By Bernard Wysocki Jr

You are strolling past the bakery in your local shopping mall. Isn’t that the irresistable odor of fresh-baked chocolate-chip cookies wafting from the ovens?

Maybe not. International Flavors & Fragrances Inc. has succeeded in synthesizing the mouth-watering aroma not only of chocolate-chip cookies but also of hot apple pie, fresh pizza, baking ham and even non-greasy French fries.

IF&F packages the artificial odors in aerosol cans and markets them along with $25 to $30 timed-released devices that periodically fire a burst of scent out into the shopping mall to tempt customers. The sprays are selling briskly, says Ernest Kmites, IF&F’s manager of sales service, and cost the owners just “pennies a day.”

That surely makes it one of the least expensive tricks in retailing, and doubtless one of the simplest. But the persuasive arts of the merchant trade extend far beyond the use of these innocuous little odors. Many retailers are convinced that by selecting the right colors, sounds, textures and landscapes, thay can have a profound influence on the customer’s relative urge to splurge. And over the past several years, many merchants and their hired hands have honed their techniques to what they think is scientific precision.

The Mood to Buy

Take the “background music” that every restaurant, store or supermarket seems to have nowadays. Inconsequential, you say? Not according to the people at the sound-products unit of Minnesota Mining & Manufacturing Co., which supplies specially arranged music on tape to commercial establishments.

“We have been told (by retailers) it will increase impulse purchases,” says Donald Conlin, project manager of the 3M unit. He says the music system also is designed to reduce absenteeism, employee turnover and customer complaints and to increase overall business volume and profit.

Of great importance to the 3M system are the periodic silences between the tunes. Psychologists have advised, Mr.Conlin says, that when the music comes back after a silence, “that’s when people get a psychological lift.”

New York-based Muzak Corp. takes the use of psychology a step further. Muzak breaks up its tunes into 15-minute segments. During each segment, the beat, rhythm and “bigness” of the sound gradually increase, reaching a climax followed by a silent period. Officials say the tunes are arranged by a musicologist and programmed with the help of Muzak’s board of scientific advisers.

Just Being Nice.

Some critics say this is manipulative. Muzak officials disagree. “In all merchandising, there’s an effort to make things as nice as we can,” says William Wokoun, a Maryland-based psychologist and adviser to Muzak. “Flowers can be used that way. Muzak can do that too.”

Even what you can’t hear may affect your behaviour in a store. Hal C.Becker, a Louisiana-dased engineer and businessman, asserts that he has developed a “shoplifting deterrent” that works by subliminal suggestion. Mr.Becker’s device consists of a background-music tape with a voice superimposed upon the tape. The voice wispers the phrase “I am honest, I do not steal” thousands of times an hour as the tape is broadcast throughout the store. Mr. Becker says only the unconscious self can hear the voice.

Mr. Becker already has some critics. The American Civil Liberties Union says it takes a dim view of his work. “We are very skeptical ans suspicious of anything that imposes outside control on behaviour,” says Jack Novik, the ACLU’s national staff councel.

Many academicians say that “shoplifting deterrent” is utter nonsense. Others say there isn’t any way to tell whether it works. Jay Russo, a professor at the University of Chicago’s gradual school of business, says all studies of subliminal suggestion are inconclusive. “It’s an open issue,” he says. “It won’t die, but evey time you do research, it disappears like sand through your hands.”

Another novel device that is getting attention these days is the ion generator, which supposedly emits negatively charged particles, or ions, into the air. People who breathe the ionized air are said to feel more alert, energetic and comfortable. The ionizer

has quite a few believers, around the world and here in the U.S., principally in California. Among them is Victor Bergeron, chairman of Trader Vic’s Inc., a restaurant chain in San Francisco.

Mr. Bergeron says he has installed ion generators in his home, his office and at least one at his 21 restaurants. “The help have come to me and said, ‘Vic, don’t take the ionizers out of here. We don’t go home tired anymore. We go home refreshed,’ ” he says. What is more, Mr. Bergeron says, employees contend that “the customers are more pleasant” since the generators were installed.

The Big Color

Don Watt & Associates Ltd., a consulting firm in Toronto, says it has found a powerful marketing tool in the clever use of the color yellow. Don Watt says that the” philosophy of big yellow” was conceived a few years ago for Loblaws Ltd., the big Canadian supermarket chain, to strengthen the company’s image as a bargin hunter’s paradise.

First, Loblaws bagan puttin all “feature-price” items under big yellow signs that said “save.” Next, it put all advertised items in a single isle and hung yellow “save” signs overhead. In 1977, the store began putting all of its generic foods in yellow packages. “In 1975, we had introduced generics in black and white packages. They were a failure,” Mr. Watt says, but the yellow containers were a success.

Recently, Loblaws began opening no-frill supermarkets in Canada, painting the stores yellow. Again, success. The latest tactic is to put more ordinary merchandise in yellow packages.

Mr.Watt says the campaign draws on two psycological facts. First, he contends, yellow is striking and highly visible to the eye. Second, he and other psychologists say that yellow has “negative associations,” meaning it connotes an image of cheapness. That was precisely the image that Loblaws wanted to convey.

Some even argue that a consumer’s sense of space can affect his predisposition to buy. Albert Mehrabian, a psychology profesor at the University of California at Los Angeles, believes that high-density, mob-like places are where consumers are most likely to let go, provided the crowding is pleasant rather than oppressive. He says bazaars, fairs and the basement of Filene’s department store in Boston are classic examples of what he is talking about.