Scent and sustainability: investigating consumer evaluations of biocatalysis and naturalness in fragrances

Abstract

With growing global environmental concerns, consumer acceptance of new technologies or innovation-derived products can be tied strongly with how natural the latter are perceived to be. A prior study found that fragrances were evaluated more positively if participants were informed that the fragrances were of natural origin. This led the authors to conclude that the perceived naturalness of a fragrance activates a positive effect, similar as for other consumer products. However, obtaining fragrant molecules from natural sources can pose a strain on the environment and biotechnology-based fragrances could potentially improve the sustainability of the perfumery industry. The primary goal of this study was to extent the findings of this initial study with a focus on biocatalysis-based fragrances. For this, a laboratory experiment was conducted with a 3x2x2 mixed design: participants smelled either three fragrances of natural origin or three biocatalysis-based fragrances and were either informed or not informed about the origin of the fragrances. In contrast to expectations, no consistent positive effect of natural origin or negative effect of biocatalysis-based origin of fragrances was found in our study. The results suggest that the participants were open to novel production methods in the fragrance industry. The discussion comprises a methodological comparison to the prior study, alternative explanations for these findings, and discusses insights for the fragrance industry and future research. Further research is needed to fully understand the complex factors that shape consumer behaviour in the fragrance industry.