What's in a scent? Meaning, shape, and sensorial concepts elicited by scents

Abstract

When selecting an ambient scent to be diffused in a store, one can focus on pleasantness of the scent, congruency of the scent with product category, or a variety of concepts that can be the basis for congruency between scent and other atmospheric elements. However, more information is needed concerning the concepts from which congruency could be sought. This paper studies the strength and direction of 19 bipolar concepts related to meaning, perceived shape and sensory attributes elicited by 32 scents. Factor analysis indicates that the concepts can be grouped into four factors: an angelic, an energetic, a shape, and a depth factor. Cluster analysis indicates that the 32 scents can be grouped based on differences in strength as well as direction of the elicitations. The results indicate that certain concepts do co-occur and that a classification of scents based on their similar elicitations of concepts might be of value.