Marketing scents and the anthropology of smell*

Abstract

This paper examines the situated meanings of smell in the production and consumption of incense in Japan. Arguing that neither anthropology nor marketing – in spite of certain shared methodological and theoretical concerns – has been particularly successful in examining smell itself (as opposed to the socio‐cultural aspects thereof), the paper shows how both incense manufacturers and retailers need to consider factors – like colour coordination, packaging and naming – that are extraneous to smell and incorporate them into their practices in order to create and sustain olfactory taste among contemporary Japanese.

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