http://myemail.constantcontact.com/THE-LEARNING-ANNEX-presents-HOW-TO-CREATE-YOUR-OWN-PERFUME-with-Sue-Phillips.html?soid=1102408009431&aid=tlRl3GvtA-0

http://myemail.constantcontact.com/THE-LEARNING-ANNEX-presents-HOW-TO-CREATE-YOUR-OWN-PERFUME-with-Sue-Phillips.html?soid=1102408009431&aid=tlRl3GvtA-0

The Smell of New Zealand

According to a survey conducted for Ambi Pur, the smell of salt air epitomizes New Zealand the best. Runners up included the smell of sheep and dairy farming, fish and chips and a hangi cooking (this is a native New Zealand method of cooking food by burying it in the ground with hot rocks).

Kiwis typically spend their holidays at the beach, so the smell is usually associated with pleasant memories.

Over three quarters of those surveyed use air freshening products, and the preferred scent for them is vanilla.

SCENTFULLY YOURS: Preview "Fall is here and you can change your fragrance just as the seasons change!"

SCENTFULLY YOURS: Preview "Fall is here and you can change your fragrance just as the seasons change!"

Are You One of the Lucky Winners of the "Love Is in the Air" Giveaway?

The Independent Aroma Group is happy to announce the names of the lucky winners of our "Love Is in the Air" Giveaway. This concludes our giveaway, and we thank all of you who participated.

May - Danyel Gafsou, of Via Scent in Israel is the winner of a Scentevents kit, complete with diffusing fan and three scented bead pouches. The Scentevents kit is a great, affordable solution to scent parties, meetings, entertainment and other events. Thank you to Scentevents for donating this prize.




June - Mindaugas Stongvilas, from LT Kvapai in Lithuania is the winner of an Aromasol scent diffuser, valued at $160. Great for home or retail store use, this diffuser has a built in timer and intensity dial and covers an area of 300 square meters. Thank you to Air Esscentials for donating this prize.



July - Stu Levinson, from Unimac Graphics in the US is the happy winner of free admission to ScentWorld Expo, a $999 value. ScentWorld is the largest scent and sensory marketing conference in the world, and features world renowned experts speaking on topics such as the latest research, technology and scent applications.


August - Marian Coman from Framinor Grup SRL in Romania is the winner of a signature scent created by Alpha Aromatics, a $2,500 value! Alpha Aromatics is a boutique fragrance house, where personal service and attention is an integral part of any fragrance creation project. In fact, Chief Perfumer Roger Howell is personally involved in each and every fragrance. Thank you, Alpha Aromatics.



Congratulations to all of our lucky winners! We hope to see all of you at our booth at ScentWorld Expo.

Whether you won the giveaway or not, I encourage you to check out on our site, www.independentaromagroup.com, for more useful information about how you can work with top scent manufacturers and worldwide distributors to boost your business.

British Airways to Fly High With Signature Scent

British Airways has announced that it will be using scent branding on its flights to "improve the experience on board [their] aircraft," according to a statement from the airline. In addition to making the flight more enjoyable, the signature scent is meant to stimulate passengers' recollection of their positive experience on BA. The scent is part of British Airways' new marketing campaign, "Making Flying Special."

BA has been interested in scent for a long time. In 2008, their travel site High Life featured an article called Scents of Destination, about wearing personal fragrance in different locations. In fact, since at 1999, British Airways has been scenting its business class lounge at Heathrow Airport with the smell of freshly cut grass and the ocean. BA was also a sponsor of the Fragrance Foundation's 2011 Jasmine Awards. It was only natural for them to take the leap into in cabin scent marketing.

British Airways is not the first airline to use scent on its flights. Singapore Airlines has been doing so for the past 18 years. Their signature scent, Stefan Floridian Waters, is delivered via fragrant hot towels given to passengers as well as in the perfume worn by flight attendants. Along with other components of their strategy, Singapore Airlines' scent marketing has helped them build one of the strongest and most distinctive brands in commercial aviation.

New Technology Delivers Scent at POS and Beyond

Scentevents has come out with a new computer controlled technology to deliver multiple scents on cue, activated by motion sensor or requested by the user. The patent pending device, which is commercially available now, is called the 4D scent media player.

The 4D scent player can work with scent diffusion devices provided by ScentEvents or with third party diffusers. The idea is that large brands can integrate the power of scent into their other marketing communications. For example, a company can set up a free standing kiosk in a mall or other public area that runs an ad or video or even a series of them for different products. The scent can be timed to coincide with the image on the screen to emphasize the visual and audio marketing message. Another option is to allow the user to interactively choose the scent they want to smell. Or, depending on the location and application of the system, the scents can be placed on a loop so that they are released on a timer. Different smells can be combined to create a large range of fragrances in the same device.

The natural product for this device is perfumes and scented personal products, since it would allow customers to sample the scents before buying, and thereby spur more sales. However, its uses are limited only by the imagination.

We know that scent is uniquely effective in provoking memories and emotion. Travel companies like cruise lines, resorts and airlines can incorporate the smell of seasonal destinations (pina colada, salt air, refreshing cold air for ski resorts, etc.). Hotels can use their signature scents, reminding previous guests of their stays and inducing a feeling in keeping with the hotel's ambiance and branding. Restaurants can make patrons hungry using tempting food smells, and malls can increase holiday spending with pine and other seasonal scents.

You can contact Scentevents for more information and pricing.

A Whiff of the Past

Our everyday life is experienced using all of our senses. Yet when we learn about the past, it is usually only through the senses of sight and sometimes hearing. But that is about to change, as sensory historians bring smells from the past to life.

