Beauty Industry

IFF’s Sound Logo Shows Scent as a Multi-Sensory Experience

The sound represents how scent plays a key role to awaken the extraordinary senses.

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By: Marie Redding

Senior Editor


IFF created a new sound logo that represents how scent plays a key role “to awaken the extraordinary senses,” the company says. 

IFF’s sound logo was developed with Paris-based sound research lab IRCAM Amplify.

Named “World of Scents,” the logo represents IFF’s creative and pioneering ambitions, and the human experience they aim to evoke.

To develop the sound logo, IFF, and IRCAM Amplify explored the emotional connections between sound and scent. They conducted a ground-breaking study showing that a purposefully designed sound increased scent purchase intent by nearly 60 percent in an e-commerce site.

“Scent and sound are both invisible but have a profound impact on sensory perception,” said Sergio Gelernter, chief marketing officer, Scent, IFF. “Creating a sound which digitally represents our scent capabilities is one way to elevate how our creators awaken the extraordinary senses for a better world.”

To create the “World of Scents” sound logo, the IFF and IRCAM Amplify teams used the Amplify SPEAK methodology, drawing inspiration from the vision of IFF’s Scent division.

The musical components give a balance between acoustic instruments and electronic production:

  • Human sounds that bring closeness and incarnation, represent the extraordinary human, the core of everything IFF does.
  • An upbeat dance music groove provides modernity and an uplifting feeling, while ambient and glass textures bring transparency and harmony.
  • World instruments (rain stick, marimba, nyatiti, flute, shakers) and reggaeton-inspired rhythms open the sound signature to an international and culturally diverse scope.
“With this partnership, our team of sound designers brings a science-based process to create sound for emotional impact, which we’ve found to be at the heart of the IFF approach,” said Nathalie Birocheau, CEO of IRCAM Amplify.

A world leader in scent creation, IFF has a long history of understanding the multi-sensory dimensions of fragrances, using a combination of neuroscience, more than 40 years of gathering consumer data and an in-house AI tool.

To listen to the sound logo and to learn more, visit here.

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