Every couple of months a new article on Making Sense of Scents will be available here We hope you find them interesting. If you do find these articles thought- provoking please tell your perfumed buddies to tune in!

MAKING SENSE OF SCENTS 3

The first thing to say is that this is very much a broad based reflection of the perfume market today, and is response to questions from many readers to try and gain some idea of the key differences between celebrity fragrances and designer / fragrance house perfumes. Of course some designers are celebrities and vice- versa, which is why the line drawn can only be done so with a grey pencil. THERE ARE EXCEPTIONS to these broad ideas so please don't flood us with negative commentary. The whole idea about this page is to get you to think. By all means comment on your own perfumista sites and by all means add your own views to the fray.

After all, the title of this page, Making sense of Scents means exactly that. It is an attempt, albeit small, to make some sense of a $23 billion market that is very much a "black box" (tied with ribbon) to many. Equally the statements made may be common knowledge to you, so we apologise in advance for stating the obvious.

There is no doubt celebrity brands have broadened the market place, and with their pricing made the perfume market more accessible to a wider audience, but as the saying goes, like everything in life, "you get what you pay for!"

THE SUCCESS OF ALL PRODUCTS DEPENDS ON HAVING THEIR FIVE CHERRIES IN A ROW. These five "P's" n a pod are Product (perfume in this case) package, place promotion and price. Get these right for the particular consumer you have in mind and you should have a success on your hands.

cherries

	Most Celebrity Brands and some designer fragrances	Some Designer Fragrances and Most Fragrance Houses
PERFUME	Created over 5 weeks to 5 months max. Creative perfumer usually not named. A mix of synthetic, nature- identical and natural. Predominantly the first two. N.B. synthetics are from coal and oil which were plants millions of years ago so don’t get too hung up on this Emphasis is on the packaging/promotion	Can take up to two to five years to create. Creative Perfumer usually named. A mix of natural, nature identical and synthetic- predominantly the first two. Emphasis is on the juice.
PACKAGE	Does not give fragrance description. Tends to be “cheap and cheerful”	In the main does not give fragrance description, or gives summarised version. Tends to be more upmarket
PLACE	Lower to middle retail outlets Lifespan of many months- sometimes linked to the “15 minutes of fame” Younger audience (teen to early 20’s) Can be found on "Smells R us" sites	Middle to Prestige retail outlets Sometimes exclusive Normal life span of many years Older audience (25’s plus) Not normally found on "Smells R us" sites
PROMOTION	Celebrity razzle- dazzle Organised by specialist Companies	Fashion and beauty In house management of PR/advertising
PRICE	to * ($30 to $45 for 50 ml) Q1 2010	** to *** ($55 to $85 for 50 ml) Q1 2010