Merci's 360view

Scent marketing in Hotels

2010-05-14T11:02:00.003+02:00

During a recent stay at the Renaissance Paris Vendome Hotel, I was able to experience a pleasant example of scent marketing at hotels. The hotel lotions, soaps and shampoo were provided by the well known Italian brand, Bvulgari, mostly recognized for its beautiful jewellry design. The light scent of green tea was refreshing and when applied, it was a reminder that you are pampering yourself with this mini spa treatment. When my friend and I were waiting for the hotel elevators on our floor, we witnessed one of the hotel staff actively spraying the corridors with this familar green tea scent, at 4:00 pm when hotel guests generally return to their rooms before dinner. The hotel receives full marks for its active scent marketing!

Puma's Clever Little Bag

2010-04-15T08:10:00.002+02:00

You have to check out how Puma has changed its packaging and how they are introducing it to the market! Clever!

Ask a Nobel Laureate on YouTube

2010-03-15T14:15:00.001+01:00

Check out the Nobel Prize YouTube channel, you can pose a question to a Nobel Laureate!

Nobel Prize on Facebook

2010-03-03T17:11:00.003+01:00

All the talk about social media has been limited to commercial companies but there has been a lot of marketing activity within the non profit world. Take the Nobel Prize as an example. It is a well established brand in a unique position that uses social media channels such as Facebook, and Twitter,to reach out to new audiences.

Cappucino advertising

2009-02-02T20:29:00.002+01:00

Talk about creative advertising. The travel company wanted to advertise some good deals to Italy from other destinations in Europe and what better way to reach the target audience than through their love of cappucino! The travel company teamed up with local cafés and inventively wrote in the inexpensive flight prices in the cappucino foam!

Sensory Branding book announced Marketing Book of the Year 2008 - Sweden

2008-12-14T11:27:00.003+01:00

Sweden's Marketing Association named the book "Sinnesmarknadsföring" (direct translation - Sensory Branding) by Bertil Hultén, Niklas Broweus, Marcus van Dijk as the 2008 marketing book of the year. Definitely a book I will check out during the Christmas break.

Sensory branding in Sweden

2008-12-14T11:19:00.003+01:00

The hotel chain Rica Hotels announced this week that it has developed its own scent called "Lemon Aid" with products such as scented candles, bath products and a faint scent which will be in the public spaces of the hotel. All the products can be bought at the hotel. The products are environmentally friendly.

City Buses as Video Billboards

2008-12-01T20:48:00.002+01:00

I found this interesting 3 minute video from AdAge about city buses as video billboards. The billboards can be locally targeted and marketed as the bus drives to different areas - really interesting.

Glamour Magazine's Women of the Year 2008 Highlights

2008-11-17T20:16:00.001+01:00

Here is a short summary of Glamour's Women of the Year 2008. Nobel Women's Initiative was one of the organisations awarded.

YouTube Sweden Launched

2008-10-24T08:52:00.002+02:00

YouTube announced yesterday the launch of YouTube Sweden. Although Swedes are fluent in English, apparently there is still an appeal in watching videos in your own language. Yesterday's release party was well branded and the crowd was a mix of media, media agencies and partners. The average age was fairly young but is was probably the partners like the Social Democrats that added a few more years to the public. Let's see if YouTube Sweden generates the traffic it needs to attract advertisers.

Make me Super- A viral marketing campaign

2008-10-20T19:51:00.003+02:00

For all us who have a secret wish to be a super hero, Kodak has launched a viral marketing campaign called Make Me Super where you can see how you would look in a super hero outfit and you can also buy all the products associated with with your new look and pass it on to friends. Although I didn't buy this poster of me as a Super Mom or the coffee mug, I was still able to download this picture and you can even get the short film attached to it. Worth checking out.

Scent marketing in Sweden - continued

2008-10-11T16:30:00.002+02:00

Another example of scent marketing in Sweden is the recent artificial scents of apricot and mango at the grocery store named ICA in Malmö - the southern part of Sweden. The light scent is sprayed from a fan dispenser that is placed under the fruit stand. The selection of mango is an interesting choice considering that it is not a fruit domestically grown in Sweden. According to the School of Business in Stockholm, scent marketing is a growing trend.

Digital ads that see who you are

2008-09-25T21:13:00.002+02:00

I know that the last post was also from AdAge but a recent 3 minute update was very interesting and covers digital ads that see who you are. The company who has this new technology says that they will not be able to identify individuals but mainly general movements of how long you look at the ads. This is just one of the new trends of market research such as tracking eye movements or brain waves. How long are we prepared to go to be able to measure ad effectiveness? It is worth checking out the update.

AdAge on YouTube

2008-09-16T19:38:00.002+02:00

Not sure if any of you marketeers have discovered AdAge's YouTube channel but it is worth taking a look at their 3 minute updates to get an overview of what's going on in advertising.

The latest 3 minute update covers mobile phone advertising. In Sweden, this is still a young market but definitely on the rise.

Creativity Online

2008-08-26T20:35:00.004+02:00

If you are looking for an international site about advertising, I can recommend Creativity Online which is one of my favorites right now. Although it is a bit gossipy about who's who at the ad agencies, I'm a fan of the weekly Creativity Top 5 which is only available for free for a week then it is available on Itunes as a podcast. Check it out!

Absolut Vodka = Absolute Design

2008-07-13T07:38:00.003+02:00

Absolut Vodka is now launching a new design of the bottle which is covered in over 3000 red sequences. This sparkling new design which is a follow-up to Absolut Disco, has a tagline "In an Absolut World, Every night is a masquarade", and is to represent a feeling of glamour. Launch is planned for October gearing up for Xmas sales. Check it out soon!

