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Where are the Industry People?

post #1 of 15
1/29/07 at 11:03am
Thread Starter 
[that title sounds like a Frank Zappa song]

I'm a member of a very active non-perfume forum. Over there, along with the many active members, there are a fair number of "name" industry people there, including some authors whose books I have read. Some of the industry people are also active in discussions, at least sometimes. To me this is really cool.

I wonder why we seem to have so few industry people here? By "industry", I'm referring to the large companies, and also scent professionals from smaller firms.

I should point out that our Ayala does posts and reviews that are well-written, very informative, and unfailingly pleasant. But she is the exception, I think. As a one-woman show, maybe she feels able to speak more freely.

Please excuse me if I'm leaving anyone out - I have seen posts from folks who work with household scents, essential oils, candles, and the like. They make valuable contributions, too, but I'm particularly curious about perfume and cologne (surprisingly enough).

Taking a guess, maybe perfume people are by nature more secretive, afraid of giving away secrets. Maybe others are afraid that their boss will see posts and fire them. Maybe they think we're the great unwashed? Or they think we're too elitist, and won't buy their "prole mass-market" crud, er, scents? Or they just don't like to bloviate? Your thoughts?
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post #2 of 15
1/29/07 at 11:06am
Andy Tauer is a member of Basenotes. Mike Storer used to be a regular contributor on here too. Luca Turin sometimes posts on another perfume forum.

Barry
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post #3 of 15
1/29/07 at 11:19am
Also Ayala Moriel...
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post #4 of 15
1/29/07 at 11:21am
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..as is René Schifferle, EauxM on Basenotes, of LesNez
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post #5 of 15
1/29/07 at 12:02pm
Peter Devine (ilnaso) used to post on here when he worked as a marketing manager for the Thierry Mugler Parfums division of Clarins Fragrance Group USA.

Sadly, he left Clarins in mid-2006... but he then went to Estee Lauder's Aramis/Designer Fragrances division to help with Federated/May merger integration issues for the Macy's East division of Federated. Shortly afterwards, he switched jobs yet again, this time with Coty during the Christmas season... I'm not sure what he is doing now.
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post #6 of 15
1/29/07 at 12:09pm
Ava Luxe is a basenoter, and posts the (very) occasional comment. Other than those mentioned, we really don't have any active members that are part of the industry.
- Rich
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post #7 of 15
1/29/07 at 2:34pm
I suspect that we just do not represent a large enough part of the market to be worth bothering about for the mainstream industry. Very small niche companies can benefit from the few hundred sales a presence here can generate.

I don't think people talk enough about perfume that it can be marketing by creating a "buzz". It is marketed by store presence and advertising (or stories about royalty....)
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post #8 of 15
1/29/07 at 6:38pm
If this were a One brand forum it may invite the interest of that designer or someone from staff. Being that there are so many names in here it would be difficult for a person to just sit around and wait until there is mention of their product.

I go to Ford Motors forums. They have specific forums for just about every model car and truck and sub-forums on many of those...and you bet there are some ford folks that give feedback in some forums.

If there were just a Creed forum and perhaps a sub of a specific and the forum had heavy traffic and links to publications and reviews etc .. Creed would hear about it and view it at least...most forums are cheering for the product so i would think someone would make an occasional visit and share some insight and give support to the forum...and maybe even a tip of the hat to the members..
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post #9 of 15
1/29/07 at 10:26pm
We do have many industry people reading the boards, and using the site in general. Many don't contribute though -- maybe out of fear of being accused of spamming?

I know many brands have one of their staff, scour the boards once a week to see what people are saying about them.
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post #10 of 15
1/30/07 at 2:57am
um maybe visiting basenotes is like the last thing on earth they'd want to do? I know that's the case with even some SAs I've spoken with who love perfume. they get more than enough of this at work.
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post #11 of 15
1/30/07 at 8:10am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Basenotes Admin

We do have many industry people reading the boards, and using the site in general. Many don't contribute though -- maybe out of fear of being accused of spamming?

I know many brands have one of their staff, scour the boards once a week to see what people are saying about them.

