MEASURING THE MEANING OF FRAGRANCE 767 hundred respondents to give stable findings. That is a practical ad- vantage. A more significant, fundamental difference lies in the fact that the traditional tests, by centering only on the questions, "How much do you like this sample?" or "Which do you prefer?", have, in effect, assumed that the evaluative dimension, the question of pleasing- ness, is the only relevant one, the only one which determines consumer behavior toward the product. We know that this is not true. One cannot help wondering how far beer, cigarettes or coffee would have gone in the marketplace if at their first exposure to the consuming public they would have been accompanied by a questionnaire asking, "How much do you like this new product ?" Since aspects other than pleasant- ness do influence consumer acceptance of a product, new techniques to measure these other aspects can and will lead to important advances in acceptance prediction. CONCLUSION The techniques for measuring the meaning of fragrance discussed in this paper, namely, profiling, the semantic differential, and multidimen- sional scaling, are new and we still have to learn a lot about how to use them. We have to learn, among other things, how to choose those ad- jectives for our questionnaires which will give the most useful informa- tion how best to select the samples or concepts to be included in a test (for what we learn about one sample depends on what other samples are tested alongside with it) and how to interpret the space models ob- tained in multidimensional scaling. We shall learn these things, and in so doing we shall be forging powerful tools for the perfumer and for the marketing expert. To the perfumer, these techniques will provide a more direct and clear means of communication with the consumer than he has had up to now. By setting up, through the kinds of tests we have discussed, a feedback system and a continuing dialogue with his public, the perfumer will learn more and more precisely what it is about a fragrance that makes the public perceive it as sexy, as refreshing, as dull, or as masculine. If the marketing group has determined that the new baby powder that is being developed should be perceived by the public as being more cool, gentle, and wholesome than those currently available, the perfumer can use his dialogue with the public to guide him towards a fragrance which is cool, gentle, wholesome, and baby-like. Also, the dialogue makes possible a creative rather than slavish imitation of competitors' successful prod- ucts. To the marketing expert, these testing methods will provide

768 JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY OF COSMETIC CHEMISTS better, more subtle, and more reliable means of predicting consumer ac- ceptance of new products and new fragrances. The tests will be the more valuable the more different the new product is from existing, fa- miliar ones. Finally, and maybe most importantly: if both the laboratories and marketing groups start using these tests and adopt the relationship to the consumer which the tests imply, a better understanding and closer cooperation between the two groups will be the inevitable outcome. No one can deny that this would be a good thing. (Received March 20, 1967) (12) (13) (14) (15) REFERENCES (1) Osgood, C. E., Suci, G. J., and Tannenbaum, P. H., The Measurement of Meaning, Uni- versity of Illinois Press, Urbana, Ii1., 1957. (2) Jellinek, P., Die psychologischen Grundlagen der Parfumerie, 2nd ed., Huthig Verlag, Heidelberg, 1965. (3) Paukner, E., Parfuem. Kosmetik, 39,759 (1958). (4) Paukner, E., J. Soc. Cosmetic Chemists, 11, 517 (1960) cf. Am. Perfumer, 79 (2), 37 (1964). (5) Poffenberger, A. T., Psychology of Advertising, New York, 1932. (6) Paukner, E., J. Soc. Cosmetic Chemists, 16, 515 (1965). (7) Steffire, V., Am. Behavioral Scientist, 8 (9), 12 (1965). (8) Randebrock, R., J. Soc. Cosmetic Chemists, 16,653 (1965). (9) Wenzel, B. M., and Sleek, M. H., Ann. Rev. Physiol., 28,381 (1966). (10) Torgerson, W. S., Theory and methods of scaling, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York, 1958. (11) Woskow, M. H., Multidimensional Scaling of Odors, Ph.D. thesis, Univ. of Calif., Los Angeles, 1964 University Microfilms, Ann Arbor, Mich. /•!64-6198. Schutz, H. G., Ann. N.Y. •4cad. Sci., 116 (2), 517 (1964). Yoshida, M., Japan. Psychol. J., 6 (3), 115 (1964). Arnoore, J. E., and Venstrom, D., J. Food Sci., 31, 118 (1966). Barnctt, N. L., Market structure analysis: An exploratory application to the market for market research techniques and services, Ph.D. thesis, Harvard University, Chap- ter 2 (1966).