Perfumer Christophe Laudamiel told the Boston Globe, "Scents are very much linked to memory. They are linked to remembering the past but also learning from experiences." Historians are now using technology to recreate smells that can give us insight into how people lived their lives. For example, history buffs can discover how women viewed themselves and their femininity in 1927 by sampling the jasmine and leather notes in a popular Chanel perfume and can compare that to today's perfumes to see how their views have changed.

Another perfumer, Roman Kaiser, has been traveling the world to capture the scents of plants that are close to extinction. These scents have been captured and reproduced synthetically by his employer, fragrance house Givaudan. The fragrances can be used commercially, but also can be studied by botanists to give them clues about the evolutionary and ecological journey of that particular plant.

Other perfumers are preserving and recreating scents from the past. One organization in France, Osmotheque, keeps many of these historically important fragrances for posterity. New perfumes can be based from these fragrances, like the perfume Kiss Me Tender, which was inspired by a perfume from the 19th century. Laudamiel is working to bring this historical fragrance project to the US. This cutting edge perfumer will be speaking at ScentWorld this December.

Some historical museums imbue the scents of the time into their exhibits. The Jorvik Viking Center in York, England does just that, exposing visitors to the odors of a fish market and a latrine. Bonn University's Egyptian Museum is working to recreate a pharaoh's perfume from the residue in a 3,500 year old bottle. While it is impossible to know what the people of the past felt or associated with the scents of their time, the addition of fragrance can at least give us a more complete understanding and experience of our history.

Are You Missing the Point (of Sale)?

Companies spend millions of dollars on television, radio and print ads to drive customers into the stores to buy their products. But did you know that up to 80% of purchase decisions are made at the point of sale?

Major brands are starting to pick up on this reality and realign their spending accordingly. A recent study for the Grocery Manufacturers of America showed that some brands are spending more money on point of sale, or shopper marketing, than on digital marketing. In fact, there is a whole new specialty called shopper marketing, that asserts that companies should focus first on what goes on inside the store and then work backwards from there. Large ad agencies, such as Saatchi & Saatchi and WPP are getting in the game as well. WPP just purchased Los Angeles based POS marketing company Lunchbox, whose clients include Unilever, Walmart and Kimberly-Clark.

What does all this mean for scent marketing companies? A lot! Both ambient scenting and scented packaging are highly effective point-of-sale strategies. Work on getting new business by targeting these specialized shopper marketing agencies and making your case for adding scent to the mix.

New York Grocery Chain Implements Scent in Multiple Areas

Supermarket Chain NetCost Market has launched scent marketing in its Brooklyn and Staten Island stores, and plans to install scent machines in all of its stores.

NetCost uses specific food fragrances to stimulate sales in its different departments. The meat department has the scent of smoky bacon, while the produce area smells like grapefruit or strawberry. Managers have also tested other food scents like chocolate in the candy aisle and rosemary focaccia in the bakery and have been very happy with the results.

Sales have steadily been going up of products in the scented areas. A NetCost spokeswoman said that, "Because of the scents, I think fruit sales are up probably 7 to 8 percent." Other areas, like the bakery and candy sections were added later, and sales are climbing there too.

Spy Kids 4 Movie to Be Scented

The latest movie in the wildly successful Spy Kids franchise is going to be scented with Aromascope. Spy Kids 4: All the Time in the World, coming out in August, will be released in "4D" that is, 3D plus the element of scent.

Each ticket will come with a scratch 'n sniff card with eight numbered scents. Moviegoers will be cued onscreen with the numbers so they know when to scratch off the appropriate scents. The scent cards will be distributed free of charge to all ticketholders, regardless of whether the film is shown in 3D or 2D.

Dimension Films, which raked in over $200 million from the last Spy Kids sequel is betting that young viewers will love the extra element of interactivity. They were one of the first to pioneer the revival of 3D movies, with Spy Kids 3D: Game Over. Now, 3D movies are commonplace not only in the children's genre, but in feature films like Avalon and now with home entertainment. Will Aromascope be the next dimension in entertainment?

Scent Goes Mobile

ESI, a manufacturer of cell phone accessories, has introduced a line of scented cell phone cases. The silicone cases are scented with one of several different scents from Jelly Belly, the jelly bean candy made popular by President Reagan.

Available for iPhone, BlackBerry and iPods, the protective cases come in Very Cherry, Licorice, Blueberry, Strawberry Cheesecake or Berry Blue scents. The cases cost less than $10 and feature a scratch 'n sniff scent release.

Coming soon to the mobile phone of the not-so-distant future... Scented ring tones, so you can smell who is calling you. Find out more on the future of scent, entertainment and electronics at the ScentWorld Expo!

May Winner of "Love Is in the Air" Giveaway Chosen

The Independent Aroma Group is happy to announce our Love Is in the Air Giveaway winner for May! Of all of the people who showed us the love in May, Danyel Gafsou, of Via Scent in Israel is the lucky winner. Congratulations, Danyel!

Danyel has won a Scentevents Kit, valued at $147 US, or 495.32 shekels. Perfect for your special event, the Scent Event Kit is eco-friendly, portable and economical. It uses natural ceramic scent orb beads so there is nothing wet to deal with and no residue. It comes with three packets of beads. One scent sleeve will scent an area of 500-1000 sq.ft. (46 to 93 sq. meters) and two sleeves will scent spaces up to 2000 sq. ft. (186 sq. meters), indoors or out. Thank you to ScentEvents for providing this great prize!

Don’t forget, the Love Is in the Air Giveaway is still going on, and we have many other fabulous prizes to give away. Simply enter here. You can increase your chance of winning each time you show us the love by following us on Twitter, liking us on Facebook, connecting with us on LinkedIn, or commenting on our blog. Show us the love, and you could be our next winner!

