The Founder’s Formula: Each month, Cosmoprof North America profiles founders to learn more about their journey, why they attend CPNA, and how the show helps their brand grow.
This month we heard from Caroline Fabrigas, a renowned industry veteran who is CEO of Scent Marketing and Scentfluence.
The Inspiration Behind the Brand: Caroline has worked with beauty leaders, including Clarins and co-created Farmacy Beauty. She inherited Scent Marketing Inc. after the sudden death of her husband Harald Vogt. A global advertising expert, Harald valued the power of scent as a marketing tool. “He was an advertising executive who believed that scent is one of the most underutilized senses in communicating brand messages. You can often recall an experience more quickly with scent than any other sense.”
Honoring his memory, Caroline built the company from an indie start-up to a vibrant company, bringing the power of scent across many touchpoints (while managing her active Beautyfluence consulting firm to help self fund her growing family business.).
Caroline knew how to market beauty, the learning curve for her was understanding the technical aspects. “This business is equal parts art and science,” she adds.
Today, Scent Marketing Inc. fragrances the air in luxury hotels (1 Hotel, Auberge Resorts Collection, Baccarat, Hyatt & Mandarin Oriental Residences to name a few), in luxury real estate, fitness centers, and many other large and small businesses looking for signature scents. The scent is diffused in professional space cold mist scent systems, and developed into retail ready products such as candles, room sprays, reed diffusers. “We created a signature scent for Wayfair last year for the launch of their new 150,000 square feet store in Chicago and created a candle.”
Scentfluence is the consumer-facing arm of her company, offering people the chance to bring their favorite fragrances into their homes. During the pandemic, Caroline opened a retail pop-up store. “I figured let me put my beauty and retail background to use,” she explains. The store was so successful it is still operational today and has led to an exciting website. “Scentfluence.com which is fast becoming the destination for scents of all your favorite places and spaces”.
The Road to Cosmoprof North America: Strategies for Success
“I grew up in the beauty industry, and I actually think I went to the very first Cosmoprof many years ago in Las Vegas,” says Caroline, who attended the shows at the time representing several major beauty brands.
Las Vegas also plays a special role in her business since scenting for casinos was one of the first venues to be touched by the power of scent marketing. Caroline was introduced to the Cosmoprof North America team through a friend at The Fragrance Foundation. The result was a custom scent created for the inaugural launch of the Miami edition of Cosmoprof North America last year. That was followed by scenting for last July’s Las Vegas event and a return to Cosmoprof North Americas Miami for a second year.
She creates her pop-up store’s ambiance with her library of scents and custom options at her booths at Cosmoprof North America.
In addition to formulating the special scents, Caroline spoke on an educational panel during the Miami meeting with Farah K. Ahmed, president and CEO of the Fragrance Creators Association, and Sumit Bhasin, SVP Global Fragrance Innovation at The Estee Lauder Companies. “It was a powerful panel,” she says, underlining the importance of the educational programs.
Caroline values the combination of seeing friends and colleagues and exposure to the latest industry trends across all beauty sectors Cosmoprof North America offers. “You learn about new and inventive things you would otherwise know. For us, we also got a chance to have a booth and share our work.”
The Pay Off:
“Our booth was fantastic because we got to meet distributors from around the world, as well as people from the B2B side, new fragrances houses, new labs, componentry resources, retailers, and those who want our products in their salons and spas,” she says. There were also people stopping in who loved her company’s hotel fragrances, and she referred them to her website to purchase for home. “We definitely noticed a lift in our business after the show.”
She’s also excited about the potential of Cosmoprof’s North Americas upcoming Beauty New York event that will unite consumers, influencers, brands, and retailers for networking and education opportunities.
Participating in Cosmoprof’s North Americas Discover Beauty has generated a buzz for both of sides of her company, Scent Marketing Inc and consumer facing Scentfluence. She’s nurtured relationships with the bevy of spas and salons at the show looking for signature scents. “And we attracted customers who love our hotel scents and want to experience them at home.”
Cosmoprof North Americas has become a key part of our annual business development and go to market plan.
Categorized in: Founder Focus