We as a human, all have five senses as a living mechanism, and one of the key sense is the sense of smell. One can convey or interpret many things through scents.
There are many scents around the world; some scents had already extinct. Even then, many other natural and artificial scents still exists until today.
However, have you ever smell something and felt that, that specific scent triggers a specific memory?
‘ The nose knows nostalgia ’
I believe some scents could remind people of specific memories, for example, an old book could’ve reminded someone of their childhood or the scent of a sweater could’ve reminded someone of their cozy home.
This made me question if scents could be used in commercial and marketing?
If yes, so how will those scents be used?
As mentioned, scent is one of the main senses in humans, but one thing that distinguishes scent from the other senses is that you cannot turn it off, whether consciously or unconsciously you’ll still smell what’s surrounding you, as if it’s an unavoidable notification.
However, what if scent is used in commercial aspects?
What would happen?
PROJECT : BANGKOK'S SCENT RECYCLE CENTRE
Scent is one of the main senses in humans, but one thing that distinguishes scent from the other scents is that you cannot turn it off, whether consciously or unconsciously you’ll still smell what’s surrounding you, as if it’s an unavoidable notification.
But what if scent is used in commercial aspects?
Society tends to over exploit things when they find the chance to attract people, that means more money. So how truthful can this experience be? How will scent be immerse in that experience? And how innocent is the experience itself? Just like how recycling is something that looks educational and nice to do, sounding very innocent and helpful, but actually commercial is exploited in it unknowingly by society. However will using something non-rational like scent in commercial be okay?
Just like advertisements; they are everywhere. So are advertisements okay? If advertisements are okay, then scents are as well. Smell is much more complicated when compared to advertisements, they are not completely unavoidable, you can close your eyes or play music to block those advertisements but as for scents, when you are subjected to a smell, they cannot be ignored, it is completely unavoidable; unless you replace that smell with another smell by smelling something else.
So what’s the critical point behind using scent in commercials?
Scents play with your senses, they are uncontrollable and unavoidable. Scents can be called ‘sneaky’, they sneak into your senses without your permission, just like a notification you couldn’t avoid. If scents are used in commercials in the correct way, they can attract humans without them realising it and without them being able to avoid those scents.
