Luca Turin on the science of scent

What’s the science behind a sublime perfume? With charm and precision, biophysicist Luca Turin explains the molecular makeup — and the art — of a scent.





Biophysicist Luca Turin studies the science of smell. He’s a leading proponent of the vibrational theory of smell — the idea that when our noses pick up a scent, we’re reacting to the vibrational properties of the molecule we’re smelling. (This is in opposition to the shape theory of smell, which imagines smelly molecules fitting into conveniently shaped receptors in our noses.)


His work on olfactory reception and the prediction of what a particular molecule will smell like has led to an interesting line of work: designing new fragrances and flavor molecules, as part of the firm Flexitral, where he is CTO. Coming up, he’ll be part of a team in Biomedical Engineering at MIT, headed by Professor Shuguang Zhang, to develop an artificial nose made with natural receptors as part of DARPA’s just-launched RealNose program.


He’s the author of several books on scent, including Perfumes: The Guide and The Secret of Scent, and is the subject of Chandler Burr’s 2003 book The Emperor of Scent.


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Have you got a scent marketing success story? Share with Scentmarketingblog.com




Scentmarketing.com is interested to hear from the ever growing number of innovative companies in the Scent Marketing industry which are achieving extraordinary results.


We have been hearing about “aroma” or “scent” marketing for close to 40 years now, but only over the past decade has there been such a rapid increase in this exciting market sector. The future of aroma marketing looks to be very strong.


We would love to hear from scent branding companies, manufacturers as well as end users. Send us your stories and tips and who knows we may write about you!


Write to us via the Contact Page.


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Green Aria a ScentOpera at Guggenheim Museum

ScentOpera


The ScentOpera introduces a new art form created by Stewart Matthew based only on smell and sound. Matthew collaborates with renowned fragrance designer Christophe Laudamiel and composers Nico Muhly and Valgeir Sigurdsson.


Taking a libretto written by Matthew, Laudamiel creates unique scents that convey the story of the libretto. The dry scents are distributed by a one-of-a-kind scent organ engineered and created by Fläkt Woods that pumps the scents to ’scent microphones’ attached to each seat. The scents are enhanced by original music written by Nico Muhly and Valgeir Sigurdsson. Together the music and scents tell the story of Green Aria, a Scent Opera.


The ScentOpera takes a step to extend the Wagnerian vision to a complete multi-sensory art form integrating all of the senses with the arts.


In the ScentOpera there will be no singing; instead of words, the libretto will be the written story and structure encompassing chords of perfumes/scents. The audience will be introduced to a new grammar, a new form of art in which scents will be dramatically ‘telling’ the story. Music and sound design will play a supporting role and will be precision coordinated to release of scents.


Each seat is outfitted with a ‘scent microphone’. The scents are inhaled, and the human body will play them.


Each scent will have complex chords. Chords of scent have the unique capacity to carry symbolic and associative meanings and memories. For example, some scents may be associated with tastes, others with flavors. We all instantly recognize the smell of fresh air or smoke. Other scents are less recognizable and become ‘definable’ through conditioning and context. In the ScentOpera the scent libretto will evoke associative meanings or meanings defined within the context of the unfolding narrative.


As in a spoken word that incorporates sound and lexical meaning, so the body plays a scent and the musical notes, in part, will be supporting the scents and helping the scents ’sound’. The scent and music will combine according to new dynamics and a unique time metric, all new tools put to the purpose of creating a new narrative form.


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Ernesto Neto creates scented environment at New York’s Park Avenue Armory

Brazilian artist Ernesto Neto has created anthropodino, an “immense interactive installation” at the Park Avenue Armory in New York City:


Park Avenue Armory launches its first commissioned art installation with anthropodino, a large-scale, interactive work by world-renowned artist, Ernesto Neto. Using hundreds of yards of translucent material filled with aromatic spices. Spices such clove, cumin, ginger, turmeric, black pepper and ginger.


Ernesto Neto’s anthropodino runs through June 14. General admission is $10; kids under 18 are free.


Video of Ernesto Neto talking about the installation:



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What is Scent Marketing?

Maureen Morrin, a marketing professor from Rutgers School of Business, to discuss the connection between scent and spending.





