Use Smell to Make a Sale - But Only Certain Smells

It’s common practice for real estate agents to pop baked goods in the oven before an open house, or light some fragrant candles to create an aromatic environment.

“They always tell you to take a bunch of cookie dough and shove it in the oven, so long as it doesn’t burn,” says Adorna Occhialini Carroll, president of the realty training and consulting firm Dynamic Directions. “I like pumpkin pie, butter cookies, anything that has that great combination of spices and gives you the impression of being at home.”

New research suggests, however, that these kinds of complex smells hurt, not help, sales.

The reason, according to Eric Spangenberg of Washington State University, is because consumers get distracted in trying to determine and identify complex scents. He recommends using simple but pleasing options such as lemon, vanilla, pine, green tea, cedar and basil, while avoiding potpourri, baked goods and gourmet foods.

Spangenberg’s research found that shoppers in a Swiss home-decor retailer spent 31.8 percent more time there when the store was scented with a simple orange smell, compared to a complex blend of orange, basil and green tea.

In addition to selecting a simple aroma, he says the smell must match the kind of property being sold – cedar for a mountain home, perhaps, but not a cottage at the beach.

You need to use a scent that buyers will associate with a home’s environment, he says. “It must be simple and positive and congruent.”










 








Source: Wall Street Journal (02/15/13) Tanaka, Sanette

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