Perfume Documentary Part 3

'The Smell of the Future'

The final episode of this perfume documentary focused on the international markets that are up and coming. The European and American businesses have not enjoyed tremendous success over the past few years as other regions are exploding. New customers do not want all the same thing. 

Russian's like rich and heavy scents.

Chinese want light and airy.

Brazilian's like fruity and floral scents.

Arabia like musky oriental scents that were a rage in Victorian England. 

What we will smell like in the future is likely to be dictated by the customers in Shanghai, Dubai and Sao Paulo. 

In this episode we follow the market research of LYNX's new fragrance that they will be releasing in Brazil because Brazil is perfume obsessed. The market researcher went to Brazil with a sample fragrance for men between the ages of 18-25 to test out. The main aim of this was to see whether or not the scent was memorable enough and also sophisticated enough. The first focus group was not helpful enough but the second focus group was very beneficial for the fragrance brand. It seemed that  the fragrance LYNX came up with was perfect for the Brazilian market as it was fruity and smelt like coconut which was perfect for the target market. 

Another story during the episode was with a washing clothes brand in Brazil which was rather touching. A couple with four children shared two beds and they were extremely poor but the mother said the best moment of the day was when everyone went to sleep as she washed their bedding everyday so that it was fresh and the family smelt nice and fresh as they could not afford perfume. 

I found this perfume series fascinating and I am excited to start our second module on Monday!

Soraya x

Photo credit: http://honestlywtf.com/art/the-lust-list/ 

Perfume Documentary Part 2

"Perfume is believed to be magic worked by science."

"Bottling the Memory"

This episode focused on the making of the scents following three stories - one with a unique fragrance shop owner in New York and the second was perfumer who creates fragrances for Hermes and an exclusive perfume school outside Paris. 

We first meet Christopher Embrosia who owns the shop - 'I hate Perfume' in New York. He aims to find beauty in what is real like Roast Beef and other normal day scents people smell while walking around. He is approached by a man who is an Anglican fan and wants a scent that resembles tweed, old books, old pubs and smoking pipes. 

We then meet Jean Claude Elena, a perfumer from France. He works in the peaceful woods with his lab technician and creates smells that are known as a fantasy. He makes old factory masterpieces with very expensive ingredients. Apparently Jean Claude Elena does not have to make any thing or Hermes until he feels inspired. You cannot ask Elena to create something specific he wants to surprise the brand. Elena was an apprentice at the school of noses - owned by Givaden. 

The Givaden school of noses recruit apprentices that will eventually work for big name brands. That year there were 5 years and some years they take on no one at all!

I found this episode very interesting and loved learning about all the scents and chemistry needed to become a perfumer. The final summary of episode three will be up tomorrow. 

Soraya x

Photo Credits:http://honestlywtf.com/art/the-lust-list/ 

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Perfume Documentary Part 1

Over the course of my two week reading week - we were asked to watch the BBC Four documentary on perfume to prepare for our next module. 

'Something Old, Something New'

Perfume is a multi billion dollar industry where the marketing of the product is just as important as the smell. 

The programme starts in Paris in the House of Guerlain. Guerlain sell grand perfumes which are made from ancient perfumes. The director at the time was Jean Paul Guerlain and his family had made fragrances for 183 years. The Guerlain brand have a tiny share of the world's fragrance market. Guerlain, release on french mothers with a sense of tradition who bring in their daughters to the town house store. The camera's follow a twelve year old girl and her mother as she gets her first Guerlain fragrance. The store say that "get them young and they will stay."

The House of Guerlain have old school promotional methods by inviting female journalists to the Guerlain chateau and introduce new fragrances then. Jean Paul Guerlain was asked whether he likes the big fashion houses making accessible fragrances ... he replied that he hated it. He does not like marketing in general. 

We were then introduced to the new successor of Guerlain; who is outside of the Guerlain family, Thierry Wasser who then took over the company. 

During the episode we were also taken to New York to witness the process of how the new Tommy Hilfiger 'Loud' fragrance which was targeted at the 18-25 year old age group, which was a huge success when launched. Dominant fashion labels like Tommy Hilfiger have made perfume into a fashion item. However, the sales technique for new fragrances is becoming more difficult. 

The New York Times noticed the new found hype of fragrances so have a Fragrance Connoisseur write a column for them. Nowadays, no one becomes attached to a fragrance anymore because fragrances are released more regularly now then before. Fifteen years ago, there would have been a lot less perfume launches. There were around 150 perfume launches a year but in 2011 there were twelve hundred fragrance launches. 

This is just a sum up of the first episode which I highly recommend watching on Youtube. A summary of episode 2 will be up tomorrow!

Soraya x

Photo Credits: http://honestlywtf.com/art/the-lust-list/

Tommy Hilfiger and Guerlain