Makers of Cleaning Products Pick Up the Scent

Household cleaners, traditionally known for their harsh odors, these days are smelling like a rose.

Taking their cue from the growing popularity of fragrant candles, bath salts and body lotions, marketers are introducing laundry detergents and cleaners with the scents of fruit, flowers and the great outdoors.

Consumers can now wash their clothes in grape-scented laundry detergent and tumble them with “spring breeze” dryer sheets.

Analysts say shoppers are searching for alternatives that introduce a pleasant smell rather than merely mask an odor.

The grape-scented Surf detergent is from Unilever. There’s also Fabuloso lavender surface cleaner from Colgate-Palmolive, and “country-fresh” Raid insecticide from S.C. Johnson & Son.

Clorox recently introduced Rain Clean and Floral Fresh bleaches, and Reckitt & Colman now offers Lysol disinfectants in Mountain Air, Country Scent and Clean Linen.

These offerings are the latest twist in the winding road of household cleaning products. Baby boomers grew up with the heavy scent of pine. By the 1980s, consumers were snapping up products infused with the fragrance of lemon.

But “people have gotten a lot more sophisticated than lemon. They want more drama in their household,” said Annette Green, president of the Fragrance Foundation, a New York-based trade group. “People aren’t looking for a way to cover up. Instead, they want to add something that is attractive to the environment.”

The companies say the new products do more than make a home smell clean--they lift the mood of the people using them. The pleasant-smelling detergents can make cleaning seem like less of a chore, they say.

“In the past, fragrances reinforced functionality--clean and fresh. Now consumers want something more pleasurable and aesthetic,” said Debbie Coccaro, vice president of laundry and household-care development at Unilever.

Scents make economic sense for household-product manufacturers, who can use them to breathe new life into older brands. Oakland-based Clorox saw bleach sales rise with the introduction of its scented products, officials said.

“It gives consumers another choice,” said Marilyn Blood, spokeswoman for S.C. Johnson, which uses its potpourri scent in air fresheners and glass and toilet bowl cleaners. Last year, the Wisconsin-based company posted $342.7 million in air freshener sales, according to Information Resources, a market research firm. Popular scents include strawberry, apple-cinnamon and peach.

As with personal products, where the same fragrance is used in lotions, bubble bath, and soaps--household cleaners use the same scent across product lines. Procter & Gamble makes Mountain Fresh bleach, detergent, dishwashing soap and dryer sheets.

Some household cleaner advertisements mimic those produced for personal care, by showcasing tantalizing scents, relaxed moods and exotic locales.

“The focus has become fragrance rather than form. Bath stores have helped consumers understand that a product can work and smell good,” said Deborah Bornstein, marketing director for New York-based International Flavors & Fragrances, the nation’s largest flavor and fragrance maker.

Observers credit stores such as Bath & Body Works, a unit of Limited, for getting consumers to incorporate fragrance into their daily routines, paving the way for scented household products. Bath & Body Works rang up sales of $1 billion last year with its shower gels and lotions that smell like raspberries, peaches and apples.

Some scents are more abstraction than fragrance. “It’s more of a feeling. There’s definitely a trend toward fantasy scents,” said Clorox representative Sandy Sullivan. (The company has even introduced a Rain Clean version of its PineSol cleaner.)

While lemon is still available in many products, that scent has played itself out in a market driven by the new and improved, experts say.

“We can do a peely lemon, a sweet lemon--but no matter what you do, it’s still just a lemon,” said Bob Maleeny, president of Flavor & Fragrance Specialties, a New Jersey company that develops scents for marketers.

Consumer attitudes have also changed. Cleaners no longer need to emit industrial-strength odors to convince people they work.

“We’re . . . redefining clean,” said Gail Vance Ceville, president of Sensory Spectrum, a New Jersey consulting firm.

Companies may wax poetic about the current crop of smells--”an open window” or “sunshine”--but a scent’s ability to influence mood may actually be what entices shoppers.

Red berries evoke a happy, warm feeling, while pears create a sparkling, light mood, said Benedicte Bron, a fragrance evaluator with International Flavors & Fragrances. Peaches contribute a delicate sensuality; citrus means fresh and clean.

Though highly toxic cleaners that smell good enough to eat may worry parents of small children, the Consumer Product Safety Commission says such products have not led to any increase in accidental poisonings.

Many of the products contain little if any extract of the fruits and flowers they emulate. According to the Chicago-based Smell and Taste Treatment and Research Foundation, consumers prefer fake scents because they are more intense than the real thing.

“Very few people can recall what real raspberries smell like. Artificial scents are more recognized,” foundation director Alan Hirsch said. “We’ve become nostalgic for man-made scents.”