It’s in the Wind: There’s Dollars in Scents
As entrepreneurial potential goes, the markets for olfactory engineering may not be as plain as the nose on your face. But they certainly don’t stink.
Although smell may be the one sense that most people feel they could afford to lose, that has not stopped the 50 million chemoreceptors lining your nostrils’ olfactory epithelia from becoming a treasure trove. Global sales of perfume now top $10 billion annually, and sales of industrial chemical deodorants account for billions more. There are big dollars in scents.
But how best to produce the sweet smell of success? While nature has its roses and its musks, why not go a few molecules beyond? Why not craft aromas that are biologically guaranteed to get the right neurons firing in sequence? Or, to paraphrase Kipling, build the “smells (that) are surer than sights and sounds to make your heart-strings crack.”
It’s happening. Much in the same way that genetic engineering techniques enable molecular biologists to design and build new medicines, olfactory engineering will inevitably lead to the creation of new fragrances. If you are an Estee Lauder or a Procter & Gamble, that’s nothing to sniff at. If you are an entrepreneur who wants to go beyond the aesthetic scents, the technology creates markets that have more than a whiff of potential.
Underlying this emerging sensory technology is a radically better understanding of just how the nose/brain smells. “We now know about the pathway through which odor molecules get detected and converted into electrical signals that the brain interprets,” says Randall Reed, an associate professor of molecular biology and genetics at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine who is pioneering olfactory research. “Over the last three years, we have now identified all the biochemical components of olfaction.”
Essentially, scientists have discovered that there is a direct correlation between the biochemical processes of vision and of smell. Extraordinarily sensitive receptors--capable of detecting one odorant molecule out of a billion--trigger enzymes that cascade a sequence of olfactory information to the brain. Interestingly, Reed observes, different odors take different pathways. “Pleasant ones seem to prefer one way, unpleasant ones, the other.”
Reed and other chemoreceptor scientists are trying to get a better sense of how these receptors work. “How many different kinds of receptors are there? A small handful? One per odor?” Reed asks. These scientists are still struggling to isolate the odor receptors.
If you understand receptor dynamics, however, it becomes infinitely easier to find the molecules and construct the fragrances that get these receptors excited. In other words, you can custom-tailor fragrances to tickle the nostrils with just the desired amount of muskiness or sweetness. In the argot of the perfumers, you can get your new aroma to play the right “notes” on those neurons.
Indeed, International Flavors & Fragrances, the leading American producer of specialty scents, sponsors Johns Hopkins’ department of neurosciences’ efforts to grow olfactory neurons in culture as a medium to test potentially best-smelling molecules. “These neurons will go a long way to explaining such things as receptor specificity,” says Craig B. Warren, IFF’s director of fragrance science. “This system allows us to screen molecules against the neurons. . . . It’s very promising.”
In effect, after centuries of trial-and-error fragrance design, scientists are now cracking the olfactory code that will let them design aromas-on-demand. We will be able to mix a pallet of scents with the same finesse that an artist mixes a pallet of colors. More precisely, the industry will move from the art of perfumery to olfactory engineering.
Should scientists discover pheromones that absolutely, positively arouse sexual interest, we would know exactly what receptors they impassion. With that knowledge, the biotechnologists could crank up their E. coli bacteria to mass-produce those scents. Instead of exotic perfumes such as Opium and Chanel No. 5 that dangle the potential of passion, these chemicals would deliver the goods. Sales of pheromone-spiked “colognes” would explode as males bought them not for aesthetic reasons but for lascivious intent.
What does the Food and Drug Administration do as companies market fragrances and perfumes that manipulate physiological arousal as surely as medicines heal disease?
Indeed, the shift to olfactory engineering will open up new markets, IFF’s Warren asserts. “I think there’s going to be more and more use of fragrance for mood change in the workplace.”
Warren points to work at the University of Cincinnati and other research institutions indicating that “an odorant can improve attention to a visual task”--apparently the smell of spearmint in the office can be invigorating. There is now a significant body of research on the relationships between olfaction, cognition and productivity. A Japanese construction company, Shimizu, recently offered the first computerized system to circulate fragrances within enclosed environments such as office high-rises and apartment complexes.
Who knows? Perhaps the development of “strategic aromas,” “productivity perfumes” and “functional fragrances” may spell the difference between successful workplace environments and marginal competitors. Aesthetics are not enough anymore. Maybe America, Japan and Europe will be locked in a battle for nose-share as productivity-enhancing aromas are discovered and dispersed through skyscraper air-conditioning systems in Los Angeles, Tokyo and Bonn.
Without question, strategic aromas that stimulate attention will do gangbusters in the automobile industry. The GMs, Fords, BMWs and Hondas will make “olfactory vents” an option for their cars to promote safety and a more pleasant driving experience. Automobile atmospherics could eclipse personal-use consumer products such as soaps and shampoos as the single biggest market for new aromas.
Perhaps the time is not yet ripe for exponential growth in strategic aromas and productivity perfumes. Maybe people do not yet want Muzak for their nostrils. But no matter how silly and trivial it sounds, people with a nose for profit will find a way to capitalize on the new science and technologies of smell.
