It seems that all you need these days to make a splash in the fragrance market, is a wacky idea and then its all systems go.

There have been quite a few new launches that are using scent to help promote brands, and I have picked out some of the unusual attempts to share with you today….

Our nation as a whole has a reputation of being heavy tea drinkers, and so Tetleys have taken this on board and designed ‘Le Brew’ – a limited edition tea scented perfume. In addition to the tea note (which in itself isn’t unusual, think Elizabeth Arden Green Tea amongst others), the perfume also has notes of clary sage and oak moss which are designed to give the fragrance a fresh spring like feel. The bottle is available on Tetleys eBay site for the princely sum of £15, and in my opinion it might be a worthwhile investment just for the novelty value.

Never seen as a company to be out of the limelight, even Microsoft have jumped on the fragrance bandwagon with the launch of 2 fragrances under the umbrella name of Liquid Money. These are broken down into a his and hers duo set, and have been underwritten by Vice President Patrick McCarthy. Designed to enhance self confidence, the bottles are said to contain the aroma of freshly minted dollar bills alongside notes such as pink grapefruit and Hawaiian wedding flowers. The bottle is packed with shredded US dollar bills –  a brilliant marketing concept in my opinion. And in another shrewd move, Mr McCarthy has trademarked the word ‘Money’ in relation to fragrance, obviously with a view to launch further perfumes along the line.

The next one I found spins quite a tail (pardon the pun!). It involves a Parisienne butcher by the name of John Fargginay in the 1920′s. Apparently the story goes that he could elevate his customers mood by a secret blend of 11 pure essential oils and the addition of – wait for it – a bacon aroma. After a massive fire on July 4th, 1924, the recipe was seemingly lost in the realms of legend. Well, that is until now! The magical elixier has been recreated by a certain John Leydon, and there are now 2 versions in the range – Bacon Classic and Bacon Gold. The fragrances were launched in April and already there have been well over 5,ooo orders at $36 each, a nice little earner if you ask me.

And finally on another strange note, an Italian fragrance brand, Blood Concept, have launched a range of fragrances  based on different blood types. The designers Giovanni Castelli and Antonio Zuddas  have spent years perfecting the range. At the moment there are 4 main types, A, B, AB and O. Each has a metallic base tang that supposedly denotes the element of iron found in blood. Each is sold in a recreation of an ancient medicine bottle complete with dropper to give an authentic final twist. When asked what the original concept was the designers replied with the following…’the odours trace the evolution of manhood through time, and its evolution of information, history and mutation, so well kept in the vital flushing of blood’ ……..??? nope – I didnt get it either, but if anyone does then please feel free to explain in laymans terms.

I could carry on, as the norm seems to be the more unusual and fantastical the better but I thought it would be nice if we could get some ideas for scent marketing going ourselves just to see what we could come up with, go on…..give it a try and leave me a reply, and on that note i’ll leave it up to yourselves to check out the route Lady GaGa is going down for her new perfume!! Bye for now…..