Close your eyes. Think about a happy memory. What do you see? What do you smell? Do memories smell? Haraid Vogt and Avery Gilbert think so. Smell and memory are very important to them. Why? They sell smells.
Who do they the smells to? And how can they sell a smell? Businesses come to Vogt and Gilbert for help. Vogt and Gilbert find a smell to go with the business's product. For example, Vogt and Gilbert worked with and expensive hotel in New York City. They developed a smell like expensive cologne (科隆香水) for the hotel's owners. Then they put it in the air of the hotel hallway. Why did they choose the smell of cologne? A lot of businessmen stay at that hotel. The hotel's owners want their guests (客人) to feel like they are in an expensive men's club. And rich men wear expensive cologne.
Using smell to sell things is not new. Bakers know that the smell of baking bread brings in customers. They always make sure that people on the street can smell the baking bread. Chocolate makers do the same thing. And of course perfume (香水) makers sell smells.
In the past, only the food and perfume businesses used smell to sell their products. But today, more and more businesses are trying it, from hotels to airlines (航空公司). Some companies put a special smell on the advertisement that they send to customers. For example, one car company uses a perfume on their booklet that smells like a new car.
But do smells really sell? The answer seems to be yes. Smells become a part of our memories. And memory is important in sales, why? When customers remember the name of a product, they usually choose it again. But there are a lot of choices these days, so it isn't easy to remember product names. That's why smell is important. It helps people remember.
In the future, will different computers and televisions have different smells? Vogt and Gilbert think so. They are sure that one day, most businesses will use smell to sell