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.