Smell is the sense that gets the least attention and the one that acts the fastest. Unlike sight or hearing, olfactory information reaches the limbic system — the areas of the brain that handle emotion and memory — without the intermediate stops the other senses make. That is why a smell takes you back to childhood before you can even name it.
How it works
As you breathe, the odour molecules in the air pass through the nasal cavity and dissolve in the olfactory mucosa, where the receptors are. Human beings have around 400 different types of olfactory receptor which, in combination, make it possible to distinguish an enormous variety of smells.
Those signals travel to the olfactory bulb and from there to the cortex, but they also connect directly with the amygdala and the hippocampus. No other sense has such a short route to the areas of emotion and memory.
Smell and memory
The phenomenon whereby a smell triggers a vivid, emotionally charged memory is known as olfactory memory or the Proust effect, after the madeleine in In Search of Lost Time.
A word of warning is needed here, because this is the ground on which the most false figures circulate. You will see everywhere that "we remember 35% of what we smell against 5% of what we see", attributed to a study by Rockefeller University. That study does not exist: it is a figure copied from article to article with no source. That olfactory memory is unusually emotional and long-lasting is well documented; the specific percentages doing the rounds are not.
Olfactory adaptation
This is the most useful phenomenon to understand if you are scenting a space: the brain stops registering constant smells. If you have been at home for hours, you no longer smell it. It makes evolutionary sense — what matters is change, not the background — but it has three very practical consequences:
- You are not a good judge of how your own premises smell. Ask someone walking in for the first time.
- Turning up the intensity solves nothing. If you have stopped noticing it, there is no shortage of scent; you have simply adapted to it. Anyone walking in will find it overpowering.
- Cycles with pauses work better than continuous diffusion. That is why professional units work with intervals of activity and rest instead of emitting non-stop.
What can honestly be said about scent and business
That a pleasant smell improves the perception of a space and an unpleasant one sinks it: anyone who has walked into premises smelling of drains can confirm that. That it reinforces brand recall when it is kept constant for months: that is reasonable too.
What we are not going to do is put a percentage on it. Very precise figures circulate — such and such a percentage more dwell time, such and such a percentage less perceived waiting time — that almost never have a traceable study behind them. We would rather not use them to sell to you.
From theory to your space
If you want the practical side, it is in how to choose your brand's scent and in how to set schedules and intensity without overdoing it. And if you would rather we looked at your case together, write to us via contact.
