The marketing killed the perfume. The perfume kills the marketing.
Prepare yourself for a revolution and a new order with 2012 when everything will be re arranged as it should be. Consumer, scent, creator is the new paradigm. During several years, the number of launches increased with a dramatic speed. Everybody was complaining, even myself. Wouldn't be more correct to complain today about lacking the financial resources than complaining about a world which is changing?
Today, as I expressed in the Top 8 of 2011, I am extremely happy there are so many new brands, ideas, perfumes. I complain only that I cannot get them in time. In fact, I'm rather happy I was playing in a garden three decades ago because life and perfume was not fun at all in those days. With such a small number of launches, with so much trouble if you want to smell a perfume in a traditional perfumery, that was probably the hell, even in Paris. I do not like to get bored and smell the same small selection when even nature is changing. Because there so many brands and so many perfumes today, some will probably disappear in 5 years. But this is the best thing, honorable death is better than decay. Do you realize the pain of Edmond Roudnitska? He learned his art with the masterpieces of Coty and Houbigant but saw them mutilated starting with the mid 50's both in terms of scent and design. Those horrible versions of Emeraude, Chypre, Aimant in plastic bottles are still available on eBay with their cheap essence, like those hideous drugstore versions of Dana classic perfumes or the Schiaparelli in the 70's.
The success of a modern creation is not my concern at not the consumer's passion. None of us has shares in a cosmetic group, why should we care after all? On the other hand, I'm wearing at least 4 perfumes a day and I'm sad only when I cannot afford a new selection. The good news is that perfume becomes like a maze and everybody can enjoy this universe as it was not possible 20 years ago. A great classic? A best seller? A perfume which endures the test of time? Why should we care anymore? When you discover Mozart you don't listen just his top 10 and you do not expect "the most famous tune". With youtube and all the connections of the modern world we are able to discover and enjoy today what was unthinkable in the past. Like a bee from a playlist to another, from a perfume to another one, we learn to enjoy them with a constant surprise.
This is the modern zeitgeist - we are constantly discovering new things and pay less attention to the tricks of classic marketing. The problem today is not for the consumer. The consumer has not the right to complain about having the triple of perfumes in front of him. Weren't we endlessly told about the importance of choosing the right perfume? Now, everybody can play this game and it seems to me quite normal to test a lot of perfumes given their price.
This fall, when the perfumes of Pierre Guillaume became available in Paris at Sens Unique, I was happy I could smell all of the last collection. You cannot imagine my joy in front of a huge wall with bottles and small black jars. I left with 4 of them on me (one being an amazing orris, the other is a subtle chypre leather, one is a neo vintage and of course the amazing Myrrhiad) and with a glass of champagne. The perfume must be tested in the most exquisite way.
In this new paradigm, the marketing will experience some headaches - nobody wants you to try 40 perfumes and decide for yourself when you were used to make your decision in 40 seconds after you saw a strong ad.
Every time I speak with a person wearing a famous brand, I convince him to change it for something unique and intriguing, "forcing" him to express his personality and tastes without being a victim of marketing. You can imagine, I have a lot of fun with Bleu de Chanel. I Do NOT allow blue perfumes around myself unless it is Le Début Bleu (Hudnut).
Today, the huge variety of perfumes allows every woman to make her life more amusing. We are not supposed to have a rigid personality, the same for 40 years. Women after a certain age are not supposed to give up their desire for beauty and what is beautiful in life. With the new variety of perfumes you can play your life with a lot of fun like an amazing bal masqué, 24 hours a day and 365 days a year.
Buy and use perfumes as much as it pleases you because in all this gray world the perfume is still the most intimate form of beauty.
Change your perfume several times a day.
Scent everything you love, not necessary with liquid perfume, there are many other ways to bring scent in your house and garden.
Wear a 100% natural perfume when you sleep to "scent" your dreams.
Build your "fragrance bar", a rich collection of perfumes you keep in a secret drawer, but enough visible for your younger guests.
Perfume is like a "spiritual food", it gives you the essence of other places you will probably never visit. If you enjoy food and drinks, perfume comes as the most subtle partner of your daily escapade.
From a historic point of view the small number of perfume launches and enduring classics is represented only by the 60-80's. If you open any catalogue in the XIXth century, like Rimmel, Piesse, Guerlain, Houbigant, Rallet, Brocard and many major house today unknown, you'll see that 80 extracts was the minimum amount. Small houses from 1910 to 1930 had around 20-30 perfumes, while the number of new launches during WWII is even more surprising. But 50 different perfumes in a brand is not something a marketer can manage with ease.
It is obvious that in this new paradigm it is less easy to "control" and that's what brands in the past wanted. Today is about creation ONLY, of course the scent, but very soon all the rest of the perfume presentation.
This year at PRINTEMPS I did not bother at all going in the mass market area when the special perfumes represent already almost half of the space. Every woman with style should do the same in 2012. Leave the mass market perfumes to the mass, enjoy the special perfumes. DO not enter in useless polemics about the quality of mass market perfumes. Eternity, Eau d'Issey and Trésor are masterpieces, but because they are sold to millions, they will still be around the next 20 years. For this reason, every elegant woman MUST take a break from mass market brands and allow herself a good dose of what she was forbidden to taste for many years - the beauty of the unknown.
Do NOT consider the essence as something ordinary, even if it is an humble product created for ordinary peoples. A perfume created with love and imagination has unique powers.
Every morning when you press the vaporizer of the bottle imagine that you are holding an unusual Aladdin lamp made of crystal rock. Make a special wish when you release the scented cloud and enjoy for several seconds the perfume you will probably not notice anymore during the day. In fact, how many times a day do you make any wish at all? When you feel alone or lost, open a bottle of perfume and smell the essence closing your eyes. When you sleep, scent your dreams with a drop of perfume.
The perfume is the shortcut to the Stars.
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Fragrance is the 8th Art - Octavian Coifan - Le Parfum est le 8ème Art
