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The bakery at the back of the store has a seductive appeal. It’s at the back for a reason: the scent of warm, fresh bread draws shoppers and their carts towards it… past everything else on sale. It might be slightly manipulative, but has anyone ever got home and regretted buying freshly baked bread? No. Of the five primary senses, smell is the most evocative. In an instant it can move us to exotic locations, or induce memories of places and times thought to be long forgotten. Oddly enough, it seems to work best with happy recollections.
And yet smell, while powerful in the natural world, is a sense neglected by marketing. Manufactured products bombard the consumer with sights, they cajole with touch and seduce with sound, but the most powerful associations of all has traditionally required consumer interaction: scratch a card or push a button. But all of this is changing.
News America’s SmartSource ShelftalkSM line of products takes technology developed by Eastman and Rotuba to fill the aisle with scent. The product is the first point-of-purchase application Rotuba’s amazing Auracell™ scented natural polymer line, manufactured using Eastman’s Tenite™ cellulosics. It will retain and disperse fragrances for months without losing intensity. “This is a powerful and unique method of advertising through scent," says News America CEO Paul V. Carlucci. By using Auracell™, we are enabling clients to capture a customer’s attention and literally lure them to the product with its fragrance.” Givaudan, one of the fragrance companies working with Rotuba, has a library of 33,000 scents, but if something off-the-shelf isn’t the right fit, the technology to custom design scents is available. Already, in a limited roll-out, the SmartSource ShelftalkSM has proved incredibly effective, and the summer months will have the product appear in the mass market.
Science fiction has its warp drives and teleporters but in the real world we have a powerful sense of smell to take us to far away places. Prepare to be transported.
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