I sniffed out (bah-dum! Oh, that was bad, so very bad. It'll all make sense in a moment...) this great article from over on
happi.com, all about scents! (See, I told you, bad!)
"
Fragrance moves consumers toward purchasing household productsby Melissa Meisel, Associate EditorWatch a consumer in a store aisle. She will either put a household product immediately in the cart or she will stop, compare labels, prices, and then smell the selections.
The fragrance of a household product nearly always plays a very large role in its marketability, according to Dr. Achille Riviello, perfumer, household applications, Drom Fragrances International, Germany, either to influence decisions at the point of purchase or lead to a repeat purchase.
Sales of household cleaners totaled $1.6 billion in U.S. supermarkets, drugstores and mass merchandisers excluding Wal-Mart, according to Information Resources, Inc. (IRI) for the year ended Oct. 7, 2007. Throw in laundry detergent and sales jump to $5.1 billion. So, what is it about fragrance that plays a part in moving these products?
Sway to Pay“In today’s market, efficacy is a given,” notes Debbie Nencheck, vice president of marketing, fragrances at Takasago International, Rockleigh, NJ. “Fragrance is the key point of difference that allows consumers to make choices based on personal preferences from an ever-growing selection of scent choices. It’s the silent persuader that aids in consumer differentiation to support product promises and benefits.”
“When it comes to household products, fragrance is absolutely a part of the selection process. When you work hard to clean your house, the fragrance says ‘job well done.’ It’s your reward and it’s a signal to your guests that your home is clean,” says Michelle Harper, director of fragrance evaluation at Arylessence, Marietta, GA. “With modern, busy lifestyles, fragrance plays an even more important role than ever before. There may be less time to clean house, but people still want their guests to walk in and think clean.”
Mei Xu, a fragrance expert at Chesapeake Bay Candle Company, Rockville, MD, who created room sprays in exotic scents such as tealeaf & papaya and jasmine & juniper, notes that current health trends also play a part in scent selections. “Aromatherapy is a very popular concept today. Consumers do select home fragrances based on the effects the scents may have on their health. For example, lavender and vanilla are known for their calming influences and grapefruit is known for its reviving, uplifting effects,” Ms. Xu tells Happi.
Some companies use their own staff as the best test market for choosing what fragrances will be the next big thing. For instance, Séverine Mathé, product development director for Fruits & Passion, a home care company based in Candiac, Quebec, tells Happi, “We don’t decide on a particular fragrance in a pre-determined fashion. We brief our perfumers to guide them on what we are looking for, but we give them a lot of creative freedom.”
Ms. Mathé cites as an example the company’s Cucina orange sanguinelli & fennel kitchen spray. “After we launched the lime zest & cypress fragrance, we weren’t planning on launching another citrus-based fragrance within a year’s time. However, when we smelled the orange sanguinelli & fennel fragrance (launched in 2007), we instantly loved it since it was a new interpretation of an orange fragrance, which we hadn’t smelled before. Rather than smelling the zest of the fruit, you could smell the pulp, its more ‘juicy’ side. The fennel adds a light ‘green’ touch, which blends perfectly with the orange.
“Basically, we go with our instincts and whether we ‘fall in love’ with a fragrance, while keeping in mind that we want all the Cucina fragrances to complement each other.”
The other fragrances in Cuchina’s home care collection include coriander & olive tree, fig & fresh herbs, zucchini flower & truffles and ginger & Sicilian lemon.
In the WashOne category that is especially influenced by fragrance is laundry products, according to Allison Yang, fabric care external relations manager, Procter & Gamble, Cincinnati, OH. She tells Happi: “We’ve seen in fabric care that scent is very important to many consumers. That may mean that they are drawn to a product with no scent or a light scent for sensitive skin, or a stronger, bold scent to indulge in.”
Ms. Yang also notes that some consumers also want different scents for different loads—meaning that they have several different laundry detergents and fabric softeners at hand to do the job. “For example, some people may wash their everyday clothes in our Pure Essentials line, their linens in our Simple Pleasures line and their exercise clothes in our Febreze line,” says Ms. Yang.
