Why TV commercials for celebrity perfumes may not be selling at full strength

    I wrote yesterday about memory and scent and the possibility that a multimedia promotion for a perfume might have the potential to implant a deep scent memory that could, when triggered in the future, bring back a strong desire for that particular fragrance.

    Now a logical response to this suggestion might be, "What about all the celebrity fragrance commercials on TV where the celebrity is a singer? Isn't their plan to create a memorable event for the viewer?"

    My answer is that while that may be the plan, the general result falls short and for several good reasons.

    First, look at the relationship between the celebrity and the fragrance marketer. The marketer takes a license to use the celebrity's name and image. But the license is for a fixed period of time, perhaps just three years. Only if sales targets are met will renewal be allowed.

    So a commercial that might trigger memories and desires for the perfume in four, or six, or ten years could be considered a costly, wasted effort.

    Typically even when a license is renewed, by year two the marketer is already throwing the money at a second perfume, allowing the first to fade into the background.

    Next there is a problem of rights to the music. Few celebrity performers compose their own music and so the rights issue comes up again. To use a tune to trigger memories three years down the road, the marketer must have the rights to use that music, three years down the road. And, since the marketer doesn't have a clue as to how effective the recall reaction might be in sales dollars, the gamble could be huge.

    The same problem arises in the use of music that is already associated with the celebrity. A celebrity fragrance TV commercial may run just 30 seconds. But the hits the celebrity has recorded would run considerably longer. Will the owner of the music allow it to be cut for the commercial? Will the owner allow it to be used for a commercial at all? Will the celebrity agree to record it, thus perhaps changing the association from the celebrity to the perfume?
   
    You would have to look into it, case by case.

    So you might say, why not compose music especially for the commercial? But commercials generally mix talk with music. And, while special music would generally be composed for a perfume ad, will enough effort be put behind it to make it truly memorable -- by itself -- without the talk which will be recorded over it?

    Again rights rear their head. Will the celebrity be willing to record a special song for the perfume? Will he or she get royalties from the use of this song in addition to the money made from the sale of the perfume? Will royalties continue into the future when perhaps the marketer no longer has the rights to sell the perfume?

    For the marketer of a celebrity fragrance the practical approach is to keep it simple, to avoid risks, to avoid setting up unnecessary unknowns. So maybe, just maybe, the potential for future sales is diminished but if you have to license this and that and create this and that, all without knowing if it can be of any help to you, is it worth the risk?

    On the other hand, if it was your perfume ... and you could control ALL the circumstances ... wouldn't you want to at least TRY to create that big memory, a memory that might stick with people for years, keeping interest in your perfume alive -- and profitable?

Can a multimedia experience implant a deep memory and desire for your perfume?

Can a tume trigger a desire for a scent?

    Advertisers, for years, have sought to associate popular musical works with their products. At this time of the year -- the holiday season -- we are hearing the jingle of Christmas tunes on radio and TV commercials. Why? Because the music, it is hoped, will make the listener favorably disposed toward the product.

    While "marketing through music" is a well established technique and millions are spent by marketers to license particularly compelling works of popular music, the use of scent to sell products is just now being explored.

    Anecdotal evidence suggests that certain scents, stumbled upon by accident, can (or may) trigger emotional memories from our past.

    While limited scientific evidence of this phenomenon exists, less if any evidence suggests that visual or aural stimulation can trigger the memory of a scent. But it can.

    Once, while watching a foreign film, a love scene took place in a setting that triggered a strong emotional memory for me and my immediate thought was, "there is a SMELL that goes with that setting and that smell isn't there." Without the smell -- this was a film after all -- the scene, to me, was incomplete.

    Now if asked to DESCRIBE that smell I would have difficulty. Smells can be quite difficult to describe in a way that will communicate with any accuracy to others. We really don't have a language for it and the best description I might have given would be to reference the visual setting -- what the eyes of all who saw the film saw -- and then press them to imagine what the smell would be if all those visual elements came together in physical form.

    As I saw the film I had a longing to smell once again that scent which that scene had revived in my memory.