Pleasant Fragrances Enhance Guest Stays at Hotels

Here's a great article we found about using scent marketing for hospitality. It's from the Miami Herald. Enjoy!

South Florida Hotels Discover Scents Make Sense

Five Ways to Become More Competitive

To be a successful scent marketing solution provider, you need to offer a variety of quality products, provide excellent customer service and quote competitively.

The Independent Aroma Group helps you in all of these areas and more. IAG only accepts one distributor member from each country, so contact them to see if your country is still available.


1. Save Money

• Buy direct from manufacturers of fragrances and equipment - no middleman
• Pay less for product - IAG vendors sell at guaranteed lowest prices to distributor members

2. Source Quality Products

• IAG vendors have each passed a thorough review of their products to ensure that they are of high quality
• Easily add new product lines to your offering to meet customer needs and give you up-sell and cross-sell opportunities

3. Provide Superior Customer Service

• IAG vendors have excellent customer references and are sound financially, so you can be sure they will stand behind their products and provide timely support when needed

4. Quote Competitively

• Because IAG vendors sell to you for the guaranteed lowest price, you have the flexibility to either pass the savings on to your customer or add to your profit margin
• IAG members in different countries cooperate in different deals to their mutual advantage – Sometimes, using a local provider to fulfill an order in a country outside of your own can make more sense.

5. Cooperate and Get Support

• IAG distributor members each have their own territory that does not overlap within the group, so it is easy to cooperate and share strategies without worrying that they will use it against you
• As an IAG member, you have access to our sales tools, including Powerpoint sales presentations, sell sheets and an extensive scent-related photo library

Ready to become more competitive? Join IAG!

Nightclub Scenting Replaces Cigarette Smell

Clubs worldwide are faced with a smelly dilemma. In the old days, nightclubs smelled like cigarette smoke, but in many entertainment venues, smoking has been banned. You might think this is a good thing, since most people agree that cigarette smoke smells bad. However, without the strong masking odor of smoke, a lot of other even less pleasant odors are noticeable including body odor, stale beer and vomit.

Researchers in the Netherlands decided to test how people would respond to ambient scenting in nightclubs since club owners are looking for a solution to their smelly situation. They infused three different scents into separate dance clubs: orange, peppermint and seawater, and compared results to the same clubs in an unscented condition. About 850 young club goers were given short questionnaires asking them to rate the quality of the evening, the music, the club and their feelings.

Consistently, those in the scented environment reported that the music was better, the club was more fun, and their mood was more cheerful than in the unscented clubs. Scent also increased the dancing activity in the clubs. The researchers were surprised to see that there was no significant difference between reactions to the different scents; all of the scents had roughly the same effect.

The scientists concluded that ambient scenting is somthing that nightclub owners can use to differentiate themselves from competitors, increase visitor return rate and boost revenue. Scents should correlate with the lights and music, so that high arousal music is paired with stimulating scent. Some innovative clubs are now using "aroma jockeys" who generate and disperse multiple smells throughout the evening that are congruent with the music that is playing.

New Australian Stamp Scented With Eucalyptus

This month, Australia is going to release a new postage stamp scented with eucalyptus, a native plant down under. The scent could potentially liven up the hobby of stamp collectors as well as effectively promote local agriculture to recipients of mail using the scented stamp.

The Australia Post had been planning a horticultural series, highlighting products derived from native plants including eucalyptus oil, tea tree oil, bush honey and macadamia nuts when it was pitched on the scented stamp idea by a print firm named Ego. It was a natural for the Post to add the distinctive scent of eucalyptus to the planned design.

Ego used a process it calls Scentprint whereby the scent is encapsulated into tiny bubbles in a printable varnish. It is meant to be long lasting, only releasing the scent when the surface is rubbed. The company had previously used this technology to add appeal to magazine covers.

Tests were done to ensure that the gum and paper would not be adversely effected by the special varnish, and that it was completely safe for people to smell, lick and touch.

Love Is in the Air

Are you a scent enthusiast? Do you like to keep on top of the latest scent technology, trends, news and strategies? Do you like to win free stuff?

Of course you do, and here's your chance to combine your love of fragrance and your love of winning! The Independent Aroma Group is happy to announce our "Love Is in the Air" Giveaway.

We thought it is high time we show you some of the love that you have shown to IAG, so...

You could win:

• Free admission to ScentWorld Expo, a $999 value
  
• Creation of a signature scent for your business, a $500 value
  
• An Aromasol cold air scent diffuser, a $160 value
  

The way it works is simple:

1. Fill out the short form to enter.
2. For additional chances to win, comment on this blog, like us on Facebook, connect with us on LinkedIn, and follow us on Twitter. Each action will give you another entry to win a prize.
3. A winner will be drawn each month, from May through July

Show us the love! What goes around comes around...

Sniff Your Way to Profits

I am delighted to be writing my first blog for Scent Marketing Today, and thank Tony for this opportunity.

At my recent presentations for the Luxury Marketing Council in Tampa, West Palm Beach and Miami, I showcased Environmental Scenting Technology, and my focus was all about "Celebrating the Senses". I was delighted to see Spence Levy from Air Esscentials and his colleagues at my Miami presentation.

Many people from all industries are fascinated about the subject of fragrance, but some are a little leery about it because they don't really know much about it or understand it. Today, Scent Marketing is the new branding frontier, and it is a growing industry!

Our sense of smell is the strongest sense that we have after sight and yet it is the most ignored! Without our sense of smell we can’t enjoy food because scent and taste are so intertwined, and as a result people get depressed and their lifestyle becomes severely impacted.