Scent marketing conference: Review

2008-07-13T07:30:00.002+02:00

For those of who were unable to attend the Scent Marketing Conference that took place in New York, AdAge was on the scene and had a short interview with C. Russell Brumfield, the auther of "Whiff" and one of the keynote speakers.

Luxury Burger

2008-07-02T21:31:00.004+02:00

Just read from another blog that Burger King has now launched a luxury burger that costs $170 dollars (1020 Swedish crowns)! This raises several questions - can a hamburger be classified as a luxury food item? Is it in the same category as caviar or champagne? Or is this hamburger just well over priced and its brand has taken on more than it can handle by entering the luxury food market? See also a related post where I comment on Burger King's plans to launch games on mobile phones - you have to really start to question what kind of brand strategy does BK have.

Citizen Marketers

2008-06-25T21:01:00.006+02:00

I came across a really interesting concept called Citizen Marketers - which is actually the title of the book written by Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba. They market their book as a culteral guide rather than a business or marketing guide and they examine significant changes caused by social media. Just glimpsing at the excerpt from Chapter 1 - about the 4 F's leaves me curious to read more. Here is a short extract:

"Chapter 1: Filters, Fanatics, Facilitators, and Firecrackers
People who create content on behalf of products, brands, companies or other people can be classified into four different categories: Filters, Fanatics, Facilitators and Firecrackers. The 4 F's. From the professional journalist whose part-time hobby of maintaining the Starbucks Gossip blog (Filter), to the blogger who loves McDonalds and wants the company simply to be "awesome" (Fanatic), to the car owner who maintains an online community for fans of the Mini Cooper (Facilitator), to the teenager who unwittingly drove up sales of a webcam brand with her impromptu video demonstration on YouTube (Firecracker), the work of the citizen marketer is varied but the categories are often remarkably consistent."

There is also a webinar coming up on Thursday, June 26th - stay tuned as I will post it.

Scent marketing teleconferences

2008-06-18T21:08:00.004+02:00

For those of us who have missed the Scent Marketing teleconferences which have been hosted by the Scent Marketing Institute and the authors of the book Whiff, the audio casts are now available and provide really interesting information. Here are some of the topics the teleconferences have covered:

Olfactory Facts™ Late-breaking research that reveals the Amazing Powers and Influences of Scent.

Your Branded Scent Signature - The Four Keys to Creating Your Scent Script - “Message, Target, Trigger, and Delivery.”

Overcoming Objections - Well-conceived answers and explanations to age-old questions about Scent Abuse, Pollution, and Scent-Sensitive Consumers.

Retail Scent Marketing Strategies - Achieving a lasting ROI in the marketplace: Environmental, POP, and Signage delivery with software tracking systems.

The Fragrance Media™ - A look at scent marketing through print, packaging, fabrics, microencapsulation, and micro & macro delivery systems.

Luxury Brands in New Markets - India

2008-06-18T21:03:00.002+02:00

Here is an interesting report from BBC news on how luxury brands are making head way in India and among brand savvy consumers.

Luxury Brands in New Markets - continued

2008-06-16T20:30:00.003+02:00

Luxury brands in emerging markets has also been one of themes I have been following on this blog. Here is an interesting CNN interview with Uri Baruchin who comments on the sucess of luxury brands in new markets such as China. See also my previous post about luxury brands in China and Russia.

Letsbuyit.com - an e-brand from the past

2008-06-13T22:35:00.004+02:00

As a blast from the past and at the pinnacle of the e-commerce boom, I was at a fantastic e-commerce company called LetBuyit.com which spent a lot of money on building the brand based on the business idea of co-shopping - which put consumers together to leverage their buying power to get better deals and prices from manufactures and distributors. I still believe in the idea and here is an old TV advert found on YouTube.

The Global Nose in Scent Marketing

2008-06-12T20:17:00.005+02:00

I become more and more fascinated as I delve into the world of scent marketing. In a recent article from The Times, it mentions the genetic differences affects our sense of smell. Although this makes perfect sense, it is interesting to investigate how companies are dealing with this marketing challenge.

Here is a short excerpt from the article, "Unilever, the soap company, is poised to unleash a marketing campaign on the Asian market in an effort to persuade Asians that they need deodorants. Apparently it's a market that has proved resistant to the blandishments of soft-soapers so far. “Asians don't think they smell,” a Unilever spokesman said and, in a wistful aside, added: “but people everywhere smell”.

The article continues, "But Unilever may be barking up the wrong tree by taking on the Asian market. Oriental Asians (Japanese, Koreans and Chinese) have sweat glands which, even after puberty, do not produce the same type of chemicals found in other races, or produce as much sweat."

What is the sense of smell in other parts of the world like India, USA, Africa and Europe? Has anyone seen a map of scent sensitivities?

Scent on mobile phones

2008-05-28T20:38:00.003+02:00

A Germany company called Convisual.de has just patented a mobile scent application. What does this mean? It means that consumers will be able to send scented text messages. Do you want to send the scent of an ocean breeze to your friends through your mobile phone? It is soon now possible with this new smell phone.

According to their press release, "The principle is simple and requires no additional hardware. All you will need is a mobile scent phone and an SD smart card sized chip, which provides a wide variety of scents. The scent chip can be accessed through various applications: via SMS and MMS, from a connected computer or special mobile scent programs on the cell phone. Users are allowed to accept or reject an incoming scent message in order to avoid spam.

There are many applications for this service, ranging from sweet smelling MMS greetings, to branded advertising samples for perfume manufacturers, to scent enhanced games for mobile phones and computers providing an additional sensory element for an outstanding gaming experience. "

This is what I call innovation!