Pure Essentials is one of the latest P&G additions to the Bounce, Downy and Tide collections. Touted as “naturally-inspired scents that moms will love,” both the Bounce dryer sheets and Downy fabric softeners are available in scent variants of aloe and white lilac or chamomile and lemon verbena; Tide detergents are offered with baking soda and a white lilac scent or with citrus extracts and lemon verbena.
The products in the Pure Essentials line complement each other, as it is common that consumers want the same scents across their laundry detergents and fabric enhancers, according to the P&G fabric care external relations manager. Ms. Yang notes that due to this demand over the past two years, her company coordinated the Tide, Downy and Bounce lines to “enhance the overall scent experiences in fabrics.”
On-Trend ScentsFragrance is a basic component of a household product, but the palette which to choose from has expanded over the years to suit a variety of different preferences.
According to Ms. Nencheck at Takasago, fragrances for home care continue to be influenced by clean, fresh and natural impressions. She notes, “From crisp citrus in cleaners to an assortment of fruits and florals in liquid dish soap to the growing complexity and fantasy escapism in fabric care—fragrances provide a distinctive message to communicate caring and create a welcoming home environment.”
Wendy Warus, marketing director, home care for Henkel, Inc., Scottsdale, AZ, agrees. “In household cleaners, fragrances that denote clean are always popular,” she tells Happi. Henkel recently launched its Purex Natural Elements line with three “naturally fresh-inspired” scents. According to the company, in developing the new line infused with natural fragrance extracts, Purex anticipated upcoming fragrance trends to give consumers a laundry product that is pleasing to smell. The Purex Natural Elements collection features trademarked combinations of linen & lilies, apple & melon and cherry blossoms & vanilla.
“We have analyzed the ‘scent of clean’ and the consumer’s expectations when they think of ‘clean’—remember, these messages and expectations can be subliminal, connecting to emotion and memory,” notes Karen Mack, a senior evaluator of applied research and new technology at Arylessence. “The modern ‘scent of clean’ is communicated through fresh citrus, complex citrus accords, floral ozone, fresh florals, crisp fruits and sheer orientals.
Ms. Mack also points to the classics as leaders in the fragrance forum. “Pine and lemon are the longest standing fragrance variants in household products. They have been around for a very long time and continue to be strong performers today. Their popularity links to their efficacy,” she says.
She notes that pine terpenes are strong degreasers and this links the sense of smell to function. “The fact that pine oil was used as the germ killing active in many of the original EPA registered disinfectants leads to people associating this heritage smell with successful cleaning. The smell of pine is certainly a signal of clean,” says Ms. Mack.
Lemon oil has been used to dust and condition wood furniture since ancient times, and accoring to Ms. Mack, “People still associate the smell of Lemon Pledge with clean today.” The clean citrus character of lemon easily found its way into dish detergents in the early 1980’s, says the senior evaluator for Arylessence. Colgate Palmolive’s Ajax and Lever Brothers’ Sunlight added label claims indicating they contained real lemon juice.
“Citrus terpenes are also excellent degreasers and dishwashing liquid advertising told consumers’ that the added lemon juice meant grease cutting,” says Ms. Mack. “Lemon fragrance also signals efficacy to consumers. Apple is another important consideration for conveying clean and fresh messages.”
Modern CombinationsMike Kinsey, section head household care fragrance development, P&G, notes that while still a popular scent in household products, over the past couple of years, fragrances that consumers perceive as clean and fresh have evolved beyond citrus and into broader trend-related categories.
One recent example is the launch of new scents consistent with the emerging “comfort” trend, says Mr. Kinsey. Notes such as lavender and vanilla were utilized across several P&G household brands (Tide, Downy, Febreze) with a positive consumer response.
A second example of the evolution of fragrances in household care is the rise of scents with a nature/natural category, says Mr. Kinsey. “As we saw with the success of scents like Febreze’s Meadows & Rain as well as Tide Pure Essentials, the connection between fragrances associated with the outdoors and consumer perception of cleaning/freshness is very logical,” he tells Happi.
The Mr. Clean brand has taken the scent experience to another level by offering “a new freshness benefit with their tough cleaning products,” says Mr. Kinsey. At press time, P&G was readying its launch of Mr. Clean’s liquid, spray and Magic Eraser products with Febreze Lavender & Vanilla Comfort and Meadows & Rain. “The very positive consumer feedback on these two perfumes has confirmed our belief that consumers appreciate new, trend-driven scents in traditional cleaning products,” says Mr. Kinsey.
