A Sensa-ble Diet Plan

Chapter 12 of Whiff! relates a remarkable theory proposed by Steven Landau, founder of Scentsational Technologies, as to the recent explosion of obesity in America: “In the old days, moms would cook more often, so a home would typically be filled with aromas for hours on end. This, he asserts, helps to lend a feeling of satiation to the appetite before the meal. Now that the major sources of a family’s food supply are microwavable meals and fast food, aromas aren’t floating around the house inducing satiety. Therefore we are eating more today before we feel satisfied.”

It’s a fascinating idea with an unmistakable ring of common sense. So, why hasn’t the multi-million dollar diet industry latched on with a product geared toward staving our cravings through our nasal passages?

Enter, Sensa, the first weight-loss aid designed to satisfy our appetites by satisfying our noses. “Sensa works with your sense of smell to curb your hunger without affecting the taste of your food,” explains Dr. Alan Hirsch, founder of the Smell & Taste Treatment and Research Foundation in Chicago and creator of Sensa. “This induces something called ’sensory-specific satiety.’ It makes your brain perceive that you’ve eaten more than you have and, thus, you eat less and lose weight.”

Each Sensa Shaker has two sides, one sweet foods (fruit, pastries, cereal) and one for salty (meat, pasta, vegetables, popcorn), and is applied to food much like salt or pepper. And how does Sensa perform against traditional diet aid products? A clinical study concluded last June by Hirsch and colleagues charted the progress of nearly 1500 people who used the sprinkles on everything they ate for a period of six months, with no other changes in diet or exercise routine. “We found an average weight loss over six months of 30 1/2 pounds.”

Olfactory Fact #110: You Smell Better than you Look

The human genome contains more than 1,000 olfactory genes, but only about 300 photoreceptor genes.

A Partnership Heaven-Scent!

Congratulations from the Whiff-Guys to our friends at ScentAir and EnviroScent on their merger, effective today, which brings together two pioneers in the ever-expanding world of scent marketing!

“This merger reinforces our leadership position and increases our ability to meet customers’ growing needs to use scent as a critical part of the marketing mix,” said Tom Conroy, CEO of ScentAir. “EnviroScent brings a full line of complementary products and technologies serving world-class customers in many industries including hospitality, retail, real estate and gaming. Together we expect to create enhanced value for our customers, employees and shareholders.”

The admiration is mutual, according to Jeff Sherwood, CEO of EnviroScent. “We are very pleased to join forces with ScentAir. With ScentAir’s strength in commercial scent solutions, our in-demand specialty products and a combined 25 years of technical innovations in the scenting industry, we are positioned to take advantage of the growing market opportunities. In addition, this merger reflects the joining of two companies with shared corporate cultures and an entrepreneurial spirit that will continue to drive growth for the combined company.”

For the short term, ScentAir and EnviroScent will operate under their respective brand names, with Conroy serving as CEO of the combined company and Sherwood as a member of the ScentAir senior management team.

More on Endorphin Branding™ and the Proustian Effect

Frequent visitors to this site are no strangers to the Proustian Effect, that infamous literary reference to the power of scent in retrieving memories which lies at the heart of Endorphin Branding™. Likewise, we learned conclusively from this recent German study that our ever-vigilant sense of smell does not sleep when we do. The next logical question to Whiffologists is an obvious one: Can a Proustian memory be created within an unconscious mind?

In a controlled study at Duke University Medical Center, neuroscientists Stephen Shea and Richard Read more

Cut & Run or Duck & Cover?

When a lab experiment at CREATE Charter School in Jersey City went awry last Tuesday, an odorless vapor set off fire alarms and prompted evacuation of the facility. The Jersey City Fire Department was the first agency to respond, and it called in its Hazmat Unit when it learned the nature of the alarm.

Consider for a moment that last sentence: The Jersey City Fire Department was the first agency to respond, and it called in its Hazmat Unit when it learned the nature of the alarm. Emergency response teams could not have immediately known the “nature of the alarm,” let alone the students, because their warning came in the antiquated form of the one-sound-fits-all Read more

Roll-On Deodorant for the Home

As noted in Whiff!, the idea of scenting the air we breathe has been around since the invention of incense. In the last decade, innovative and inexpensive home scent delivery systems have exploded into a multi-billion dollar industry, and if there’s one common thread running throughout their design, it’s discretion. From the plug-in unit hidden behind the sofa to the tabletop dispenser camouflaged to blend with our knick-knacks, the scent systems in our homes strive to juggle high efficiency with low profile. The optimum system would provide 100% coverage with 0% visibility but, of course, that’s not possible, is it?

