Aroma Therapist

Sales and Smells

Smells are everywhere. Now, I found out about aroma marketing, and it's this crazy concept that companies and stores are buying into. You release scents at a store and try to draw in customers. It lures you in and you may already be emotionally swayed to buy something. Personally, I think it's a sweet strategy to get people to buy stuff. That idea of getting into people's emotions to get them to buy stuff is ingenious. Beautiful. Now, does it work? Well, I wouldn't say that it works on me, but then again, who would admit that? I don't think anybody knows if it works on them. As to why most people don't know about its effects on them, I'd say it comes from the very nature of the marketing and how it targets the subconscious. But apparently it works pretty well because there are more than one of these companies that specializes in aroma manipulation. It certainly is a very creative approach on marketing. It's about time we had this. I'm just waiting for smellovision and smellophones to come on to the market. That will be difficult to adjust to at first, but eventually people will love it. I'm totally serious. Listen, if we make it past December 21, 2012, then we will be seeing all sorts of smellectronic devices. It will be rad.

How Exactly Does Smelling Function?

So here's the skinny on how we smell (though I've explained this before in my blog): It starts with an odor molecule. Humans are able to detect over 10,000 different odor molecules. If one of these odors manages to fly up into your nose it may just contact an olfactory receptor neuron. You have millions of these, and each one has cilia jutting out of them. The celia contain receptors, which are the proteins that change when odor molecules bind to them. See? You're getting it. So neurons have receptors. Ok, when the molecules bind to the receptors, the receptors change shape, which causes an electrical signal to be sent to the brain. Your brain gets a message saying "fish alert, fish alert!" and you interpret it. Now, just because there are a bunch of different smell molecules doesn't mean that each smell has its own molecule. The smell of certain shampoos are actually combinations of these molecule odors. So with over 10,000 thousand the amount of possible smells are nearly endless. I mean, really. One day we should be able to experiment with creating different smells with a program. I can imagine it: Molecule #2968-2988 + molecule #24 + molecule #8838-8842. Now compute and give me a scent as to what that smells like.

Loss of Smell


Anosmia, the medical term for the loss of smell, is kind of a rare condition. Old people lose their smell from age because they are more susceptible to nasal infections which destroy their senses. Once it's gone it's gone. It is strongly tied to tasting, and eating food would be a much less rich experience. On top of that, odors like smoke and gas would go undetected, and those can be red flags to humans with any common sense (pun intended). You also don't know when you smell bad, so you'll just have to shower daily and use lots of deodorant, or ask someone close if you smell to know when to correct that.

Odor Preferences


Why do we like certain smells and dislike others? Why does that change for different people? These are probing proboscis questions, and here's what I understand: People aren't born with certain preferences. There is not sufficient data to back up the claims that we are. It's pretty much a preference based on association. You learn if you like a smell from a very young age. Some cultures have a general smell for home, and that might be the smell of the mother making a certain cultural dish. Then you're always going to like that smell of Caldo de Pollo boiling in the pot. I know I do, Mom. But some Indian food smells pungent and pretty gross to me. I remember when I was in 6th grade and I walked into my Indian friend's house. I really just didn't like that smell at all, and I wondered how the ones living there could tolerate it. Now I realize how. Your perception of the smell is really a big factor of what determines the like or dislike of a certain odor. That may sound redundant, but what I mean is that if you think something smells "artificial" or "natural," that may have a big effect on your overall judgment of the smell.