P&G also recently rolled out the Dawn Simple Pleasures line, the first dish care product to combine the dish liquid with an air freshener in one dual-compartment bottle.. Attached to the base of the bottle, the room-filling scent is activated by releasing a tab on the bottom. Dawn Simple Pleasures is available in three scents: Water Lily & Jasmine, Apple & Pear and Lemon & Tangerine.
Clean and GreenAmongst the most important trends for 2008 and beyond is the theme of eco/green, notes Ms. Nencheck of Takasago, as more products assuage consumer environmental concerns. “Fragrances will need to be created that sustain this positioning,” says Ms. Nencheck. “Fragrances must support the claims of eco/green while still delivering expected performance in use at a competitive price.”
“Our world continues to change and many consumer product companies that focus on personal care, home fragrance and cleaning products are trying to fill demand with ‘greener’ products,” says Alan S. Brown, vice president of essential oil supplier The Lebermuth Co., Inc. “This does not necessarily mean natural or certified organic; however, the trend has and continues to lead companies toward natural, sustainable and in some cases organic flavor and fragrance concepts.”
Mr. Brown tells Happi that a recently successful “green” development at Lebermuth has been mainstream natural and organic fragrances for personal care. Some examples include pomegranate, violet cedar wood, melons and citrus, vanilla, mint and raspberry lemonade fragrances.
One of the eco-friendly home care lines leading the green arena is Method of San Francisco, CA. “At Method, our fragrances are inspired by nature and we are continuously developing trend forward, innovative fragrances that support our strategy,” Suzanne McCormick, director of fragrance development at Method, tells Happi. “We want to offer newness to our consumers by combining a familiar ingredient with an unexpected twist—for example, our recent addition of a ginger yuzu scent to our hand wash collection.”
“Fragrances that have performed well are those that are unexpected in typical household products,” Ms. McCor- mick adds. “For example, ylang ylang in our daily shower spray, sweetwater in laundry detergent and French lavender in dish soap. Consumers are used to seeing typical scents like lemon or pine in household cleaning products so offering a fresh scent like grapefruit or cucumber excites a customer.” Smaller, independent marketers are also catching the rush of today’s fresh scents. Debbie Ludington, owner of Greenland, NH’s Sweet Grass Farm who created the naturally derived Farmhouse Homecare collection, concurs that the biggest consumer draw is the quality of a fragrance.
“We find that customers love true-to-nature or nature duplicates compared to ‘fantasy’ fragrance combinations. Our customers want to experience the fragrances that they smell in nature.”
Sweet Grass Farm’s top home fragrance launch for 2007 was its Farmhouse lemon verbena home care category, available in a non-phosphate laundry powder, fabric softener, room spray, dish soap and furniture wax. “Our lemon verbena has been very well received. It is a very natural fragrance with a perfect combination of bright lemon balanced with woody, green verbena notes,” says Ms. Ludington. The Farmhouse Collection is also available in lavender and fresh white lilac varieties.
A Fragrant FutureOn the whole, the Earth just may be the home care market’s biggest inspiration, according to Ms. Warus of Henkel. “With the green/organics trend gaining momentum, 2008 launches will be clean, nature-based fragrances such as green teas, blue waters, and fresh fruits and floral blends.” Ms. Warus also predicts that beyond 2008, globalization and experimentation trends will have a stronger influence, so more exotic, oriental fragrances will be available in product ranges.
“Watch for an increase in fragrances containing fennel—a deep, exotic spice,” says Ms. Harper of Arylessence. “This note can enhance more typical fragrance types and set them apart from the mundane.”
But assorted global scent selections aside, it all goes back to the localized market in ultimately deciding the next scent roster for a product line, according to Mr. Kinsey of P&G: “Given the number of choices consumers have today, it is critical to deliver scents that consumers love throughout the decision, purchase and in-home use process.”
Looks like we're getting some SLIGHTLY updated labels for the all-surface spray cleaners (layout changes, new "grease + grime" circle, different background patterns.) And an updated name in "multi-surface" from their current "all-surface" (which was originally "all-purpose". Whew!) Thoughts?