Many Fortune 500 companies are now recognizing the power of scent, and as a result are ‘scent-branding’ their properties to create a memorable experience for their guests, and to ensure return visits to their casinos, hotels, spas, and retail stores. Even corporate event planners are utilizing scent to create a multi-sensory experience for their guests, and are incorporating ambient aromas for themed weddings, events, and special occasions.

Supermarkets are now enticing customers to buy food by incorporating environmental scent in the air.. and much like the Pavlovian response....when you smell the tantalizing aromas of coffee, delicious roast chickens and scrumptious deserts, the cash registers reflect that craving and start to ring as consumers purchase those items.

Today, ambient scenting can be programmed into individual hotel rooms! By selecting your desired scent when you check in at the front desk of an hotel, you can let them know what fragrance you like, and it can be controlled and activated from the front desk so that when you walk into your room, your favorite scent is already wafting in the room! This is an initiative that has already begun in Paris and we are bringing it to the USA. Talk about customization and establishing a home-away-from home ambience!

This particular technology was developed in France by whiz guru Yvan Regeard of Exhalia and Scenterprises Ltd is the USA partner. Our environmental scent presentation is compelling and the product is amazing. We can deliver fragrance though computers, DVD’s, videos and television. Yes! We have Scent-o-Vision in a delivery system that offers amazing aromas for all kinds of interactive, multi-sensory video games, computer programs and TV cooking shows. We have interest from every major fragrance company and also from national Television shows for this application.

We offer 3 product lines to diffuse perfume interactively in association with multimedia contents:

• Scent Marketing products- for fragrance sampling; point of purchase programs, and store events;

• Hospitality Systems product line - Systems for olfactory marketing professionals and for air treatment,

• Home Systems product line-- wonderful ambient home systems

Today there are many wonderful delivery systems from a range of companies for all types of spaces: small, large and medium areas. There are nebulizers which diffuse liquid into vapor which is barely discernible; diffusion through scented pellets with fans; saturated pads that are placed in scent cubes where the air flow draws in the air and then diffuses it through the fan; scented gels which are diffused through digital scent technology through which the scent is synchronized with software and activated via the sound and images in videos and TV television.

The digital world is realizing that the use of fragrance for interactive video games such as “World of Warcraft”, TV cooking channels and flower and garden shows are much more experiential if the viewer can actually smell the wonderful aromas from their computers, DVD’s, videos and television.

Read my articles on environmental scenting in the following magazines:

GLOW BEAUTY MAGAZINE
http://viewer.zmags.com/publication/5f7fa368#/5f7fa368/124

VUVUZELA MAGAZINE
http://www.vuvuzelamagazine.com/magazine/index.html
see page 26

SCENT MARKETING HAPPI MAGAZINE
http://www.happi.com/expertsopinion/2011/03/03/scent_marketing

My recent interview on blog talk radio by Karen Krymski from “Women Power Up” discussed the world of scenting. It was broadcast live on April 12 and can be downloaded and listened to at your leisure at: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/womenpowerup. Log onto Scent Branding Discussion with Sue Phillips.

Fragrance, aroma, scent, perfume….. Whichever name you give it, it is the new marketing frontier for branding, and goes beyond just applying it to a lady’s wrists or pulse-points! It is the most powerful sense we have that triggers memories and emotions. Today, fragrance can seduce us personally and environmentally!

Inhale, apply, enjoy and you and your clients will also sniff their way to profits!!!


Scentfully,
Sue
President, Scenterprises
http://www.scenterprises.com/
sue@scenterprises.com

Hungry Yet?

A new study, published in the Journal of Texture Studies, has shown that merely showing pictures of food is not sufficient to produce that mouthwatering sensation that causes people to seek food. Although animals, most notably Pavlov's dogs, will salivate at the thought or anticipation of food, researchers found that the same does not hold true for humans.

When it comes to people, a picture alone is not enough to create that craving for food. The reason, according to the scientists, is that a visual representation is not real enough to convince the brain that food is imminent.

What does this mean for marketers?

If you are promoting a restaurant, catering company, grocery store or other food-related product or service, your marketing would be much more effective if you incorporate the sense of smell. There are many different ways to do this, including scented ink, scented paper, scratch 'n sniff technology and scent strips. Contact IAG to see how joining can get you the best price on scent marketing for your food products.

Scratch 'N Sniff Card Enhances TV Show

BBC in the United Kingdom has partnered with The Aroma Co. to distribute scratch 'n sniff cards to go with their new television show, Filthy Cities. The show will show viewers what it was like in European cities of the past before widespread sanitation.

Residents and visitors to these cities hundreds of years ago had to deal with rotting corpses, bedpans, sewage and a variety of other unpleasant smells. These smells can now come to life to modern viewers thanks to the scratch 'n sniff cards that BBC and the Aroma Co. will be distributing throughout local UK libraries. The cards will be available April 1st.

Billed as "smellovision" this is the first time that smell will be available to the small screen in this low-tech format. BBC is betting that the cards will spark interest in the program and that viewers will be willing to subject themselves to the noxious odors from the past.

Smells Like Lithuania

Lithuania is the first country to come out with a national scent. The scent is meant to invoke the entire history and character of the Baltic nation and its people.

According to its website, the Scent of Lithuania's top notes of bergamot, wild flower , ginger, raspberry, red berries and grapefruit convey the green natural resources, "cozy" cities and energetic people. The floral middle notes, lily of the valley, lilac and rose pay tribute to the country's history and traditions. The woody base notes of amber, tree moss, cedar, sandalwood, patchouli, musk and tree smoke symbolize Lithuania's achievements, including its language, size, and religious tolerance.

The website sells the scent, so you can bring home a little bit of Lithuania. It sells a 25 ml bottle for 28.67 Euros and is intended for ambient scenting.

Since the Independent Aroma Group is an international organization, I would like to put it out to you... If you were to create a scent for your country, what would it smell like? Comment below with your answers.

