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The 6 months market

post #1 of 22
10/26/07 at 2:48am
Thread Starter 
It seems to me that a new market of scent has emerged

I would call it the "QUICK SALES" market

A scent like "X factor" that would sell buckets for 6 months and then stops for good !!

I would put all celebrities scents in this categorie as we know - celebrities can last 6 months and then - goodby -

Quick money in a short amount of time.

What is in the bottle is not really important - the buyer gets the "star" or "the concept" and the strong bottle design - the scent itself has no importance.

This is why I think the real niche market is doing so well - they will never endorse a celeb - but they are also aware that their customers want the juice more than the bottle and the line of product will need to be available at least 10 to 20 years if no more.


Now who buys what ???

Would Catherine Deneuve ever wear "X factor" ???? (I say no)


There is I believe a 18 - 30 year old that will buy anything that means something to him/her. whatever the price or what it smells like.

In 6 months time something else will catch their attention and -great the scent goes with it".


These kind of products of very short life 6 months max.


A very clever way to sell a concept - a bottle - a belief .


I am surprised LOST as not cashed in !!!!!! (stupid me it has via Cool Water)




What are you thoughts.



laurent
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post #2 of 22
10/26/07 at 3:08am
I agree with you, except that Cool Water is an excellent fragrance which has been around for 20 years.
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post #3 of 22
10/26/07 at 3:22am
Well, Sean Johns Unforgivable is quite popular even with some basenoters (I think it's a quite contemporary fruit salad, but one of the better ones), but I guess the increasing numbers of new fragrances being introduced every year serve as empirical proof. And cheap fresh vanilla scents or fruit salads probably sell much better when presented by the star of your choice.

I even think there's a counter movement with all these exclusive, luxe or whatever they're called highly priced products. I SO HOPE that the "normal" but great and affordable designer fragrance does not get crushed between those two movements. I'm watching YSL with their latest pinky girly female release...
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post #4 of 22
10/26/07 at 3:44am
I think what you're describing can be generalized into typical consumption behavior for a majority of products these days, and it is not limited to the 18-30 markets, or celeb schtick, though it's perhaps most conspicuous in those fields. Despite my skepticism about certain aspects of postmodernist theory, I think it's accurate to say that we live in an enitrely mediatized world (it's only real if it happens on the screen), and that, concurrently, we no longer trade in material objects but in images, of which products are merely the material carrier. Even our financial markets work like this these days (and it makes me highly uncomfortable). The shelf-life of these images is increasingly short (that's the idea, keep consumption going, drop celeb A for celeb B etc. pp.)

As to niche, it's very ambivalent. There can be a greater focus on quality, but many niches these days seem to be built on trend-consciousness, hipness-factors, and have a concomitantly brief half-life. With niche, you're also buying an image of yourself - as someone whose more sophisticated, wealthy, and cool than the dregs spritzing Paris Hilton or even Guerlain . Look at Creed. Fantastic perfumes, but their entire PR caters to sycophants who want to smell like Mr./Ms. Celeb and probably pay money for an entry in Who's Who.
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post #5 of 22
10/26/07 at 9:30am
Quote:
Originally Posted by laurent View Post

Would Catherine Deneuve ever wear "X factor" ???? (I say no) laurent

Catherine Deneuve, hopefully, wore her own celebrity fragrance: Deneuve by Catherine Deneuve, 1986 - now discontinued.
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post #6 of 22
10/26/07 at 9:35am
Niche houses now release 3-4 fragrances per year (the only exceptions to this are Caron and MPG).