In a word, yes. Paint SCENTsations is an air freshener additive that literally makes a scent delivery system out of the paint on your walls. Just one ounce of Clean & Crisp or Vanilla Bean or, for those homes with particularly obstinate smokers or flatulent pets, Citrus Squeeze to a gallon of your favorite latex shade will produce a pleasant scent and eliminate odors for up to 12 months.

For realtors and property managers struggling to eliminate the odors left by former residents, says Simon Distributing President Pat Simon, the return on investment can be huge. “It takes between three and five gallons of paint to do the average apartment, so you’re talking about an additional $6 to $10, and you’re not adding any extra steps because you’re painting anyway.”

The Swede Smell of Success

Earlier this year, with an eye toward capturing the attention of visually-overloaded consumers, a Swedish fashion label turned to smell to create a strong brand image and increase sales. The Odeur line, including t-shirts, jeans, and scarfs, is embedded with a clean citrus fragrance designed to last for up to thirteen washes. Petter Hollstrom, managing director of Odeur, believes the distinctive scent will establish consumer loyalty for the brand. “It’s about putting a brand in people’s minds so that they relate to it. The aim is to build a more personal relationship with the consumer.”

Hollstrom is not alone in his thinking. According to the School of Business at Stockholm University, scent marketing is a fast-growing trend in Sweden. In August, laundry detergent company Persil, as part of their “Dirt is Good” campaign, placed sidewalk billboards around the city inviting pedestrians press a button and enjoy a whiff of clean, fresh laundry. More recently, Malmo grocery store ICA supplemented the allure of their fruit stand with a scent dispenser that wafts the enticing aromas of apricot and mango.

Olfactory Fact #35: The Napalm Smells Better at Night

Our ability to perceive odors is least acute in the morning, and increases as the day goes on.

Endorphin Branding™ Hits the Big League!

The Whiff-Guys are thrilled that the Philadelphia Phillies will join the Tampa Bay Rays at St. Petersburg’s Tropicana Field to decide this year’s World Series champion, and it has nothing to do with our affection for baseball. We’re excited because Tropicana Field, the first domed sports stadium in Florida, has also become the first Major League Baseball stadium to step into the age of endorphin branding™ with their own signature scent!

Designed by the Texas-based sensory branding firm DMX, the new Citrus Burst scent of the Trop began wafting through the air from the moment baseball fans first entered for last night’s Game 1 of the Series. Vice-president of branding and fan experience Darcy Raymond and the Rays’ manager of customer service and stadium experience Eric Weisberg, who worked with DMX on the creation of Citrus Burst, expect to roll out additional scents for the 2009 season.

Huge congratulations from the Whiff-Guys to Tropicana Field for pioneering a Multisensory Grand Slam!

Beyond Scratch ‘n’ Sniff: Edible Advertising?

Welch’s took multisensory advertising one step beyond Scratch ‘n’ Sniff with its full-page ads, which appeared in the February 20 issue of People Magazine. The front of the advertisement showed a huge bottle of Welch’s grape juice, while the back had a strip that peeled up and off, with text that read: “For a TASTY fact, remove & LICK.”

Since magazines are frequently passed from reader to reader, as in waiting rooms and salons, the “ick factor” has always been a significant hurdle for Lickable Ads. It’s a dilemma which was faced by CBS last fall, when the network added flavor strips to ads in Rolling Stone magazine, giving readers a taste of lime-flavored mojitos, the fictional rum brand central to the plot of the CBS series, Cane. “We struggled with the concept,” says Greg Castronuovo, senior vice president of Initiative, the media-buying firm that created the ad. “There is a lot of pass-along in magazines. I had a little bit of aversion to it, it’s a little unsanitary, perhaps.”

First Flavor, the company that developed the technology for the Welch’s ad, resolved this issue by using a one-time-only dissolvable strip, and many thanks to Tamar Silberberg, First Flavor’s Director of Business Development, for the clarification (see comment below). “You are not supposed to lick the ad or the tamper evident pouch in which the flavor strip is encased. You are actually supposed to peel open the pouch, remove the strip, place it on your tongue, let it dissolve and enjoy!”

In some lickable ads, including Welch’s, essence of the actual product is added to the strip. In others, the strip is made up of unrelated flavors, both natural and artificial.

Next Page »