Developing a Brand Scent: Fragrance Curation with ScentAir
Developing a Brand Scent: Fragrance Curation with ScentAir
Big work projects can be a nightmare. Especially projects that impact many departments.
As far as office projects go, scent marketing sounds like a pretty fun undertaking. But the project of integrating scent marketing into your business can get convoluted quickly.
What starts out as an off-handed conversation around a board room about how scent marketing can be beneficial to the business, turns into a multi-department project with a handful of outside contractors and a jungle of paperwork.
Large organizations especially are at a disadvantage. With so many departments chiming in it can be difficult to keep communication clear and find the simplest course of action. Stress builds and tension can run high across departments, as associates work to coordinate equipment installation and develop or choose a fragrance that’s authentic to the brand.
Many businesses make the mistake of thinking they need to obtain their own fragrance before contacting ScentAir. But nothing could be further from the truth. We’re a full-service scent marketing company.
Instead of managing multiple vendors, ScentAir can handle all your scent marketing needs in-house with our unique ability to manage your scent marketing integration from fragrance creation through implementation.
The Full-Service Experience
How can ScentAir manage your scent marketing integration from start to finish? The process is simple.
First, our knowledgeable fragrance curation team will help you choose the right scent to articulate your brand identity. If you’re looking to create a custom branded fragrance, ScentAir can help you design and formulate your exclusive fragrance.
Once the perfect fragrance is selected, ScentAir will help you create a scent marketing strategy and choose the right systems to diffuse your fragrance.
Then, we’ll get your equipment in place. No matter how many locations you have, ScentAir will work with you to select the right solution to meet your goals. Choosing the right system ensures your ScentAir fragrance is deployed effectively for the most impactful scent marketing campaigns possible.
Let’s Get to Know Each Other: Fragrance Curation Services
The first step in integrating scent marketing in your business model is choosing the scent. This is arguably the most important step. The fragrance you choose will impact your brand’s long-term success and shape how your customers view your brand.
Our seamless integration process starts with our in-house fragrance curation team. In our brand immersion process, we work with new clients to take a deep dive into their brand. We want to know who your brand is!
In this learning stage, we collect the big ideas and the little details that make your brand unique; everything from on-site design to how you want to make your customers feel. From there we create a composite sketch of your brand and choose the top, middle, and base notes that will come together to form the fragrance portrait of your brand. The finished product is a scent that will take your customers on your brand journey.
Inside the Fragrance Curation Team
Fragrance curation takes specialized knowledge. Successful curation requires a nose to the ground—pardon the pun—dedication to distilling a vast amount of brand information and translating it into a fragrance.
Meet Neohni Warner, ScentAir’s in-house Fragrance Curator.
We caught up with Neohni to get some industry insight and explore how she helps brands select the perfect fragrance.
You’re ScentAir’s in-house Fragrance Curator. Can you explain what you do on the day to day?
Wow, it’s so different every day and that’s one of the many reasons I love my job.
In any given week I could be training new hires about the science of scent and emotion, conducting a brand immersion call with a new customer, presenting the fragrances I created to clients or working with perfumers to perfect or modify an existing scent for performance or regulatory needs.
How do you help a client determine if a custom fragrance is the right choice for their business?
The key is understanding what the client wants to achieve with their scent marketing program. Sometimes clients want to create an environment for their customers that’s pleasing and, maybe, increases linger times—but it doesn’t have to be unique. Those are the times where I look to our expansive library to find a scent that will help them reach their goals.
Other times a brand is looking to create a bigger impression, a brand statement, something that makes their brand iconic and stand out. And that’s when we start discussing a custom fragrance.
Developing a fragrance that accurately captures the feel of a brand sounds like it would be challenging. Could you walk us through the process of determining what fragrance notes you’ll use to articulate a brand through scent?
The brand immersion process has many layers of research to determine what to create for a specific brand.
I explore the brand by asking numerous questions. We discuss brand attributes, marketing materials, décor, music selection, what space are we scenting, amenity products, food and beverage offerings, how they attract new customers or keep customers loyal, and most importantly how they want their customers to feel.
Then I learn about customers the brand is trying to attract. We explore their ideal customer or buyer personas and discuss everything from demographic, psychographic, shopping habits, how the customer interacts with the brand, and, again, how the client wants their customers to feel.
Once I gather all this information, I use a system of indicators that tell me what kind of notes to include in a fragrance to craft a scent that will meet the client’s needs.
For some businesses though, developing a custom fragrance isn’t the right choice. Can a pre-formulated fragrance be just as impactful for a business?
Absolutely! ScentAir has an extensive library of scents that evoke so many different feelings and emotions. The key is finding the right scent that matches the brand, so the brand and fragrance are congruent.
ScentAir has curated an extensive fragrance library. How do you help a brand narrow in on which fragrance will help them best tell their brand story?
It always begins with my detailed brand immersion process.
It’s an open dialog with our perfumery partners to create a fragrance note by note to capture all the feelings the client wants to evoke. Every fragrance goes through numerous iterations to adjust the perfume to be just right.
We have an iterative process with our customer to involve them with the development and get their input along the way. In the end, it’s a collaborative masterpiece, perfectly balanced with our expertise and their preferences while using our technical expertise to ensure performance.
Are there ever any unforeseen challenges that a business might face during the fragrance selection process?
There can be many challenges you don’t expect in fragrance selection. All fragrances have top, middle, and base notes. One key factor in scent selection is making sure we select a fragrance that will perform properly in the space.
For example, when I work with casinos, I know the scent needs to contain our Odor Neutralizer technology to address smoke malodors. It also needs to have heavier base notes because in large open spaces, like a casino, the scents that are sheer or have a lot of top notes don’t linger in the space well. They may come across as not strong enough.
It’s also important to make sure that we use the right delivery system for the space. That’s why our range of solutions is so great: we have a system for every environment.
What’s the number one thing you wish more clients knew about the fragrance selection process?
That scent is the most powerful way they can connect with their customer on an emotional and memorable level. My biggest tip for new clients is to take the time to share information about your brand with your scent consultant. With complete information, we’re able to achieve the best brand fit possible.
You’ve been with ScentAir for since 2016. Have there been any accounts that were especially fun to work on?
I’ve worked on so many fun and rewarding accounts over the last few years! But I suppose I have had a few favorites.
A few of the most fun have been some of our larger accounts. For instance, I just created a scent for a major hospitality brand with a resort focus who needed a custom scent. Now it smells like being on vacation the moment you walk into their lobby.
Our casino accounts are fun too. I worked on a trendy upscale casino who needed a scent to neutralize smoke malodors and add a touch of sophistication.
I love getting results for all our clients. Another casino I worked on got outstanding results from a scent we created that increased their retail sales and improved time on machine after implementation.
Right now, I’m working on projects for a new shared work space that opens this summer, a national dance studio that wanted a scent that’s refined, playful and uplifting; and a major convenience store chain that wants to enhance their customer experience.
What’s your signature ScentAir scent?
I have so many favorites I couldn’t pick just one! I like them at different times for different moods.
When I want to feel relaxed, I like our Lavender Woods. Tropical Coconut smells like I’m on vacation. But Orange Blossom reminds me of the orange tree in my grandma’s backyard which makes me reminiscent. White Blossom Tea is a scent I could live in all day, but Dark Vanilla Pomelo is uplifting and comforting at the same time—I could go on for days listing my favorite scents.
If you’re ready to begin creating your brand’s signature fragrance, click here to learn more and get started with a ScentAir scent marketing system.
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