Over the years, you might have indulged your incentive winners with an occasional sensory experience—a food and wine pairing, for example, or a box of fine chocolates. What about giving them the chance to design their own fragrance?
Sue Phillips, president of Scenterprises Ltd., New York, offers a group experience called “Celebration of the Senses” that begins with a brief questionnaire to reveal participants’ lifestyles and their fragrance types—whether they prefer woody notes, for example, or citrus, or florals. “We then offer a brief history of fragrance and take guests on a fragrance journey to evaluate and discover 18 different exquisite blends. We review the blends and showcase how different blends are found in successful commercial fragrances,” explained Phillips.
“At the end, guests select three or four of their preferred blends, and we decant their ‘formula’ into a designer atomizer of their choice,” she says. Participants name their perfume and receive a certificate of registration.
For sales organizations looking to add a competitive twist, the group might split into teams to create their own scents, then a top executive would choose the winning “brand.” Or, if the company really wants to go all the way, they could create their own signature fragrance to send out to clients.
Phillips counts Novartis Pharmaceuticals, Procter & Gamble, and New Balance among her corporate clients. Novartis used the event to reward 12 of its international communications directors for the extra work they put in during the H1N1 scare. P&G used it as an “Inspirational Interruption” for 40 employees, where Phillips says she and her crew “interrupted their work day to attend our inspirational event.” For New Balance, the perfume experience was part of a “House of Indulgence” event the company hosted for 47 editors at the New York launch of its Wellness sneaker brand.