Thursday, February 5

Reformulating d'Orsay

There is much hypocrisy around this subject. Today there are many experts and theories in marketing to explain a success or a failure for a product (fragrance) or line. Everybody wants to go in top 20 and hope to stay forever there, releasing from time to time a new ad. A basic notion, the quality, is almost never discussed. Why quality? Because in many cases, 5 years after the launch the perfume is subject to a pressure - price. The decline of a bestseller starts with its loyal clients. I was shocked last week when I had a conversation with several friends that know nothing about fragrances. I asked them about the perfumes of their mother, their youth, what did they like then and now. I was surprised to hear how they stopped buying Anais, Magie Noire, Ysatis, Dioressence and Diorissimo and a dozen of known perfumes from the 80's because "they changed". I thought I was the only crazy who looked also at the packaging (texture, paper quality, etc) but in the end I realized that a consumer is not that blind to what happened in the past 20 years.
But going back to the hypocrisy, I found a relevant text in the last PCA (janvier 2009) about the relaunch of Orsay perfumes. You should read it in French to understand why we live in a Kafka space:
" Nous souhaitons valoriser notre image de maître parfumeur, tout en modernisant les jus. Chez nous, le développement d'un parfum est une réelle création artistique, qui peut durer de 6 mois à plus d'un an […] Notre but était de rester fidèle à l'ambition du parfumeur lors de sa création, mais en la retranscrivant dans un langage olfactif plus moderne." Les jus ont donc été revus au goût du jour tout en conservant cet esprit "intemporel" et cette qualité d'époque, sans dénaturer pour autant ls notes de fond. La base a également été retravaillée pour une meilleure tenue du parfum et la concentration en allergènes diminuée."
Dear Maison d'Orsay - if you think like this, I guarantee you at 100% the flop of your line. You've chosen the worst solution and the most unethical to the consumer - promoting the image of "maitre parfumeur", speaking about tradition with modern formulas "au goût du jour".
Did you enjoy my article? Sign up for updates about new fragrances, reviews of artistic perfumes and exceptional vintage masterpieces. I would be very happy if you would consider joining 1000 Fragrances, throughRSS feed,GoogleFriend connect, Facebook (more personal), or any other way that appeals to you.
Fragrance is the 8th Art - Octavian Coifan - Le Parfum est le 8ème Art
Blog Widget by LinkWithin