Taste and Smell: Sample Your Product With Scent

Taste and smell are undeniably linked. Together, the two senses are referred to as the chemosensory system; they both use the same process to give the brain information. As a result, you can use smell to sample the flavour of your food or beverage. Use scent marketing to taste your product, without actually having to taste it!

Have you noticed that when you are sick with a cold, food tastes different even though only your sense of smell is impaired? Ever heard of the saying, “half the taste is in the smell”? Well, it’s not wrong. Smell and taste are so closely linked that when smell is impaired, you are only using your sense of taste when eating food. Moreover, you use a combination of smell and taste to experience a food’s flavour. Many say that somewhere between 75 and 95% of what we commonly think of as taste actually comes from the sense of smell. When used together, the interactions between smell and taste greatly enhance the food we eat.

According to Steven D. Munger, Ph.D., and Associate Director of the Center for Smell and Taste at the University of Florida, here’s what happens when eating:

“When you eat something, your tongue detects chemicals in the food that elicit one or more five basic tastes. Odors from the food pass through the back of your mouth to your nose. Your brain combines those signals to give you a perception of flavor. In the absence of a functional sense of smell, you are missing a huge amount of flavor complexity.”

Read More: 5 Interesting Facts About Smell You Probably Don’t Know.

This presents a great opportunity for your brand to have consumers try the most critical part of your product: the flavour! From what we just learned above, you can use scent to sample the taste. According to New York Institute of Research, 81% of consumers would rather choose a product they could smell and see over the one they could only see.By using scent sampling, you can create cravings while generating a positive emotional responses, driving consumers to try your product.

Here are a couple of examples of ways you can activate flavours with scent:

Learn more about our Scented Out of Home Solutions.