Are Popular Scents Too Feminine?

The top scents used in scent marketing are vanilla, lavender, citrus and florals, and they do work to increase sales. But are they too feminine? Research shows that men and women have different preferences when it comes to scents. Women's sense of smell is also better than that of men.

Scentsy, a flameless candle company, has a line that it markets to men on the premise that men prefer more woodsy, rich aromas instead of lighter floral and fruit smells. The most popular of their men's line is Hemingway, which includes ripe apples, spice, sandlewood and cedar. Their other men's scents are Embers (amber, bergamot and cedar), Route 66 (citrus, herbs and musk), Echo (spice notes, Mediterranean citrus, blood orange and herbs) and Sharp Dressed Man (grapefruit, lemon, eucalyptus and basil).

An American teen has taken it one step further, with a line of candles for men he has created called ManCans. The thirteen-year-old discovered that he couldn't stand the "girly" scents of the candles his sister was sellling for a school fundraiser, so he decided to make his own with manly smells. His scents include bacon, freshly cut grass, and buttered popcorn. He launched his company in November 2010, and so far, has sold 675 candles for $5 each. Keep an eye out for his upcoming scents: pizza, money to burn, cracker jack and dirt.

Scents Can Help Residents of Nursing Homes and Assisted Living Facilities

Because scent recalls memories and affects mood, it can be very beneficial for senior citizens who live in nursing homes and assisted living facilities. These facilities, in general, tend to have a musty, hospital type smell which contributes to the low spirits of their residents. A scent solution, whether it is limited to certain areas or is connected to the air conditioning system, can help. Although the sense of smell diminishes somewhat with age, it is still a powerful way to reach those who are infirm, and even those with severe dementia. For patients with Alzheimer's, more recent memory is usually impaired, but older memories may still be available.

In a study, researchers found that 86.8% of those born after 1930 had olfactory-evoked recall, and 61.3% of older respondents who were born before 1930. (Nostalgia: A Neuropsychiatric Understanding; Alan R. Hirsch 1992)

Although the most common memory-related scent is baked goods, nostalgic scents tend to differ by region where the respondents grew up. For those on the east coast of the US, it was flowers; south - fresh air, midwest - farm animals and west coast - barbecued meat brought the memories flooding back. In other countries, scents particular to those regions did the same.

Other scents that can be used in the nursing home setting include citrus to improve mood and lavender to calm agitated residents.

Using Scent in Advertising - Mitsubishi Case Study

Sales Are Depressed When Consumers Feel Pigeonholed…But Scent Can Help

A recent study from the University of Minnesota, Yonsei Universtity in Korea, and Concordia University, Montreal found that when consumers are concerned about feeling stereotyped, they buy less. Consumers who are members of a group that are subject to a negative stereotype hesitate to buy from those company representatives who are outside the group.

The study focused on women as the group and brought up the stereotype “women aren’t good at math” before the subjects were to meet with a financial advisor. Sales were lower when these women met with men as opposed to with women. The researchers found that the subjects did not even have to believe in the stereotype themselves, but merely be aware that there was one that they might be judged by.

The experiment was repeated with auto repair and auto purchases with the stereotype of “women don’t know about cars,” with the same result. Subjects reported higher anxiety when meeting with a sales person outside of their group (females), and were reluctant to purchase.

Interestingly, the presence of a soothing scent, in this case vanilla, relieved the subjects’ anxiety and neutralized the anxiety caused by the anticipation of being stereotyped.

The lesson for companies trying to sell to people who may feel pigeonholed? Be proactive and calm their anxieties using scent. You’ll see a big boost to your bottom line!

Can Fragrance Make Us Better People?

A four-week study in the Netherlands found that the scent of oranges calmed violent criminals, and resulted in less aggression and fewer fights.

The head of police social services in Rotterdam, Herma Heester, said: "It's amazing, fighting in the cells has been dramatically reduced and we are using 10 per cent fewer sedation drugs". ("Violent Criminals Calmed by Scent of Oranges" The Telegraph, Feb. 23, 2011)

Another study found that people in scented environments are more likely to help a stranger. When exposed to pleasant odors, such as baking cookies or roasting coffee, people in a large shopping mall were more likely to help someone by retrieving a dropped pen or providing change for a dollar than in an unscented environment. Participants also reported being in a better mood in the presence of scent. (Study: "The Sweet Smell of...Helping: Effects of Pleasant Ambient Fragrance on Prosocial Behavior in Shopping Malls" by Robert A. Baron, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute)


The use of scent for social reasons has almost unlimited applications. Imagine using a pleasant scent in preschools to encourage cooperation, in airports to reduce anxiety, and at charity functions to boost fundraising. Scent...it's not just for selling anymore!

Study Identifies Women's Scent Preferences by Region

Axe, a manufacturer of men's cologne and highly fragranced body products, sponsored a study by Dr. Alan Hirsch to identify what scents "turn girls on." The study found that the scents preferred varies widely by what region within the US.

Here are the findings:

Girls’ Scent Preferences by City
1. New York City – Coffee
2. Los Angeles – Lavender
3. Chicago – Vanilla
4. Houston – Barbeque
5. Atlanta – Cherry
6. Phoenix – Eucalyptus
7. Philadelphia – Clean Laundry
8. Dallas – Smoke/Fireplace
9. San Diego – Suntan Lotion/Ocean
10. Minneapolis-St. Paul – Cut Grass

For single guys outside of these metro areas, there are some scents that a popular across regions, and across the country.

