Does Scent Enhance Consumer Product Memories?

This article on Science daily talks about how consumer remember scented products than unscented ones. Aradhna Krishna (University of Michigan), May Lwin (Nanyang Technological University, Singapore), and Maureen Morrin (Rutgers University) suggest that product scent may be effective at enhancing meomory for product information because the scent enhance a product's distinctiveness in the market. There was an experiment where 151 participants evaluate pencils that were unscented, scented with pine scent (common), or scented with tea tree scent (uncommon). The study result suggest that the momory for the scented pencils is much greater than the unscented ones, especially after a time delay. They also found that participants' memory of the uncommonly (tea tree) scented pencils was more resistant to decay. I found this article relevant to our daily lives as scent is such an important factor in buying things. Once we found a scent we like, say a shampoo or body wash, we tend to buy that product again in a long run. Personally I would buy product with better scent even if it's more expensive than the others. This study is important for product developers and companys, because most compulsive buyers fall for these kind of marketing tricks.