (GSR), and a traditional data collection method - a questionnaire. With these tools, consumer response to three selected scents were monitored. One of the initial scents was selected and tested under ’normal’ restaurant conditions. The authors describe how the information was obtained, and how the effect on consumer emotions was determined. ’The use of consumer neuroscience in aroma marketing’ concludes with recommendations to improve the effectiveness of aromatisation in practice.