Girls’ Scent Preferences Nationwide
1. Vanilla
2. Coffee
3. Lavender
4. Fresh Air/Rain

Girls’ Scent Preferences Regionally
• East Coast – Coffee
• South – Fire/Smoke
• Midwest – Cut Grass
• West Coast – Baked Goods

In another study commissioned by Axe, researchers asked young women about their ideas on scent and attraction. Here are some of the highlights:

• Dirty little secret: One in four girls will wait anywhere from two weeks to a month before washing their sheets in order to keep their guy’s scent close

• Father doesn’t know best: 56 percent of girls say they won’t date a guy who smells like their dad

• Guard your belongings: One out of two girls admits that she has committed theft by stealing an article of clothing from a guy to smell when he’s gone and nearly 60 percent of girls sleep in their guy’s clothes because they like his lingering aroma

• Need proof of how scent and memory are intertwined? 60 percent of girls still remember the smell of their ex’s cologne

Radio Interview with Rachel Herz

Click on the link below to listen to a great radio interview with researcher Rachel Herz, author of Scent of Desire: Discovering Our Enigmatic Sense of Smell.

Here On Earth: Radio Without Borders

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Something Stinks in Portland

City Council members in the city of Portland, Oregon are considering and are expected to approve a fragrance-free policy for city workers. City employees would be banned from using perfume, aftershave, and strongly scented powder, deodorant and other personal hygiene products at work. If the measure is passed, workers could be penalized for wearing too much scent. It is not clear how much is “too much.”

The reason is to protect employees who are sensitive to perfumes as well as those who suffer from asthma. However, perfume allergies are primarily skin contact allergies. The chemicals in fragranced products seep into the skin and can cause eczema, characterized by itchy rash, dry skin and redness. People who have perfume allergies are advised to scrutinize their perfumes and body products for the specific chemicals that trigger their symptoms and avoid them or to spray perfume on their clothes, rather than directly on their skin. However, other people’s perfume typically does not affect them.[1]

Those with asthma, however, are a different story. Although it is not clear which of the multiple compounds within perfume are responsible for aggravation of their symptoms, the fact is that perfume does affect them negatively.

Perhaps, instead of banning fragrances for everyone outright, Portland could make decisions on a case-to-case basis where there is a legitimate health issue. And if you are a perfume wearer, and you know a co-worker is sensitive to fragrances, you should have compassion and save your fragrance for the weekend.

If Portland does pass the measure, let’s hope that city employees don’t start complaining about their co-workers’ au natural body smells.

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[1] The Relationship Between Perfumes and Allergies, http://www.brighthub.com/health/allergies-asthma/articles/90680.aspx

Scent-Releasing Shirt Combats Body Odor

A Japanese company has created a shirt with micro capsules that release a rose fragrance when the collar rubs against the skin. The shirt is called the Otoko Kaoru, which translates as “the good smelling man.”

The scent is released slowly, and only when the shirt is worn. The company says that the scent will last up to 10 washes. Sold for around 3000 yen, or the equivalent of $35 US, it is affordable enough for men to stay fragrant on a regular basis.

If the shirt sells well, expect to see pajamas and polo shirts with the same technology. For now, the Otoko Kaoru is only available in Asia.

The shirt is a follow up to a product released in Japan with great success in 2007 with the same name: a scented chewing gum. But all gum has a smell, you say? While all gum has some amount of breath freshening capability, the Otoko Kaoru gum actually has a scent (again, rose) that is absorbed into the body and emitted by the pores.

Now, thanks to the Otoko Kaoru, noses across Japan have some relief from overly smelly men.

Scent Marketing Primer

Newly laundered clothes hanging on a clothes lines, chocolate chip cookies that just got out of the oven, vanilla, grass cut just a few hours ago, a pine forest, a rose garden, freshly baked bread, the salty tang of an ocean breeze, cool fresh air on a spring morning... Speaking of all those, are they starting to trigger some sort of pleasant memory or feeling when you smell them?

It's important that you know that smell is a chemical sense that is tied to the emotional center of the brain. One of the most powerful senses, able to not only to make us salivate, attract us to someone or stir our memories, but it can also change our heart rate and other physiological measures. But that's not all - it can also make us open our wallets to buy something.

Using the senses of sight and hearing, businesses all over the world spend millions every year trying to attract new customers via print ads and TV. However, the real savvy businesses out there are also using the sense of smell to persuade their customers to stop, smell and buy the roses, cars, and houses.

One of the fastest growing trends in advertising is scent marketing. And even though it's not fully understood yet by the majority of businesses, the power of scent has already been successfully applied and can be applied to almost every type of product. Real estate agents know that baking bread or chocolate chip cookies during an open house is going to help sell it. And also, chances are that the sudden spike in home sales during the spring is due to the delicious smells of the blooming hyacinths and daffodils.

Many studies from all over the world have shown that a scented environment makes consumer spend more time and money in that location. A recent study in Las Vegas showed that people spent more time more and spent 45% more money in a scented environment than in an unscented one. In another study, consumers rated a product more favorably and were willing to spend more money for it in a scented room, versus the same exact product in an unscented room.

The secret behind scent is that it creates a "flow state" that leads people to temporarily lose their normal sense of time and become totally consumed in the occurring event. It can last up to several minutes.

So how are major companies out there using fragrance to increase sales? Some use scents that are naturally present in the environment like a bakery funneling the scent of baking bread from the oven area to the front of the shop. Those establishments that are not able to capitalize on their innate smells can create an environment with any fragrance their heart desires, through introducing ambient scent.

A pleasant smell puts the customer in a pleasant, buying mood and increases the chance that of becoming a repeat customer. For instance, Omni Hotels pumps a lemongrass and green tea scent into its lobbies and public places. Rolls Royce was seeing a drop off in customer perception of its cars, even though mechanically, they were the same or better. After investigating, they found the source of the dissatisfaction: the smell! Customers associated the smell of the classic 1965 Silver Cloud with quality, and when the Rolls Royces stopped smelling like this, the satisfaction dropped. Now, Rolls Royce has reproduced the smell of the Silver Cloud and they spray it under the seats in all of their new cars to protect their brand.

