J. FIELDS
By Nila Harris
In the early 2000s, Proctor & Gamble had around 250 perfumers in the United States and approximately 1,200 globally. Surprisingly, four of those perfumers came from Pendleton County—Bill Whitehead, Carol Aulick Clark, Jack Cummins, and Jerry Fields.
Fields’ 32-year career with P&G began when a friend at church, Bill Whitehead, asked if Fields wanted to take a smelling test to qualify to work in his Flavor and Fragrance Group. The 3-day testing of fragrances and flavors was successful and Fields “started as a flavorist for toothpastes, mouthwashes, and chewing gum and then transitioned into fragrances.”
After Fields got out of the US Air Force, he received a BS degree in chemistry, which was a prerequisite for product development work at P&G. He became a Section Head of Perfumery and managed a team of perfumers and suppliers to create the best fragrances all around the world. Consumers in different countries have different tastes. According to Fields, getting Japanese consumers to pick the best scent could be challenging, because they are polite and do not want to appear negative!
“Many people don’t realize that the products they use daily have a fragrance in them. And that consumers pick products primarily by how much they like the fragrances in those products. Soaps, detergents, shampoos, air fresheners, cat litters, garbage bags, lipsticks, furniture polishes, and of course perfumes and colognes all have fragrances. P&G is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of products using fragrances,” informs Fields. He goes on to say that consumers expect certain additional things with the products: Soap should smell soapy, whereas shampoo should have a “clean” attribute. “There are over 3,000 molecules and natural essential oils that have scent. It is the perfumer’s job to combine these ingredients into a fragrance. After perfumers select one of their creations as best for the product, they are sent to an Evaluation board or Consumer Research group which hosts hundreds of consumers each day to try new products and evaluate fragrances and select the best ones. P&G is rigidly committed to product safety, so all fragrances are thoroughly tested and found safe before any consumer ever sees them.”
An interesting/challenging time of his career was when consumer preferences shifted to natural and unscented. During this new concept phase, panelists would come in, fill out a questionnaire, and nearly everyone said they wanted no fragrance. Next, they had to smell freshly washed towels and sheets. “Nearly 100% rejected the unscented piles and picked the fragranced piles. The funny thing about that was, their proclamation while pointing to the fragranced piles—‘That’s what I’m talking about—unscented!’ So creating fragrances for consumer expectations can be tricky.”
Fields daughter Marvel followed in dad’s footsteps and became a perfumer too. She is Director of Perfumery for a company in Chicago. She is also Chairman Emeritus of the American Society of Perfumers. His granddaughter Chloe “has a good nose too; she’s studying science…who knows?” And while not a perfumer, Fields’ son Marshall just celebrated his 30th year at P&G in Lima, OH. Fields and his wife Dora Helen, longtime Pendleton County residents and community helpers, currently reside in Chicago near their daughter Marvel.