Marketers are always looking for new ways to get noticed, and new technology holds the promise of appealing to -- or at least triggering -- all five senses. Packages may blink, beep, yell and waft scents at shoppers.

But aroma seems to offer the biggest payoff.

Companies are incorporating scents directly into plastic bags and bottles, so consumers can smell shampoo or chocolate without opening the packaging. New scented ink uses technology that goes beyond scratch and sniff.

"Consumers have to be given a good reason to buy a product," said Chris Lyons, publisher of Package Design Magazine. "Certainly, knowing or having a sense of what it smells like can help that."

Olfactory scientists say using scent is smart marketing.

"The olfactory system, anatomically, is right in the middle of the part of the brain that's very important for memory," said Donald Wilson, a neurobiologist who studies olfaction at the University of Oklahoma. "There are strong neural connections between the two."

The nose is closely associated with the autonomic nervous system, he said, and the slightest scents can trigger subconscious physical responses.

"Odors can change your heart rate; odors can cause you to start salivating," he said. "You know that smell means cookies, and there's a very short link from the parts of the brain that control those things."

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