Similarly, Singapore Airlines has consistently gotten high marks from consumers in part because they use sensorial marketing to immerse passengers in the smell of a bamboo forest as well as lotus flowers. The fragrance is worn by flight attendants and put on hot towels that are handed to passengers before takeoff.

If your business involves any kind of location, whether retail, hospitality, healthcare, or entertainment, it just makes "scents" to incorporate our most powerful sense: the sense of smell.

How Smell Works: Tracing Scent from Nose to Brain

Researchers at Stanford have traced the path that scent takes from nose to brain, for the very first time. In order to find the connection, they actually reverse engineered the pathway, beginning in the brain and backtracking to the olfactory bulb.

Scientists injected two viruses into mouse brains. The first one, a low-grade virus, cleared the way for the other virus to go from the higher centers in the brain, down the connections to the olfactory bulb. They found that most of the nerve pathways connected to the parts of the brain that determined the mice’s like or dislike of the smell originated from the top part of the olfactory bulb. The concentration of neurons there allows a quick reaction when the mouse is exposed to “bad” smells, such as the scent of a predator.

There are also other neurons from all over the olfactory bulb, which are connected to brain areas that process learned responses to odor. Researchers postulate that their scattered locations allow the mice to have “flexibility in learning to avoid or be attracted to new smells.”[1]

They also discovered that each neuron the brain that receives scent information is connected to at least four neurons in the olfactory bulb, each of which receives input from multiple odor receptors. This is how the brain integrates and makes sense out of a number of different smells.

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[1] “The Brain Knows What the Nose Smells, but How? Standford Researchers Trace the Answer,” Stanford University News Service, February 2, 2011, by Sandeep Ravindran

Remember That Great Hotel?...Using Scent for Hospitality Branding

Over and over again, research has confirmed that our sense of smell is directly linked to our memories and emotions, both powerful factors in branding. Brands that consumers strongly associate with a positive emotion are successful, generating increased dollar sales, repeat sales and customer referrals. Memory, too, plays an important part of the branding experience, helping customers to identify and recall the brand name as well as specific product features and benefits. In order to strengthen their brands, numerous hotels have enlisted the aid of scent branding.

Just as a logo symbolically represents the company, hotels are appealing to the powerful sense of smell by creating “scent logos,” signature scents for their properties. The custom scents are based on the hotel’s ambiance and the emotions they want guests to associate with the hotel.

For example, the Mandarin Oriental uses a mandarin blossom tea scent to evoke not only its décor, but also its name. St. Regis wants guests feel like they are arriving at a lovely home, furnished by Mrs. Astor. Their signature scent includes roses and sweet peas, Mrs. Astor’s favorite flowers, mixed with a touch of Mr. Astor’s tobacco.

Le Meridien hotels wanted to unify its properties to be of a consistent quality and feel, appealing to creative people like artists, architects, designers, and chefs. Now, upon entering the hotel doors, guests experience a whiff of old books, leather, and wood sweetened with vanilla.

Hyatt hotels scent each of their properties, and take this strategy one step further. For their upscale Park Hyatt brand, each individual location has its own unique scent to emotionally bind guests to the property and distinguish it from others, even within the Park Hyatt family.

Senior vice president of Westin Hotels & Resorts summed it up nicely, “Scent is most closely tied to memory, and if we’re in the business of creating memories and wanting our guests to choose Westin whenever they travel, we have to make a memory link.”[1]

So far, most hotels confine their scent to the lobby areas and casinos. Some sell candles with the hotel’s signature scent in their gift shops, but there are many more applications for scent in hospitality. Technology now exists to make scenting guest rooms feasible. Hotels can also make good use of scented paper to send advertisements to their frequent guests in advance of common vacation times, to awaken the wonderful memories of their last vacation. The results for using scent in hospitality are positive; now we have to expand on its use.

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[1] “The Sweet Smell of the Modern Hotel,” Chandler Burr, Travel and Leisure, June 2008

New Device Brings Scent to Home Entertainment

Scent Sciences has released ScentScape(R) a digital scent delivery machine that connects to a user's home PC or gaming console to deliver smells relevant to the action.  Scents include pine forest, ocean, flowers and smoke. The scent is delivered via 20 different scent cartridges, which are included with the unit, and the company says that the cartridges last 200 hours or more, depending on usage. The idea is to more completely immerse the player in the game and enriching the gaming experience. Units retail for $69.99.

In addition, the company sells the ScentEditor(R), which allows you to custom choose scents to your home movie viewing. The focus is on nostalgic scents, such as roasting turkey, freshly mowed grass and birthday cake to evoke viewers' memories. All devices are plug and play.

Just imagine, with surround sound, 3D and smell, your home entertainment is only missing the sensation of touching the people and characters on the screen. But, with some of the violent games, that just might be a good thing.

Intro to Scent Marketing

Informative, tongue in cheek video about scent marketing...Enjoy!

Love Is in the Air

With Valentine’s Day approaching, the topic of love is something on everyone’s mind. And since scent is the only sense that directly is tied to the emotional center of the brain, it makes “scents” to talk about the fragrance of love.

Pheromones are chemical scents released in order to attract the opposite sex. They are not smelled in the same way as a fragrance, but with specialized receptors inside the nose. Pheromones are well known to work among various species of animals, however, their effectiveness in human sexual attraction is somewhat controversial. Some scientists say that human beings have “outgrown” the need for such chemical markers in choosing a mate through evolution, while others maintain their continued relevance.

