Read the Annual Reports

Every fragrance launch by a big company is a "major event." If a celebrity is involved -- and most new fragrances involves a celebrity -- the press release will note now involved the celebrity was in creating "their" fragrance. Sales in the first weeks of the launch are, commonly, impressive. But once the buzz fades, do we really know what's happening with the new brand?

In an unusual but perhaps necessary (due to government reporting requirements) announcement, Parlux recently reported a slippage in the sales of Rihanna's "Reb'l Fleur" perfume. This announcement came along with the news that Parlux was actually putting more money into their advertising and promotion than they had the previous year. This Rihanna announcement, reported in the August 8, 2011 issue of CosmeticDesign.com, came little more than six months after the U.S. launch of "Reb'l Fleur."

No doubt "Reb'l Fleur" will continue to sell, and Parlux will make sure that it gets out to the stores. They, like Rihanna, are professionals and know what they are doing.

But what about you? Do you really know what's going on with all these new perfumes? Did you ever wish you could get behind the celebrity press releases and get some solid information -- NUMBERS -- on the successes and failures?

There is a way to do it. It's called ANNUAL REPORTS (and K-10 SEC filings). While information on a celebrity's earnings is a private matter, most of the fragrances out there are marketed by publicly owned companies. Thus they are required to file financial and other information with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). These reports are available to you -- Free -- almost always directly from the companies themselves, from their own websites, usually under a heading such as "Investor Relations."

Now while a celebrity without a perfume is no celebrity at all, and it is true that the market seems to be saturated with dozens upon dozens of these fragrances, the truth is that almost all of these celebrity fragrances are marketed by just five companies: Coty, Elizabeth Arden, Estee Lauder, Interparfums, and Parlux. While Coty is perhaps the largest player in this game, it is privately owned and thus, no annual report. Each of the others has a website on which their financials are available, to you, in Adobe pdf format so you can save them to your hard drive and even print them out if you don't mind using up a lot of paper and ink.

If you really want to know what's going on in the perfume business, try downloading and READING just one annual report from any one of these companies. You will learn a lot about the businesses. My recommendations for your first readings would be either Parlux (fascinating!) or Elizabeth Arden (also fascinating). Enjoy!