Selling smells

KSL Newsradio's Danielle Wood reportingBusinesses are using scents to bring in customers and lure them to stay around longer. And everyone's doing it: From retail companies, to casinos, real estate and museums.

"We come to make associations with smells, so as we're growing up the smells of cookies or pies, or whatever it might be. Smells can transport us back to a previous time, or it can reconnect us."

Brigham Young University professor Mark Callister says companies are using that to their advantage. Cookies and baked goods for model homes and real estate agents, a waffle cone smell for ice cream shops, coconut during the summer, and evergreen during the holidays.

"Consumer behavior is far more complex then just the smell. In fact, the research is not conclusive that they're spending more money, but it's putting them in a kind of a mood and an orientation to stay longer. And those will have an impact."

So the impact may not be direct, but that's just like window displays and background music. Scent-air creates signature smells for all kinds of companies, and these scents can cost between $5,000 to $25,000. Alexa Elton likes the smell of Abercrombie and Fitch, Bath and Body Works, and Hollister. But when asked what they smelled like, she couldn't remember.

"I don't know, I like the smells," she said

Not all consumers notice the smell as an obvious or different smell. It's more of how Starbucks just smells like coffee, and the theatre just smells like popcorn. But one of the biggest challenges is concocting the perfect scent... mixing tangerine and clementine, cinnamon and chocolate. So the next time you visit Nordstrom, Smith's, or Marriott Hotel, and you smell something that's no where in sight, you'll know where it's coming from.

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