MORE THAN A NICE SCENT!
Newsletter No.23
25.04.24
Welcome Video:
Welcome to the 23rd edition of More Than A Nice Scent
Hello, wonderful readers!
Today's newsletter is a bit more personal than usual. I'm opening up about my self-doubt, procrastination, and temptation to quit.
I crashed hard but found motivation again by taking a step back and finally organizing my scattered thoughts.
So, let me share an exclusive sneak peek at the new complete table of contents which gave me the much-needed clarity I needed.
Looking forward to your feedback!
Best Regards,
Scott
Listen here for an AI audio preview of the main feature:
The main feature:
Getting to the Heart of Emotional Fragrance Design
My journey with emotional fragrance design began in 2015 when I first presented my belief that brands should not only satisfy customers' functional expectations but also their emotional needs to succeed. This idea stuck with me for years, and it eventually became the inspiration for my upcoming book.
When I started sharing my writing journey with you in the first edition of this newsletter, I believed I had everything figured out. I planned to post a few times a week on LinkedIn, grow my audience, and share a newsletter every two weeks. Then, over a few months, I would write one chapter at a time – and just like that, I would have a great book. But I now realize I was clueless. It's embarrassing to admit, but it's the truth.
Now, after writing twenty-two newsletters and over thirty thousand words, I have learned that even though we may think we have everything figured out, we don't. More likely than not, we realize that our ideas are only partially formed when it's time to explain them to others.
My scattered thoughts on emotional fragrance design have led me to a place known as 'The Big Crash.' This is where we face our biggest challenges, a place filled with doubts, fears, procrastination, and even the temptation to self-sabotage. But it's also a place where we can find the strength to overcome these obstacles and continue our journey.
The "Big Crash" forces us to think about what matters most, believe in ourselves, and persist through challenges. It forces us to make the hard choice to stop or finish with determination and grit.
The good news is that I love this project too much to give up. But, to rebuild my writing momentum, I need clarity. I need to know what I want to share with you in More Than A Nice Scent and why.
So let me tell you why:
The Method to My Madness: A Sneak Peak Into My Book's Structure
Part One:
It's important to understand the mix of psychology, science, and marketing to create fragrances that people will love. Without this understanding, we will be no different from all the other brands struggling to stay in the game in an oversaturated market. That is why the first part of the book focuses on the foundational ideas, concepts, and theories of emotional fragrance design.
I'll introduce new frameworks that synthesize these ideas into an actionable approach for designing fragrances that truly captivate hearts and minds.
Chapter 1: Don't Like, Love
In this first chapter, we explore one of the main questions I hope to answer in this book: Why do we like so many fragrances but only love a few? This is an important question that I believe explains the differences between an average fragrance and a cult hit.
Chapter 2: Invisible Persuasion
I've read many books about fragrances that explain how scents are perceived and their role in triggering emotions and memories. But I haven't seen one that talks about how scents influence our shopping choices. This is why I decided to write this chapter – to show how our relationship with our favorite scented products and perfumes is caused by scents' invisible persuasion.
Chapter 3: The Scent of Us
Most brands get it wrong because they are only focused on how their product smells. They miss what scents represent – identity, dreams, and self-expression. That's why, in this chapter, I want to explain how and why fragrances become part of our life stories, which is a key concept in emotional fragrance design.
Following this chapter, I will I share my scented story and ask you to think about yours. I hope my reflections will make you think about your experiences with scents and what they mean to you. How has your life story influenced your fragrance likes and loves - and vice versa?
Chapter 4: Capturing Hearts
In the final chapter of part one, I reveal the Emotional Fragrance Design Pyramid, which pulls all of the ideas, concepts, and theories of part one into an original framework that will guide us in creating fragrances people will love forever.
Part Two:
While Part One covers the essential theories and concepts, Part Two is all about putting this knowledge into practice.
The ideas I will share with you in this part of the book are inspired by the things that frustrate me the most in the fragrance industry. By sharing my ideas, I will make a positive impact by giving you a thorough understanding of everything - from identifying trends to creating, testing, and marketing fragrances that you need to capture the hearts of your desired customers.
Chapter 5: The Essence of Trendsetting
Many brands play copycat by imitating trends, but the visionary ones create them. That's why I was inspired to write this chapter because I have noticed that most brands tend to follow the crowd, jumping on the trend bandwagon, often too late. Instead of reacting to the market, I believe that if we understand the emotional essence of the zeitgeist, we can proactively create the next big trend rather than just chasing after them.
Chapters 6-11: From Blank Page to Bestseller: Mastering Emotional Fragrance Design
Now it's time to dig in to the fun stuff.
My goal is to change the way you think about creating scents. In chapters 6-11, I will share with you my unique ideaology and emotional fragrance design techniques.
This is about understanding human psychology to design fragrances that truly capture the heart. Scents that tell a compelling story and evoke meaningful memories and emotions.
You'll learn my creative process - how I balance art, empathy for others, and the core princples and practices of perfumery.
I'll share my tips and tricks for crafting memorable, emotionally impacting scents – not just nice scents, but ones people will love, and buy again and again.
Chapter 12: Fact or Fiction
In this chapter, I reveal my secret Fragrance Emotion Matrix for the first time. This is a science-based methodology that helps to measure the emotional impact of fragrances. The matrix is developed based on extensive academic research and allows perfumers, evaluators, and marketers to test if their fragrances are creating the desired emotional reactions. It is an essential tool for anyone who wants to create fragrances that people will love.
Chapter 13: Storyscenting
This chapter is all about marketing that makes scents meaningful. I believe today's fragrance ads fail to connect emotionally. They hype fantasy lifestyles and ingredients but overlook emotion and connections to identity. Storyscenting fixes that gap. It attracts the right customers by highlighting the feelings, memories, and aspirations that fit their scented life stories.
Chapter 14: The Manifesto
This final chapter of the book is a call to action. My goal is to inspire change by making fragrances that evoke good vibes that help people feel good about themselves. This is my motivation for writing this book - to expand perspectives and create fragrances that people will not just like, but truly love!
Conclusion
Look, I'm not going to pretend I have it all figured out. This book is still a work in progress. But after crashing hard, I've found my motivation again by focusing on my purpose and thanks to your support.
There's a lot of work left to do. But I'm ready to bring clarity to the scattered thoughts I have shared with you in the first twenty-two newsletters. So expect big changes and a few surprises as I blend these ideas into a helpful book full of actionable insights.
Overall my goal for this book remains the same – to present a "better" approach to fragrance creation and marketing that capture peoples' hearts.
Once again, thanks for following my writing journey. And please let me know what you think in the comments below or by email. Let's reinvent perfumery together!
In the next edition:
Emotional Tips & Tricks:
Get ready for some good stuff! I'm going to share some of my secrets with you.
See you again in two weeks!week
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Did you enjoy this edition?
Comment below!
Hi Scott,
Thanks again for the newsletter. My “why” for creation keeps getting muddled because it is so crowded and who’s influencing and most popular in this time we’re living in. In the end, I create fragrances that remind me of days gone by, of my youth, I imagine what my mother and grandmother would have worn, so I create fragrances almost in a time machine, because I don’t know what those scents were, but my imagination tells me. Also for the here and now, my daughter and husband gives me their ideas and I create fragrances that a 24 year old likes and men in their 60s like and they seem popular. Another important note, my husband and daughter tell me they can pick my scent out in a crowd, that is not wearing any added fragrances to my body, only my natural scent. That says a lot, as I believe we’re told that this or that will make you attractive or not, it’s all in that first contact, however that may happen.
Looking forward to the rest of the book.