Ah, the sweet scent of success: firm's perfume-sampling product gives magazine readers whiff of fragrance.Ten years ago, Elaine Trebek wanted to start her own mail-order business, but she needed money. She had "gone through" most of the money she got in her 1981 divorce settlement from game show host Alex Trebek George Alexander Trebek (born as Giorgi Suka-Alex Trebek [1] on July 22, 1940) is an Emmy Award-winning Canadian-American television personality and game show host, best known as the host of the game show Jeopardy! since September 10, 1984. . So she sold a pair of diamond earrings her ex-husband had given her. She replaced them with cubic zirconia cubic zirconia n. A synthetic gemstone, ZrO2, used in jewelry as an artificial diamond. look-alikes so he wouldn't notice. She started her company with the $7,000 in proceeds, and things went well. She branched out into advertising inserts under the name Ad-Sert Group. Then about three years ago, Elaine Trebek-Kares (now the wife of movie industry executive Peter Kares) saw an opportunity to get in on the ground floor of a new business with great potential. She secured exclusive rights to market a new perfume-sampling product that seals a small bit of fragrance under a flap on a magazine ad -- without leakage prior to breaking the seal. Her new company, Los Angeles-based Scent Seal Inc., was born. In its first 18 months on the market, Scent Seal produced 400 million units and generated more than $20 million in revenue, and business keeps growing. Offices in three cities The Three Cities is a collective description of the three fortified cities of Cospicua, Vittoriosa, and Senglea on the Island of Malta, which are enclosed by the massive line of fortification created by the Knights of St John, the Cottonera Lines. "I have bigger diamond earrings now," says Trebek-Kares, who also has offices and apartments in New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of and Paris and seems a bit overwhelmed by her own success. "It's a nightmare and a dream to have the kind of success we've had." Scent Seal's main competition is from companies that make ScentStrip, Scratch 'n Sniff products and pull-apart powder strips. The advantage of Scent Seal is that the product is hermetically her·met·ic also her·met·i·cal adj. 1. Completely sealed, especially against the escape or entry of air. 2. Impervious to outside interference or influence: sealed and emits no smell until opened. Also, the product claims to preserve a truer rendition of the perfume product. Clients of Scent Seal report a better customer response rate than with other ad sample systems. When Scent Seal first arrived on the market in 1993, Trebek-Kares says it was competitively priced, but then the makers of other products dropped their prices. "Some dropped them up to 60 percent," she says. "It's a jungle out there." Scent Seal was actually developed by Massachusetts-based Thermedics Inc. (a publicly traded company publicly traded company A company whose shares of common stock are held by the public and are available for purchase by investors. The shares of publicly traded firms are bought and sold on the organized exchanges or in the over-the-counter market. on the American Stock Exchange American Stock Exchange (AMEX) Stock exchange in the U.S. Originally known as “the Curb,” it began as an outdoor marketplace in New York City c. 1850. It moved indoors to its present location in the Wall Street area in 1921. ), and the seals are still made in Massachusetts (by Labels Inc.). Thermedics is a subsidiary of Fortune 500 company Thermo Electron, which is listed on the New York Stock Exchange New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) World's largest marketplace for securities. The exchange began as an informal meeting of 24 men in 1792 on what is now Wall Street in New York City. . Branching out Trebek-Kares says she is negotiating to acquire the license on the "chemistry" behind the product from Thermedics and bring the entire operation within Scent Seal Inc., of which she is sole owner and president. She also is looking for Looking for In the context of general equities, this describing a buy interest in which a dealer is asked to offer stock, often involving a capital commitment. Antithesis of in touch with. investors and/or partners so the company can "add more capacity." Scent Seal recently branched out into food scents, putting together an ad for Kraft General Foods' International Coffee that featured a seal covering a solid scent product with the aroma of Kahlua Cafe. The ad appeared in People magazine in October. Ad-Sert Group now has an infomercial program called Looking Grrreat (named after a special monthly magazine section) that is hosted by Trebek-Kares' daughter, 28-year-old singer Nicky Trebek. Viewer-customers who buy fashion bags are treated to free samples of Ad-Sert clients' beauty products. "I'm generally proud of what we've done here," Trebek-Kares says. |
|
||||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion