How evokes a perfume?

It’s a big challenge to evoke the fragrance of a perfume. Everyone could see and judge the small bottle on the shelves or on the screen, but what about the juice itself? How the client could desire the scents? What are the best ways of communication?

Brand image and its ambassadors 

Let’s take J’Adore from Dior as a first example. Each new campaign is an event, even if they all keep the same codes: gold, celebrity, extraordinary and haute couture. Indeed, we find in the last campaign Charlize Theron in an haute couture dress, walking in the hall of mirrors at the Versailles castle as in the previous campaign and wearing the same necklace as in the first campaign. François Demachy, Dior’s perfumer-creator says “For a great perfume such as J’Adore, it’s the brand that expresses itself”. There is no olfactory storytelling where the fragrance is explained. The goal is to make an impact and get a message; the smell of perfume doesn’t really matters.

Jacques Polge Chanel’s perfumer thinks the same “A fragrance has to tell its brand, its modernity. If its universe is rich, what does it add? Each advertisement for the No. 5 or Coco Mademoiselle has its own identity, but all, by their atmosphere, their codes, reinterpret the overall vision of home. We should not give too many details on the fragrance.” The great homes do not give much importance to the fragrance of the perfume. They rely on their reputation and the history of their brands to sell their products. The important thing is to make dream the customers, make them want to wear perfume, not because it feels good just because they agree with the message. 

Some other brands do not necessarily try to tell huge and beautiful stories; they just use a classic “celebrity marketing” where the star and its image are sufficient to sell the product. This is the case for Burberry that chose the tops Cara Delevingne and Kate Moss as ambassadors to My Burberry. Another example is Givenchy who chose Alicia Keys for Dahlia Divin. One more time, we don’t see any flowers or storytelling about the juice. Some brands such as Paco Rabanne do not use “celebrity marketing” certainly because of a lack of budget, so they try to set a concept. For example, for One Million, Paco Rabanne plays on the topic of success and wealth with a touch of humor. Thus, no one of these brands make a reference to the smell, they keep some mystery about the perfume itself.

The fragrance first of all

But a new strategy is being born. This is a strategy where the juice is essential and at the heart of communication. The initiative comes from Lancôme that has launched a new campaign in 2014 for "La vie est belle". At first there is the classic strategy of "celebrity marketing" with Julia Roberts as an icon. But then we discover a whole new approach with a film dedicated to the evocation of the fragrance. The film tells the approach of perfumers, and explains how the different flowers and ingredients help to feel happier because the aspiration to happiness is the topic of the perfume. This is very unusual because the brands are usually much attached to assert their expertise and the history of their home. But it is a way to highlight the work done by perfumers and to legitimize the message. Then the perfume is no longer the simply reflection of a concept or a muse.  

This does not mean that big house like Chanel or Dior do not give importance to the fragrance itself. Most often the aspect of creation and fragrance happens in the background, often with internet sites dedicated to scent where the creator explains in some interviews the different scents and process development. 

So we can imagine that take fragrance in consideration could be the future way of communication for brands...
 

Article posted by Johanna

Sources: http://www.lesechos.fr/week-end/styles/0203749845630-comment-le-parfum-se-met-en-scene-1041791.php