Fragrant greetings on this Friday, January 6, from Zurich. This Friday sees me writing a few commercial invoices for boxes that go into airplanes and fly over the seas and mountains over the weekend. It sees me on the phone, talking to retailers interested in my brand, and talking to suppliers who supply too slow, and this Friday sees me continuing trying to lay out a few facts and figures in Excel. And lay out the consequences: All fact based. Only cruel brutal number facts. No Andy in wonderland hopping around allowed.
I give you one example. We did these wonderful fragrant cards, printed, with relief, and soaked in the scent of Carillon pour un ange, individually wrapped in a little transparent bag, sealed. We used them to give these during the launch of the Carillon pour un ange, a little gift for clients, so they could take the scent with them home. And many orders, especially sample sets, leaving my house do so with one of these cards, with a hand written note on the transparent bag. (Sometimes, when giving free samples with perfume orders, I write on the back of the sample hanger directly.)
Anyhow: We put a good pile of money onto the table to get these scented cards done. We did thousands. We still have a few hundred and then they will be gone. I get a lot of mails, where perfume lovers tell me what they received and that they like this and that or did not like this and that. Not one word on these cards, though. I am not sure they were even used in the shops. And I saw on youtube once a video, one of these cool unpacking videos that I find thrilling like a crime story, especially when they unpack my products, and I am sure the guy doing the unpacking did not even realize that the cards are scented…
Thus, fact based and without Andy hopping in wonderland: These cards were wonderful, a great design, a perfect encapsulation of the scent, but a failure. A complete failure. Too expensive, not understood, not used, never asked for by retailers. A simple printed card, printed in 10’000 pieces, for 1/20th of the scented card’s price would have done the job. Better. Because they would be understood. And appreciated.
This is what I do these days: I comb through my universe of bottles and caps and labels and cards and all the tools that we built. Many of which have worked wonders for my venture. Analyzing where I stand. Based on this Excel I will move on. And the pendulum will swing back and forward at the same time.
Ah, and yes! I will start smelling my beloved apricot all natural oil in some seriousness, and maybe even do a little mix, thinking apricot, patchouli, rose. Ah… roses! In Excel, too.
Goodmorning to you Andy,
so you have a very busy day with those obligatory tasks one cannot avoid in life.
About the fragrant card, I have one too that I keep in my handbag. Sometimes I am in places like a hospital eg. and to feel in contact with the good moments in life I take it out and smell it. It makes me feel better. I have told about it to family and friends and showed it to them and we all think these cards are really special. What I want to say is that this card is very much appreciated! I understand that you choose to stop using them because they are costly and too much unnoticed. Hmm.. could I buy some that are not used? That way I can carry other of your beauties with me when I cannot wear them.
Have a good day!!
Marianne xoxo
Andy I the card with Carillon intense with samples. I still have it and occasionally smell it. I thought it was very nice from you to enclose it to the package and that you wrote a note on it. Thank you again for that!
Ambra sketch and apricot, patchouli, rose . . . and maybe a bit of castoreum and cumin, but very little so as not to frighten the horses . . . mmhhh
Marianne said something interesting in my opinion. You could offer standalone scented cards at the same price of samples perhaps. They would be very appreciated.
Anyway, you can consider yourself lucky to be able to deal with retailers and suppliers on the 6th of January, in Italy it’s holiday because of the Epiphany, and no one would be available right now…
OK. Maybe I had to admit a little mistake. Maybe these cards were more appreciated than I actually thought. At least by individuals who got them together with orders.
I thank you for your note, Marianne and Civava. It is always interesting to hear and learn from the other side.
Merci!
Sebastiano and Marianne. Isn’t this odd? I never ever even thought about it. I guess I am not really a good sales person….
Really, not understood? I loved my card, the beauty of the design, the fragrance and the hand written message. It’s beautiful and has it’s place in my perfume cupboard next to your perfumes. Happy New Year
I have two of the carillon cards, and I have been very impressed with the strength of the scent captured and it’s longevity. I wouldn’t buy a scented card instead of a sample though. Carillon on the card was not for me (though the lily of the valley captured is incredible), while I found carillon on my skin worked surprisingly well (it’s the top notes mellowing a bit I think). I would think the ideal for these cards would be as hand outs in stores, when you don’t want to spray and mess with samples too much after a while; these cards would be really practical. Maybe it’s hard to get that idea through though? I don’t know, but I do know I appreciate the dedication that goes in to an idea such as this…
Fragrant greetings, Pär
thank you for letting me know your thoughts. It is quite amazing: I do not think that those shops /retailers who got them actually appreciated them that much….. But I am also amazed how well the fragrance binds to the fiber fabric of the cards.
A lovely weekend to you!
Hi Andy,
My husband is preparing dinner and I am reading your blog (as I do every day) and I totally subscribe wat other readers say about the scented cards. I have two of them when I ordered your samples in the beautiful metal boxes and thought it was so sweet of you to do that. It makes it so personal. They still smell so nice.But I understand your thoughts about the costs.
Today wearing (sample) of Verdant. I received many compliments!
Have a nice weekend!!
Andy, I fully support you discontinuing the scented cards if they are not effective for you. But I thought you might like know how I used it: to scent my underwear drawer!
Happy Three Kings Day!! to go w/ this is the classic carol `We Three Kings“AND I`ve nothing but L.O.V.E. for my scented pair of cards – the Wise Men could leave these in my shoes anytime!!
Oh, wow, Marry, you are brave! Thus, you seem to wear it well, my green scent . Enjoy!
Oh, wow, BreathesGelatin, thanks for sharing. That’s actually very a great place to store the cards .
Oh, Hotlanta Linda
I almost forgot about the three kings. Yes, indeed….
I did not have the opportunity to smell the cards for CpuA, but sympathize with the great effort it takes to do something simple and beautiful well. I’ll bet it did make a quiet impression on those who received it. BUT that spreadsheet must have it’s bloody say as well I guess. Apricot, rose and patchouli?? Yum! Stephan’s castoreum suggestion sounds pretty good too.
“Apricot, rose and patchouli”? I may be guilty of anticipatory drooling at present:-)
Andy — you do much, much more interesting work with your Excel spreadsheet compared to me! My eyes cross with all the numbers for quality assurance testing. Happy New Year! I love reading your blog.
Fragrant greetings Chris, I think so too: A fruity note and castoreum work lovely together , or might. I will need to test that….
Ah, that’s a real shame. The Carillon cards are really wonderful. I was fortunate enough to see the factory where they were made, and I can vouch for the fact that they were created with the same passion and attention to detail which you put into thee formulation of your fragrances. But then, you already knew that.
To continue your Lewis Carroll analogy, maybe the cards should have had the words SMELL ME embossed across the front in massive letters!