marketing and brandingscents

A facebook post

Good morning from Zurich!

Today’s picture: I chose to show you a detail from an illustration that I did for the Cologne du Maghreb, last Friday. This cologne is all natural, all botanical fragrance, a traditional cologne, light and not made to last, and what is inside… well, it is more expensive to produce per ml than most of the 200$ scents that you get in niche these days. It comes with a wonderful oriental touch in the base, woody, and amber, a shade of amber gris (no, I do not use natural amber gris from whales, as I wanted the cologne to be all botanical). And NO! Oriental does not mean any oudh in this cologne. The orient is more than just synthetic oudh and cheap metallic damascenone in expensive flacons. Anyhow, I did an illustration, thinking about the cologne, and hoping that it will find its way into a shop or two in the US during summer 2014. It is one of my creations that is flying sort of

Right now, I do not offer it on my website. I intend to change this by the end of 2014. You remember: The cologne was the holiday special in 2010. Thus, I figured, that it would be great offering it in my line of scents, but only in my pentagonal flacon. Here are a few pictures of the cologne du Maghreb, as I produce it these days for the selected perfumeries presenting it (but without the mandarines and oranges…

I mention the cologne here, as there is a packaging fair in Zurich that I actually wanted to attend, maybe searching for a simple solution to pack the colognes in the Tauer line, in pentagonal flacons. It is really a margin game there, and tricky. I have only vague ideas, not ideas really, just waves moving forward and backward. But you know what: I am getting so tired of thinking about packaging questions. I had to work on a lot of packaging details the last few months and am looking forward to autumn, to launching finally Sotto la Luna, Gardenia. And -hopefully! – for Une rose de Kandahar. (this rose oil story is another story that unfolds like a detective story in front of my nose. It sure comes with a thrill factor.

I guess I will talk about it tomorrow)

But enough is enough: Let’s create perfumes! For perfume lovers who do not judge a perfume by its look (or color… don’t get me started there!).

Now, having said that: If you happen to be on Facebook, the lovely site with the ads on the right side and the confusing and ever changing navigation  everywhere: Here’s a link for you. It is all in Italian, but by clicking the translate link you will get the picture. Not only is the post interesting, also the comments. As one lady said (correspondingly ” …and I learned in Grasse that all these come from the same people and teams composing, the same labs, with the same ingredients”… with the added reply   “….and if the brief defines the price and demands for sales success then the story is all gone….” and you have the state of this field pinpointed. It is – to be frank- quite disastrous, and self destroying. This post on Facebook by my distributor, Roberto, from Kaon, an expert and a player in the field since many years, successful and with a genuine interest in fragrances, is worth reading.