Many people might associate roses with romance novels, but in fact the smell of chocolate tempts readers to buy loved-up fiction. Researchers at Antwerp University in Belgium found that while a chocolatey smell makes people hungry to buy romance novels, it does not necessarily tempt people to buy grittier genres such as crime or business books. The scientists, who permeated a bookshop with the perfume of chocolate, also found that the scent encouraged customers to browse through titles. The government funded study found that bookshop visitors were almost six times more likely to buy a romance novel if they smelt chocolate - and the same results applied to cookery books too . They studied the behaviour of 201 customers in a popular chain bookshop over ten days to find that customers were 3.5 times more likely to pick up romance novels when they smelt chocolate, The Guardian reported. The government funded study also found that bookshop visitors were almost six times more likely to buy a romance novel - and the same results applied to cookery books too. Belgium scientists found the smell of chocolate makes people buy romance books written by novelists such as Dame Barbara Cartland (pictured) Lieve Douché, who led the study told the newspaper: 'When consumers smell chocolate, concepts . associated with chocolate, such as cooking, become more readily . accessible to the consumer's mind and cause consumers to react . differently when encountering a cookbook than if they had not smelled . chocolate.' The researchers concluded romance, food and drink books were strongly linked with the smell of chocolate, but other categories of literature were not, such as comic and graphic novels, travel, art, gardening, crime, law and business books. However, perhaps sue to the scent encouraging customers to browse and deviate from their usual purchasing habits, sales of the 'incongruent' books also increased, with customers 1.2 times more likely to buy any of the books on offer in the chain bookshop. Previous research has found that the smell of chocolate has a positive effect on a person's mood, sparking feelings of pleasure or even arousal when shopping for goods. The Belgium study said: 'The presence of a chocolate scent has a . positive influence on general approach behaviour and a negative impact . on goal-directed behaviour in the store.' Retail experts already exploit customers' sense of smell to influence their attention span and buying behaviour. The new research has taken it a step further by marrying a specific scent with products - even if the books themselves do not have a distinctive smell.
Belgium scientists flooded a bookshop with a chocolatey smell to find customers were almost six times more likely to buy a romance novel .
The government-funded study said the scent does not have a big effect on making people want to purchase travel, crime, business or comic books .
Researchers at Antwerp University said the sweet smell encouraged customers to browse and .
sales of all books rose during the experiment .
Many people might associate roses with romance novels, but in fact the smell of chocolate tempts readers to buy loved-up fiction. Researchers at Antwerp University in Belgium found that while a chocolatey smell makes people hungry to buy romance novels, it does not necessarily tempt people to buy grittier genres such as crime or business books. The scientists, who permeated a bookshop with the perfume of chocolate, also found that the scent encouraged customers to browse through titles. The government funded study found that bookshop visitors were almost six times more likely to buy a romance novel if they smelt chocolate - and the same results applied to cookery books too . They studied the behaviour of 201 customers in a popular chain bookshop over ten days to find that customers were 3.5 times more likely to pick up romance novels when they smelt chocolate, The Guardian reported. The government funded study also found that bookshop visitors were almost six times more likely to buy a romance novel - and the same results applied to cookery books too. Belgium scientists found the smell of chocolate makes people buy romance books written by novelists such as Dame Barbara Cartland (pictured) Lieve Douché, who led the study told the newspaper: 'When consumers smell chocolate, concepts . associated with chocolate, such as cooking, become more readily . accessible to the consumer's mind and cause consumers to react . differently when encountering a cookbook than if they had not smelled . chocolate.' The researchers concluded romance, food and drink books were strongly linked with the smell of chocolate, but other categories of literature were not, such as comic and graphic novels, travel, art, gardening, crime, law and business books. However, perhaps sue to the scent encouraging customers to browse and deviate from their usual purchasing habits, sales of the 'incongruent' books also increased, with customers 1.2 times more likely to buy any of the books on offer in the chain bookshop. Previous research has found that the smell of chocolate has a positive effect on a person's mood, sparking feelings of pleasure or even arousal when shopping for goods. The Belgium study said: 'The presence of a chocolate scent has a . positive influence on general approach behaviour and a negative impact . on goal-directed behaviour in the store.' Retail experts already exploit customers' sense of smell to influence their attention span and buying behaviour. The new research has taken it a step further by marrying a specific scent with products - even if the books themselves do not have a distinctive smell.
readers to buy loved-up fiction. Researchers at Antwerp University in Belgium found that while a chocolatey smell makes people hungry to buy found that the scent encouraged customers to six times more likely to buy a romance novel if that bookshop visitors were almost six times more encouraging customers to browse and deviate from when shopping for goods. The Belgium study said: the books themselves do not have a distinctive