Thanks for your thoughts, folks. This pretty much bears out what I had thought, which is that we have some industry folks, but they're lurking, our Ayala Sender notwithstanding.

In the other forum I was talking about, it does represent hardcore devotees, but yet there is still much more industry participation, at least from practitioners if not management. Maybe those personalities are more hyper and in need of expressing themselves. The ambience and personality types at each forum are quite different, of course. I suppose if they won't "get loud" here on their own, it would be tough to persuade them. And Supermarky has a point - maybe they're all exhausted.

I was thinking that it would be fun if we had an Industry Mole, someone who would anonymously dish the dirt. But I can see where that could really go wrong - for instance, whenever a rumor arises here, such as a frag possibly going out of production, people get very upset, and may demand proof of what is being said.

Hmmm - maybe a blog, written by a clearly fictional person, would do it. Maybe something along the lines of Devil Wears Prada or something. There, somebody has a book (or at least blog) idea! As someone who loves to write, I'd do it myself if I actually knew the industry.
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post #12 of 15
1/30/07 at 3:12pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cognoscento

Thanks for your thoughts, folks. This pretty much bears out what I had thought, which is that we have some industry folks, but they're lurking, our Ayala Sender notwithstanding.

In the other forum I was talking about, it does represent hardcore devotees, but yet there is still much more industry participation, at least from practitioners if not management. Maybe those personalities are more hyper and in need of expressing themselves. The ambience and personality types at each forum are quite different, of course. I suppose if they won't "get loud" here on their own, it would be tough to persuade them. And Supermarky has a point - maybe they're all exhausted.

I was thinking that it would be fun if we had an Industry Mole, someone who would anonymously dish the dirt. But I can see where that could really go wrong - for instance, whenever a rumor arises here, such as a frag possibly going out of production, people get very upset, and may demand proof of what is being said.

Hmmm - maybe a blog, written by a clearly fictional person, would do it. Maybe something along the lines of Devil Wears Prada or something. There, somebody has a book (or at least blog) idea! As someone who loves to write, I'd do it myself if I actually knew the industry.


Hey, Cognoscento, could you tell me the address of this other forum (or pm it to me). Thanks.
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post #13 of 15
1/31/07 at 8:23am
Thread Starter 
Somehow I forgot to mention a really obvious reason that perfume industry people might not be frequenting our favorite forum... the language barrier.

Despite English becoming insidiously omnipresent, France and Italy are key perfume countries, for instance, and the industry people there may not know English, or may not be comfortable enough in it to bother to join English-speaking websites.

Or maybe they just aren't interested in huge numbers of posts about whether or not Serge Lutens and Terre D'Hermes suck. But that would just be wild speculation.
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post #14 of 15
1/31/07 at 11:22am
/\\ Good point Cognoscento, but we from the US have to remember that we're some of the most language illiterate people on the planet. Many of the internationals I've met know at least three other languages. France and Italy are two of the biggest countries for learning foreign languages. I would assume that the heads of companies such as Hermes would know English and Italian from a very young age. They may not, but Europe is a lot different from the States.
- Rich
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post #15 of 15
1/31/07 at 5:31pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by smndrummer

/\\ Good point Cognoscento, but we from the US have to remember that we're some of the most language illiterate people on the planet. Many of the internationals I've met know at least three other languages. France and Italy are two of the biggest countries for learning foreign languages. I would assume that the heads of companies such as Hermes would know English and Italian from a very young age. They may not, but Europe is a lot different from the States.
- Rich

Rich, I'm with ya, you're preaching to the choir. I'm nearly fluent in Spanish, have good proficiency in French, and have some knowledge of some others. Language is a hobby for me.

Ironically, that makes me an overachiever in the US, but I know better. Whenever I run into completely bilingual (or tri- or more) in any decent-sized city, those are the people with the real skills, and as you say, it's pretty normal in Europe and elsewhere. Just look at the people here posting from all over. Some of them aren't just on their 2nd and 3rd languages, they're on 2nd or 3rd alphabets. Very impressive.

And it is really fun to hear abysmal pronunciation by SA's! But in their defense, at their pay rate, you can't expect any education. But I've already digressed.
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