commercaire

[einstein]

I was looking through business news on Lexis-Nexis and found an article on Commercaire. I deleted some boring parts. There is another article here

In the face of a sluggish economy and decreased consumer spending, a growing number of retailers are beating the odds by infusing their establishments with a synthetic human pheromone designed to stimulate sales. Originally contracted to design a specialized pheromone compound for use by a major Las Vegas casino, Vancouver-based Enhanced Air Technologies (EAT) is pioneering the field. The firm has released its Commercaire (www.commercaire.com) pheromone, a powerful compound that causes consumers to feel a subconscious sense of comfort and security, which in turn causes them to stay longer and ultimately spend more.
"The compound doesn't cause consumers to get into a spending frenzy so much as it causes them feel more at ease in an environment and more receptive to sales messages," says Nigel Malkin, Director of Development. Consumers also tend to return more frequently to establishments infused with Commercaire. "At a subconscious level, the sense of comfort and security instilled by the compound causes consumers to have positive memories of any environment in which they are exposed to it. They're more likely to return as a result," says Malkin.
Commercaire is suspended in a gel that evaporates into the air over time with the aid of EAT's air distribution systems. Although Commercaire is unscented, EAT has produced scented 'private label' versions of its product for four major retailers. "Our air distribution systems provided a solution for dispersing our clients' branded scents more effectively," says Malkin.

This article was from mid January. I went to thier website to see if they sold to regular guys, and it seems the world isn't ready for it yet. www.commercaire.com

[oscar]

einstein,

At first glance the article you posted looks like a re-run of information already posted on the forum. In fact the topic was breached just days after the announcement of the product release on this thread.

BUT, taking into account the announcement of the ABANDONMENT of the project that is revealed in the www.commercaire.com statement linked at the bottom of your post, I'd say that this is FAR from being "old news".

Public Notice: Enhanced Air Technologies decided to remove our Commecaire pheromone products from the market voluntarily in January of this year (2004), only two weeks after our official product launch. While the Commercaire product is a harmless blend of naturally occurring pheromones, we had not foreseen how controversial the product would be. Nor had we foreseen some of the potential negative ramifications or potential misuses of our product line by various industries. Finally, a few concerned consumers and consumer groups contacted us to raise concerns that we shared about potential misuse of our products. Given the strong interest and demand, it was a difficult decision, but we felt it was the ethical decision to make. Should you have any questions about Enhanced Air Technologies, you may email us at: info@enhancedairtechnologies.com

After reading the enthusiasm in the original press releases, and then reading of the seemingly quick, easy, surrender to "concerns" resulting in the shelving of the project, it all just seemed rather suspicious to me. (Those who know me can tell you that I'm a fairly sceptical, suspicious person by nature. )

If I were a stockholder in EAT, or otherwise had any interest in the project, creative or financial, I'd be compelled to ask the following questions:

"Are you telling me that after spending all the money and time that it took to develop this project, you're abandoning it only two weeks after the product rollout based on the opinions of "a few concerned consumers and consumer groups"?

Did it NOT occur to you at any point during the Research and Development phases of this endeavor that there may be some objection to the utilization of this concept for commercial purposes?

Wouldn't it have been a more judicious business strategy to respond to the concerns of the project's critics by entering into a sincere dialog with them while continuing to advance the business at least until such time that it was estopped by means of something more consequential than mere "concerns", say a court order?

Why did you give up so easily?"

My guess would be that this project was never really abandoned at all. I'd speculate that either EAT decided to take the tact of marketing their product more discreetly, or sold it someone who will. Nobody who's a good businessperson or who has the courage of his/her convictions would have folded so readily.

I ain't buyin' it. No sir, I ain't buyin' it one little bit!

Oscar

[koolking1]

I was hoping it was for real as we've got a house on the market and I've been thinking about pheromones as an aid to selling it.

[oscar]

koolking1,

You don't need a sophisticated delivery system or a gel based pheromone product to make this idea work.
If you have a central air conditioning/heating system you can just pull out the filter an hour or so before prospective buyers are scheduled to show up and spray the filter liberally with your phero of choice.
To sell a house I suppose I would want to try an A-Nol product, or maybe something like WAGG or Chikara.

If hosting a party, especially the kind of party that YOU would be likely to host, , you might want to go with some A-None and Copulins on the filter too. Even if the outdoor temperature doesn't warrant air conditioning or heating, most forced air systems have a "fan on" option that provides constant circulation to keep the pheros dispersing.

The same effect can be achieved by spraying the filter of a window mounted A/C unit.

During heating season, those central units with humidification units can have liquid pheros added to their reservoirs. Those with hot water or steam heat can lay a phero sprayed towel over a radiator.

Of course there are nebulizers and diffusers too, but so far all these other suggestions haven't actually involved BUYING anything!

Oscar

[einstein]

Oscar, I thought about that too after I made my post. I had done a google search, and seen them listed in a casino vendors directory. EAT has been supplying casinos since 2002. I'm guessing casinos and casino owners still have a lot of power and influence, wouldn't want to give up a product they had been successfully using for two years. Guess its time to email them...

Koolking, you could also try making candles to disperse pheromones through the air. The guys at BDC have instructions at the bottom of this page

[bjf]

"Our company, House of Rose, uses laboratory certified human pheromones. These are from the same manufacturer that Harrod's of London uses in their air circulating system to increase shopper purchases."