The Fragrance Exploratorium is situated in the atrium of our company where we receive about 50 visitors a day. It is designed to educate people about fragrance. It is also designed to educate us, because as people are exploring the fragrances, it is quietly gathering information. We describe it as a consumer understanding tool. If you make something as attractive as this, you basically disguise the fact that it is research.
People obviously enjoy their experience.
It is certainly very cost effective for us, and we also have the convenience of having on-line market research. If we have a new fragrance to try, we can put it on the Exploratorium and get immediate reactions, which is much faster than commissioning research with focus groups. IML's people meter handsets were used to great effect in the technology session at this year's MRS conference. Alistair Whitmore, director at MORI, regularly uses them to objectify audience research using focus groups. The handsets feature a knob or dial to allow a measurement on a continuous scale.