Innovative Companies Receive SMItty Awards for Excellence in Scent Marketing

SCARSDALE, N.Y., Jan. 10, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- The Scent Marketing Institute gave out awards to top companies for excellence in the field of scent marketing in 2011 at the ScentWorld Expo, held this past December at the Gansevoort Hotel in Miami Beach. This year's ScentWorld was 60% larger than the previous one, showing the explosive growth of the industry.

There were four SMItty awards given out: Lifetime Achievement, Harald Vogt Scent Marketer of the Year, Most Innovative Use of Scent Marketing and Scent Technology Innovation.

The Lifetime Achievement award was presented to Mark Peltier, who created the first scent diffusion machine in the 1970s thereby paving the way for ambient scenting, a mainstay of today's scent marketing industry. At the award presentation, Peltier shared that he was first inspired by the wonderful natural scents of a redwood forest, and made it his goal to bring that fresh outdoor fragrance inside buildings for people to enjoy.

The Harald Vogt Scent Marketer of the Year award, named in honor of the late Harald Vogt, founder of the Scent Marketing Institute, went to Abercrombie & Fitch, along with Prolitec, the company that supplies and services the retail chain's scent equipment. Fierce, the scent used to scent their stores, is now the best-selling men's fragrance in the United States, and one of the top selling in the world. "Abercrombie & Fitch was the first retail chain to commit to a strong olfactory branding strategy, and through their success have paved the way for other companies to do the same," said Caroline Pieper-Vogt, president of the Scent Marketing Institute.

SMI awarded the Most Innovative Use of Scent Marketing SMItty to Schick, for its Xtreme3 Refresh scented men's razor handles. "The addition of scent not only made a daily chore more enjoyable for millions of men, but also improved customer perception of the product, positively impacting brand loyalty and repeat sales," Jennifer Dublino, COO of the Scent Marketing Institute, noted.

The final award, for the Most Innovative Use of Scent Marketing, was given to @aroma, a Japanese company, for its Sqair product. Sqair is a palm-sized, battery-powered scent diffuser that makes it easy to scent your surroundings on the go. Satoshi Kataoka, CEO of @aroma, accepted the award. "We expect to see many more companies adding scent to their branding strategies, locations, packaging and marketing communications as they see how effective it is for their competitors," said Jennifer Dublino. "In a world where consumers are constantly bombarded by intrusive visual and audio marketing messages, scent marketing is a wonderful way to connect with the individual in a pleasant and memorable way."

The Scent Marketing Institute (http://www.scentmarketing.org) is the industry association for scent marketing and related fields. SMI provides educational information, research and support on scent marketing to industry members, brand executives, marketing agencies and the media.

Contact:

Scent Marketing Institute
Jennifer Dublino, COO
561-400-0009
[email protected] 

This press release was issued through eReleases(R).  For more information, visit eReleases Press Release Distribution at http://www.ereleases.com.

SOURCE Scent Marketing Institute