It Smells Nice in Here and I Want to Buy More Stuff

That slight scent that tickles your fancy in the Sony area of the electronics store is vanilla. Or it's mandarin or bourbon or one of a host of secret ingredients. What it isn't is an accident.

Sony admits that it is in pursuit of giving its customers a pleasing time while they're browsing through the layers of powerful, sleek, time-diverting products that they usually have on offer. So Sony, always one to increase its fanbase and its market share, have gone to a company that specializes in scents, in order to keep customers in the store longer and keep them coming back.

Why the vanilla, though? Well, research shows that that scent is particularly pleasing to women. (We're probably talking about more of a candle-like scent here, rather than the baking vanilla variety.) The scent is subtle enough so as to not be confused with perfume, but it is there, along with the mandarin, so that women can feel comforted by at least one thing while they're looking for the latest form of entertainment for themselves, their friends or family.

Remember that bourbon smell among the named ingredients? That's in there for the men, who, on average, need much less encouragement for continuing to browse among high-powered electronics.

The mandarin, for both genders, suggests a bit of class (which we all have, of course, to varying degrees).

Recent studies have shown that Sony is on to something. One study out of the University of Michigan has found that people remembered more about products they saw in scented areas than about products they saw in areas with no (intended) scents.

Another scent commonly listed in these circles is lavender, which has been proven to slow down the human heartbeat just a fraction, enough to make us feel like we want to linger.

That idea of lingering is probably behind a well-known Vegas casino's strategy of releasing the aroma of coconut into the air, in an attempt to make casino patrons feel more comfortable, more at ease, more willing to part with their money, again.

This is what it's all about, really. Sony is, after all, after your money and my money and the money of the people who live across the street. The same goes for the coconut-scented casino and the car dealer whose used cars always smell the nicest and the hopeful homeseller who always bakes chocolate chip cookies just before the open house.

Still, as a consumer, it's nice to be pampered, especially when it involves exchanging money for things.