Free The Buying Brain: Secrets for Selling to the Subconscious Mind by A. K. Pradeep Page B

events and at the same time relate them to particular places and times. To evoke powerful memories, choose the scents of childhood: warm grass after a summer rain, cinnamon, and the salty ocean air. The Buying Brain will link those long-stored pleasant associations with your brand, product, or environment.

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    The Five Senses and the Buying Brain
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    While humans generate the most lasting visual or audio memories between the ages of 15 and 30 (that’s why the songbook of your adolescence remains so poignant), the more powerful memories that have to do with smell are a pony ride straight back to childhood. Studies have consistently found that humans’
    peak smelling ability ranges from 5 to 10 years old . During those years, we have the opportunity to experience many smells for the first time, and the luxury of time to revel in them.
    Deploying Scent in the Marketplace
    We make such immediate, deep, and emotional connections with the smells we encounter, it makes perfect “sense” to make scents available to delight and engage the brains of our consumers.
    In How Customers Think , NeuroFocus Advisory Board member Gerald Zaltman notes that, “Olfactory cues are hardwired into the brain’s limbic system, the seat of emotion, and stimulate vivid recollections.” Once a scent is embedded in an individual’s brain, even visual cues can cause it to be resurrected and even “experienced.” According to Zaltman, “A TV commercial showing a person savoring the aroma of freshly brewed coffee can trigger these same olfactory sensations in viewers.” (See Chapter 9 for more detail on how the Mirror Neuron System stimulates reactive motion in the brain.) Zaltman sees scents shoring up marketing efforts in several ways. They can be “memory markers” that help a person recall familiar brands more than unfamiliar ones. They can also change the way we process information, for example, a lemon aroma can make us more alert. Zaltman speculates that scents of that type could be helpful when introducing a new product. Now with EEG testing, we can help determine which smells work best in which environment.
    Olfactory Brand Marketing
    Brands are probably the first and highest form of olfactory branding: Smell a Starbuck’s coffeehouse with your eyes closed, for instance, and you know you can be nowhere else. Fall under the suntan coconut seduction of a Tommy Bahama store and you’re halfway to the beach before you reach the cash counter. Johnson’s Baby Powder carries powerful scents of soothing and P1: OTA/XYZ
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    The Buying Brain
    comfort that cross many lines, and the smell of Gain detergent has a following of its own. Does your brand have a unique, iconic scent signature? Could it benefit from real, immediate, deeply embedded, and supremely emotional connections of fun and pleasure?
    Olfactory Product Marketing
    How many among us have wandered by a patisserie chicken roaster in our local supermarkets only to be seduced by the smell of grandma’s chicken and potatoes dinner? Why do stores incorporate coffee grinders in their aisles to give us a fresh, unfettered access to the brand new blends? How might an apple spice cake smell resonate in a coffee shop or bistro or the bakery section of a large supermarket? Doesn’t the smell of fresh linens make you feel more comfortable and more “tucked in” when you’re abroad?
    Always take into account the smell of your offering. Even if it’s the best in its class in terms of taste, it will fail in the market if the packaging causes it to smell fake or plastic.
    Sexual Noses
    Women have more sensitive noses than men, and are far better at putting words to olfactory experiences; men are particularly keen on the smells of their beloved.
    Indeed, humans tend to prefer mates who have