You probably know by now that retailers have for years helped you spend extra money in their shops just by pumping a scent down a particular aisle or throughout their building.

Just pop into your local supermarket and even though the fresh bakery shelves are well stocked with goodies for you to buy, they continue to bake even more especially during the busy periods, encouraging you to linger that little while longer and make the purchase.

It isn’t just baking companies that hold the monopoly over this, walk into a new car showroom, an Apple store or even a furniture shop and they are all at it. It’s not a sensory overload though, more of a gentle sprinkle of aroma designed to envoke a reaction or memory.

If decoration, staging and marketing are all essential in producing a desired reaction from a potential purchaser, why not assist with an aromatic ‘whiff’ that takes them down memory lane and reminds them of ‘home’ over the years.

The ‘Whiffs’

Coffee – Freshly baked bread – Vanilla – Cinnamon – Citrus fruits – Herbs – Flowers and plants – Fresh Air.

OK, so you’re not going to bake a fresh loaf for every single viewing you have, but if you have a block viewing of four or five over an hour, why not put a part baked loaf in the oven and let it rest in a basket, partially covered with a cloth napkin? Ground coffee in a conveniently open topped  container, home made citrus fruit potpourri or just great smelling flowers around the home. Let the scent impact on the viewer at a subconscious level, rather than slap them around the face.

The ‘Buts’

Fried food – Roast dinners – Cigarettes – Incense sticks – Oil burners – Furniture polish – Bleach – Air fresheners.

Most of the above are designed to help you mask other odours  around the home or to set a specific mood (except for the first three), the issue I have with incense and oil burners are that they can be far to over powering and work against you, the same goes for polish and bleach and whilst they are essential to cleaning your home they do give a somewhat sanitary tang to your home. The smell of food lingering around the home provokes the wrong memories and just leaves the viewer feeling hungry, after all if the waft of a distant BBQ rises over your garden fence you don’t want to buy it, you just want to eat.