Environmental brand consulting company Equal Strategy
(Singapore) Pte Ltd has been nominated as a finalist in the British Business
Awards 2007. The British Business Awards recognises and rewards outstanding
British or British related companies in their sector or industry. It is
organised by the British Chamber of Commerce in Singapore.
This year the organiser is presenting
Awards to the top companies in eleven categories most important to the future of
Britain and Singapore's continued economic growth and prosperity. The event is
to be held on 18th October at Swissotel, The Stamford and the Guest of Honour
will be Lord Powell of Bayswater, KCMG, the former Private Secretary and Adviser
on Foreign Affairs and Defence to Prime Ministers Margaret Thatcher and John
Major. To highlight the strong relations between Britain and Singapore the
British High Commissioner will also present an Award on behalf of the British
Government UKTI to a Singapore company for its investment in, and contribution
to Britain.
The finalists and winners have been
selected by a panel of judges who are recognised authorities in their industry
and sector. Mr. Simon A. Faure-Field, founder and CEO of Equal Strategy, said he
was honoured to have been nominated for this prestigious award by the British
Chamber of Commerce.
Mr Faure-Field
is the only consultant in Asia Pacific specializing in combining music with
fragrance to synergise a consistent brand experience for customers. His work is
solidly grounded in behavioural science research and draws extensively upon the
finds of researchers in the field of effects of background music and atmosphere
on retail environments. In the retail arena, studies by Areni and Kim, for
example, noted that music can be a critical component of store atmosphere,
playing a role in the decision-making processes.
Their studies,
and others, show that if shoppers stay longer and travel slowly through a store,
they are likely to purchase more. Another study by Milliman¹
found that the tempo of music can affect a shoper’s pace of movement around the
store. For this reason the music tempo at Borders is slow and relaxed. Creating
the right ambience in a store through music can have other benefits too, such as
facilitating discussion between customers and sales staff, something that can be
carried over into the hospitality field.
Faure-Field
collaborates with world renowned fragrance house Belmay and Australian company
BrandaromaÔ
to design fragrances which can be customised for particular brands. The system,
which creates an aerosolised fragrance deliverable through the property’s air
conditioning system, also has the ability to cancel out malodorous smells like
body odour and residual cooking smells emanating from kitchens and food
preparation areas. OdourfoylÔ
has the ability to actually change the genetic structure of bad smells so that
the brain can no longer recognise them.
Equal Strategy has worked extensively
with major hotel chains like Westin, Starwood and Pan Pacific, as well as
boutiqe properties like M Hotel and the recently opened Naumi, on spatial
branding solutions. In addition, Faure-Field has advised retailers and financial
institutions like Courts, Mercedes-Benz, OCBC Malaysia and Hong Kong and
Shanghai Bank. The company is the only one of its kind in the Asia region
advising forward-thinking retailers and hoteliers on the deployment of these
leading edge sensory brand techniques.
Footnotes
¹ Ronald E.
Milliman, Using Background Music to Affect the Behaviour of Supermarket
Shoppers, Journal of Marketing, Summer 1982.