Science has confirmed that people do sniff out potential love interests by gravitating to those with opposite natural immunities within our genetic makeup. The reason is that the resulting offspring will be stronger because of the combination of immunities. A Brazilian study found that, when women were given unwashed t-shirts worn by men, they rated the smell more pleasant for those men who had opposite MHC.[1]

Interestingly, when people marry those with differing MHC, (major histocompatibilty complex, which transmits information about immunities), they tend to have better, more loving and longer lasting relationships than those with similar MHC.

However, when women are on birth control pills, they tend to choose partners with the same MHC as theirs. The reason, scientists say, is that the pill tricks the body into thinking that it is pregnant, and for a pregnant woman, it is safer to surround herself with males who are family members. Women who form relationships with MHC similar men are more likely to feel sexually unsatisfied and cheat on their partners.[2]

So, assuming that you have found your perfect match, what scents can rev up the romance? Traditional romantic fragrances include roses, musk and chocolate. A study confirmed that people are, indeed, sexually/romantically stimulated by scent. However, the kinds of scents that work may surprise you. The top scent for male stimulation was a combination of pumpkin pie and lavender, followed by a licorice/doughnut blend. Women like to wear sexy perfumes with musk, but tend to be aroused more by the musk than the men.

Aromatherapy identifies a number of scents that act as an aphrodisiac, including basil, jasmine, neroli, ylang ylang, bergamot and sandalwood. So try one of these scents to infuse a little extra romance this Valentine's Day. Your partner will love it!

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[1] “New Evidence That The MHC Influences Odor Perception In Humans: A Study With 58 Southern Brazilian Students”, Pablo Sandro Carvalho Santos, Juliano Augusto Schinemann, Juarez Gabardo and Maria da Graça Bicalho, LIGH—Laboratório de Imunogenética e Histocompatibilidade, Departamento de Genética, Paraná, Brazil, February 2004

[2] “Birth Control Pills Affect Women’s Taste in Men,” Melinda Wenner, Scientific American, December 2008

Katy Perry to Scent Concert Tour

The sometimes outrageous pop star, Katy Perry, has announced that she is going to scent her 2011 California Dreams World Tour. The concert's theme will be along the lines of her California Girls video. According to the singer, the concert will smell "like you're in cotton candy heaven." Perry's concerts will be scented by our own ScentEvents. Way to go, Neal!

Perry's use of scent as part of her concert experience is sure to catch on with other performers.

Incorporating scent into live performances is a great way to further immerse the audience in the entertainment experience and connect with them on an emotional level.

Fascinating Scents

In her book, “Fascinate: Your 7 Triggers to Persuasion and Captivation,” famed brand consultant and author Sally Hogshead lets us in on a little branding secret. She says that successful brands “fascinate” people, meaning that they appeal to them on an non-logical, purely emotional level, by activating one or more of the following triggers: lust, mystique, alarm, prestige, power, vice, and trust.

Depending on how a company wants to position itself, it focuses its marketing message on arousing one primary emotional trigger, which may be supported by a few more. As scent marketers, we are all familiar with appealing to the emotional, limbic side of prospects through the only sense that directly affects emotions and memory: scent. In order to for our solutions to be successful for our clients, the scents must match the emotions that the client is triggering in their overall marketing.

Lust – Lust isn’t just sexual arousal; it is anything involved in the anticipation of pleasure, including things that are beautiful, delicious or cool. Companies that use lust as their main trigger include Apple, Sharper Image, Godiva, and all jewelry stores.

Because lust focuses on the senses, it is the emotion that is easiest to express in scent. Lustful scents include florals like rose, ylang ylang and jasmine and with woodsy base notes like sandalwood, Spanish moss and white amber. Yummy fragrances like vanilla and chocolate also stimulate lust, as does the warm and sexy smell of musk.

Mystique – Mystique is an emotion that attracts because of what is left unrevealed, inciting curiosity. It pairs well with lust, just as a negligee both conceals and reveals. Any company that uses a secret formula or rare or exotic ingredient, like Coca Cola and many skincare lines, is using mystique.

Spicy, exotic smells evoke the feeling of mystique, such as exotic florals, cinnamon, musk, tobacco, ginger, pepper and woodsy smells like balsam and cedar. Also, any scents in which the individual elements are hard for a person to identify work for mystique.

Alarm – Alarm is the most difficult emotional trigger to express in scent. It is the emotion that people experience when they become aware of the negative consequences of inaction, like one time offers and buying identity theft protection.

The closest scent to the alarm trigger would be alert, sharp scents such as rosemary and bitter orange.

Prestige - Companies that use prestige appeal to customers’ desire to be members of an elite group and to enjoy the rank and respect that go with it. High quality and high price distinguish these brands. All luxury brands use this trigger.

Prestigious smells tend to be complex, with florals balanced with subtle spices and wood scents.

Power – Power and prestige often go hand in hand. Companies play the power card by either controlling the environment and making customers give up control, or by giving them the feeling of having power and confidence.

Power invoking scents include cool greens, herbals and citrus.

Vice - Vice is our attraction to the forbidden or dangerous, and works well in combination with lust. Any company that uses the concept of rule breaking or overindulgence in its marketing is using the vice trigger. Harley Davidson and all liquor companies fall into this category.

Smells that inspire vice as part of a branding strategy include very sweet smells like cotton candy, chocolate and juicy fruit scents.

Trust – Trust is the last and one of the most powerful emotional triggers. It is the hardest to establish, but it also creates a long term and loyal relationship with customers. Banks, universities and most established market leaders regardless of industry use this trigger to advantage.

Scents that foster trust include any kind of baked good smell like chocolate chip cookies, bread and apple pie as well as vanilla and cinnamon.