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@Aroma Japan releases “USB Aroma Time”

@Aroma USB Aroma Time


@Aroma in Japan releases “USB Aroma Time”. A USB based aroma diffuser that simply plugs into a your computer. USB Aroma time comes in 2 different fragrances “ON time” and “OFF time”. Designed for the workplace environment “ON time” can help you concentrate, whilst “OFF time” you guessed it helps you relax.


Follow the Link: www.at-aroma.com


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Gender Aware fragrance diffuser

Presensia and Quividi announce that they have developed TargetScent, an innovative solution that makes it possible to dispense fragrances according to the gender of a potential customer.


TargetScent is composed of a Scentys4 dispenser controlled by Quividi’s VidiReports. Scentys4 is a compact fragrance dispenser recently released by Presensia, which can diffuse up to 4 different scents up to a 5-meter distance. Scentys uses a patented technology for fully dry diffusion (no liquids, anti-allergenic, no contact with the users’ skin, controlled concentration of perfuming materials). The Scentys4 dispenser can be completed with a screen that shows the video clip relative to the dispensed fragrance.


This scent marketing tool is a world’s first », says Clément Jeanjean, Presensia’s CEO. « It combines in a simple and efficient way the latest progresses in message targeting and the maturity of a scent marketing technology which has been adopted by many well-known perfume, cosmetics and wine and spirits brands.


With Presensia, we have developed a new application of the targeted marketing offered by our live audience measurement technology », », adds Olivier Duizabo, Quividi’s CEO. « We’re empowering a new generation of in-store marketing tools that embed measurement, adaptation and interactivity capabilities similar to what exists on the Internet.


Source: http://www.quividi.com/


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What does your product smell like?

Source:
The Malta Business Weekly
by Joshua G. Giordimain


When managing your brands, whether you do it consciously or not, you are constantly seeking new ways of interacting with and engaging your customers. The problem is that, no matter how innovative you try to be, you usually always end up doing more of the same – developing brand communications (whether through advertising or in-store) that appeal to either or both the visual and auditory senses. In essence, we try to make as much noise as possible!


There is a much deeper and long-lasting level at which you can interact with current and potential customers however, by appealing to more than these two basic senses and by thinking about how your product, service, marketing communications and customer environment appeal to the five human senses.


There is nothing wrong with developing high-impact and impressive visual and auditory communications. Actually this is something you should constantly strive for. You need to ensure however, that such communications not only impress, but rest impressed in the minds and hearts of your audience.


This is where multisensory marketing comes in.


Read More: www2.maltabusinessweekly.com.mt


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Prolitec creates home air-freshening system

AirQ


Prolitec release the Air/Q™ Whole House Air Freshener™ (WHAF)— A fully adjustable, HVAC-integrated home air freshening system. Designed to be more efficient than traditional, plug-in air fresheners and aerosols, putting out droplets less than 1 micron in diameter via HVAC / Air Conditioning Systems.


More info at http://www.airq.com/


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The Bad News for 83% of Advertisers – Sydney Morning Herald & The Age 26/03

Buyology


What we hear and what we smell are more powerful than what we see…Brand futurist Martin Lindstrom says as little as 50 years ago buying groceries was an experience that thoroughly stimulated all of the senses. Householders traipsed through the clatter and colour of vegetable markets and bought their meat in butcher shops that smelled of blood and sawdust.


“Now the shopping journey is not stimulating and the sensory experience is generic,” he says. “It’s like we totally forgot we are human beings and sales are going down because shoppers are incredibly bored.”


Lindstrom should know. The Danish-born marketing guru has spent three years and $7 million of advertisers’ money trying to understand why we buy what we buy. His latest book, Buyology, is a compelling account of a landmark study that used neuroscience to scan the brain for the “buy button”.


But what shocked Lindstrom most was that what we hear and what we smell are more powerful than what we see. That’s bad news for the 83 per cent of advertisers who create campaigns around visual appeal but good news for companies wanting to understand why 60 per cent of shoppers make decisions in less than four seconds.


“Using ordinary research techniques we learned that the most important sense was sight, then smell then sound,” Lindstrom says. “Now when we scanned the brain we found the most important is sound followed by smell and then sight.”


But what’s interesting is that our emotional brain overrides our rational brain when triggered by sound and smell.


Full article found at SMH & The Age


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