...And let the method lust contest begin! Just in time for all you readers to snatch up your digital cameras and get busy over the weekend! 
The brand new method lust contest is simple! And it's your chance to win not only an awesome peppermint vanilla aroma stick set, but a few other method goodies that'll come with it! It's like a surprise method box! Whee! And this, my fellow friends, is what I want from you! (See, contests and prizes never come without a catch. Well, ok, some do. This one, not so much!)
Now, if you're shy, there's ANOTHER way to enter into the contest! Send in your method advocate spotlight! You've read them, you've seen them, you know they're better than ever now! So go on, send it in! And I'll enter your name ONCE into the contest! BUT, and here's the huge'o news! If you send in your advocate spotlight (which is so freakin' simple to do!) AND your "the house the method cleans!" three little bit'tle photos, you'll be entered into the contest, not once, not twice, NOT three times, but FOUR big times! 
So, what ARE you waiting on? Here are the rules:
I sniffed out (bah-dum! Oh, that was bad, so very bad. It'll all make sense in a moment...) this great article from over on happi.com, all about scents! (See, I told you, bad!)
Ooh la la! (Do they actually say that in France? Hmm? I doubt it... but it sounds very Frenchy, no?) Look what got found! New squeaky green french lavender wet dryer sheets! method luster Karin mentioned she found them at Whole Foods today, and Colleen at method double verified it for me; and reader Sprockets found the pic on their site! Whew! Thanks for all the help, fellow advocates! 
Do you see what I saw in this photo? Well, I didn't really see it in the photo, as I was sorta there, live and all; but still... method squeaky green laundry products! I about fell over! A friend of mine recently told me (and I didn't know! Is that possible?!) that Lowes Foods, a grocery store chain, carries method products. We have one in town, as well as one near work, but I don't usually shop there (why? Hmm, I'm not really sure.) So one evening I stopped by the one near work, and around the personal care corner what do I spy, but an entire wall of method products! I was so excited! And, I found some things that Target isn't even currently carrying. They not only had the new squeaky green laundry line (complete with sweet water and rice milk + mallow detergent; but all three (including free + clear) laundry wet dryer sheets!) They also carry the new leather wipes in the flat pack, as well as foaming hand wash in french lavender (two things Target currently hasn't carried in quite a while!) The leather wipes are actually found in the cleaning section, a few aisles down from the big wall o' method (which was, as I said earlier, found in the personal care aisle. Why? I don't really know...) They also had 3-in-1 crisp apple squeaky green kids wash! Which Target ALSO doesn't carry! Oh, so many things! So little time!
Wanna win yourself this peppermint vanilla aroma stick set (and a couple more great method goodies?) Stay tuned for method lust's next great contest! (and get your digital cameras ready! Hee hee!)
...And, just as I thought. It appears the method holiday line has landed (if you're lucky) at your local Goodwill (and possibly other, thrift stores.) I took a quick roam today (upon realizing Target pulled the remaining holiday method line from their shelves; and the bloq line ended up appearing at random Goodwill stores last summer; AND (whew, I know, just follow with me for a moment) Target products show up at Goodwill stores all the time now; it appears they have some "deal" going on. In fact, many of their Christmas prepackaged gifts (you know, beard trimmers, or stress balls, etc.) were also at the local Goodwill store I patroned today.) 
Over on method's very own people against dirty blog, Danny Alexander has written (and Julie Kim has posted) a great little piece on a recent trip some method San Francisco-ians took!
Our first objective here was to visit our UK office, which was a great opportunity for a method family mini-reunion. We talked business a bit, reviewing how wonderfully they've grown in the two years since method launched here and making sure we're all on the same page with our 2009 plans before taking turns hula-hooping. Although the office here is much smaller than our home base in San Francisco, it makes up for it in charm and quirk, and it's so exciting to see the method spirit alive and well half way across the world. It's nice to have such a welcoming home away from home.
While we had the whole gang together we spent yesterday morning walking the method mile (or High Street in Kensington, if you'll be in London any time soon), visiting a few method retailers and taking note of how the product looked on shelf. We may speak the same language (more or less), but the UK and the US are very different markets with very different needs. Talking to our UK workmates while walking the aisles gave us a better sense of how to design specifically for the UK market, so hopefully our future designs will be even better!..."