    So is it possible to create visual and aural stimuli that, when presented to the customer, will embed themselves in  the customer's memory and later trigger a desire to purchase the perfume?

    This is what I am trying to achieve in the presentation I am developing for "Confusion II." I have the scent -- the fragrance -- and the music for it is coming together. I've already started to record the tracks and in the next two weeks I'll start shooting raw footage for the video.

    The actual presentation will be quite simple but my hope is that the video, with special music, will create an emotional experience that will "rub off" and create a desire for the perfume.

    Like the film mentioned above the video presentation will not be smellable. So the plan is to use the video in conjunction with demonstrations of the fragrance. The hope is that together the elements will create an emotional memory and that a future exposures to the video, or possibly the music alone, will trigger a desire for the fragrance.

    The relationship between scents and memories has not been well explored but as marketers we might get a jump on science. Our "proof" of success will be in sales numbers.

    If this strategy can be made to work, it could ultimately be well worth the cost of a few failures along the way.

A perfume in search of a theme

    In the process of trying to create one new perfume I came out with formulas for two new perfumes -- but neither was right for the fragrance I was trying to create.

    The first "extra" formula is about to become my "Confusion II" as the scent fits the theme perfectly. The project involves a multimedia presentation of music, sculpture, and fragrance and the elements are coming together. But "Confusion II" is a spin off of my work on a formula for a perfume which for now I'll call, "Tokyo."

    Actually the final version of "Confusion II," now in the process of being scaled up from a few drops to about 500 ml, emerged from about 15 trials, all in a search for "Tokyo." One jumped out for "confusion II." But there was another success, a really nice fragrance that was neither right for "Tokyo" nor for "Confusion II." So what do I do with that?

    The answer is simple. I hold it. I'll make up a small batch, I'll make sure I hive the formula down both in my bound notebooks and, digitally, in The Perfumer's Workbook, but I won't offer it to the public. Not now. And the reason is simple. I don't have a story to go with it.

    Before I launch a new fragrance I want to have a story to go with it, one that can be illustrated visually or musically and that will target a particular audience. This new, beautiful, unnamed fragrance doesn't have that ... yet.

    So I wait. From time to time I'll give it a sniff. I'll give a bottle to my wife and perhaps a few friends. I'll see how my thinking about it evolves over the coming months -- or perhaps years -- and perhaps, one day, inspiration will hit me and suddenly this fragrance will match up with an urgent theme -- which will produce a story which I can tell, to sell, this perfume.

    But until that happens I'll just store it away in my library of formulas that could, some day, become marketable perfumes.



   

Consumer test your fragrance, but test with the right consumers

    What happens when you've been working on a fragrance and finally begin to get samples that people like? To sell your fragrance, people have to like it, yes? Yes, the people to whom you are marketing it.

    It's not enough that many people like your fragrance. It has to be liked by the people you want to sell it to and if you're a small, independent perfumery, this might be a very small number of people. Yet they are the only people that count.
   
    So if your marketing plan envisions a particular type of consumer and a promotion built around, say, certain graphic images, the perfume has to fit that market and the people in that market have to CONNECT with your fragrance on an emotional level. That goes beyond liking. In fact, they might not really like it at all but if it makes a statement they like, you could be making nice sales.

    So if your theme is a bit dark, a bit mysterious, a bit of mental CONFUSION, a "nice," happy, cheerful fragrance would not be the answer, even if people like it when it is presented to them outside the context of your promotional message.

    But you might say, "I'll change my message and market this cheerful perfume that people like to the people who like it. But think of it. You developed your dark marketing pitch because you believed you could make headway in a PARTICULAR niche. If you want to change your marketing, you'd better be sure that you have a viable niche for it and you're not surrendering a sure shot market for one in which you will get creamed by others who have more cheerful perfumes than yours and more skill at reaching people in that particular market.

    On the other hand, do ask yourself if you can achieve controversy, a bit of confusion, and use few strange notes that seem to have come from outer space ... and still not only get people in your target market to buy it but also to wear it so the "message" (and fame) gets spread around.

    It's a challenge.