Citroen's banking on sense of scent

The C4 arrives in New Zealand soon.

It's called Olfactory marketing and started back in the 1980s when British supermarkets discovered that if they had a bakery in a supermarket that blew the smell of fresh baking bread back into the store, not only did they sell more bread, they also sold more food as a whole.

French carmaker Citroen is now set to follow the bakers with the launch in New Zealand in a couple of months of the C4 model, which offers as standard a scent-diffuser in the ventilation system and a range of nine different scents.

Citroen based its decision to include the scent on research that showed smells can have a significant effect on mood and sense of well being. The perfume also is conducive to safe driving, it says.

"The sense of smell has, at best, been ignored and more frequently negated by car makers," says Oliver Lehmann, the marketing project leader for the C4 perfume diffuser programme.

"The usual idea is to prevent any odours coming through the interior and yet sales of car air-fresheners are booming. We were determined to address this paradox in the Citroen C4."

Citroen tested the market in France with a special-edition hatchback C3 model in 2003, twhich offered five difference fragrances based on the theme of Feng Shui.

Not only did the demand for the special edition exceed all expectations, it was clear that the main attraction of the C3 was its perfume pack.

"It was immediately clear that the perfume diffuser was a product that was out of the ordinary, with strong innovative potential," said Lehmann.

There are nine different fragrances available for the new Citroën C4, split into three groups:

* Vitality: mint and musk; jasmine and mimosa; citrus and passion.

* Travel: vanilla; cinnamon and ginger; amber and sandalwood.

* Well-being: lotus flower; soft lavender; ylang and bamboo.