In the 80s, that used to be the normal output of a designer house. Tells you a lot doesn't it.
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post #7 of 22
10/26/07 at 10:27am
Seems to me that the Niche Lines are launching more and more of their own too......many 3-4 a year......used to be lucky if there was one a year.......maybe I'm wrong but it seems as if their launches have increased also......Gary
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post #8 of 22
10/26/07 at 10:52am
Yes, I agree that this trend has grown very strong over the past decade. One of the scent blogs provided a link to a CNN interview of Roja Dove, who speaks on this exact issue. I think the main point is that most - but not all - celebrity fragrance purchases are aspirational in nature. That is, the consumers who buy them "aspire" to be like and/or link with that celebrity. The same can be said about the majority of buyers of new Harley-Davidson motorcycles. It is a lifestyle or vision of a lifestyle that is being bought into, and the fragrance/motorcycle is the most immediate, tangible touchstone to that lifestyle.
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post #9 of 22
10/26/07 at 11:34am
Quote:
Originally Posted by wicozani View Post

... That is, the consumers who buy them "aspire" to be like and/or link with that celebrity. The same can be said about the majority of buyers of new Harley-Davidson motorcycles. It is a lifestyle or vision of a lifestyle that is being bought into, and the fragrance/motorcycle is the most immediate, tangible touchstone to that lifestyle.

What seems to be a really stupid thing.
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post #10 of 22
10/26/07 at 8:27pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by the_good_life View Post

With niche, you're also buying an image of yourself - as someone whose more sophisticated, wealthy, and cool than the dregs spritzing Paris Hilton or even Guerlain .

And then there's the self-taught specialists who can smell quality a mile away, sifting through what's been tossed aside.
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post #11 of 22
10/26/07 at 11:14pm
It really is all one sad, mad rush isn't it. The World is going mad in it's frantic search for It knows not what. This lunacy is appearing as more and more of 'Everything' and that 'Everything' has to be delivered 'Yesterday'. It is understandable in a way since the ' Angst of The Unscratched Itch' is now becoming so unbearable that it requires such different and bigger distractions.

Being in the business of providing distractions has always paid off. Who wouldn't cash in?

I don't see much changing in any area where this madness currently prevails.

Excalibur is a discriminating mind...
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post #12 of 22
10/26/07 at 11:52pm
On the other hand, maybe this way will allow them to spend more time developing fragrances they release under Designer's and established house names. Maybe the company that owns let's say both Givenchy and X Factor will not feel rushed to release another bland thing under Givenchy name... I know they are not owned by the same company, just wanted to make my point.
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post #13 of 22
10/27/07 at 2:19pm
This dynamic comes in to play whenever there is an excess of resources. For the first time in known history, mankind has monstrous production capacity, both industrially and digitally. The industrial revolution brought things we're all familiar with, but now the internet and other media sources are creating incredible freedom of information, while also manufacturing an almost endless flow of irrelevence and uselessness. It's an information overload, and a marketers dream. The "value" of ones life is increasingly dependent on electronic and media sources.

Our species has a lot of growing up to do.
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post #14 of 22
10/27/07 at 3:49pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Maxwell View Post

This dynamic comes in to play whenever there is an excess of resources. For the first time in known history, mankind has monstrous production capacity, both industrially and digitally. The industrial revolution brought things we're all familiar with, but now the internet and other media sources are creating incredible freedom of information, while also manufacturing an almost endless flow of irrelevence and uselessness. It's an information overload, and a marketers dream. The "value" of ones life is increasingly dependent on electronic and media sources.

Our species has a lot of growing up to do.

IFF needs to dump all those new aroma chemicals somewhere. Luckily there's some pleasure in sifting/sniffing through all their experiments.
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post #15 of 22
10/27/07 at 4:21pm
I think that at least part of this phenomenon is our obsession with the new. If you aren't up to date with fashion, celeb gossip, political ideas, values, etc, you are nothing. The older, time tested way of life/thought/whatever is relegated to Jeopardy, history classes, pseudo-intellectual conversation, and the like. This is either a cause or a result of our famously short memory as a society. We don't learn from or even respect the past.

People want something new, so that's exactly fragrance companies give them. Quality and relevance in a historical context don't matter. The same could be said for just about any tangible or intangible consumption in the USA.

Personally, I don't have anything against the new, but it's certainly important to strike a balance living in the present and acknowledging the importance and relevance of the past.
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post #16 of 22
10/27/07 at 4:41pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by LiveJazz View Post

I think that at least part of this phenomenon is our obsession with the new. If you aren't up to date with fashion, celeb gossip, political ideas, values, etc, you are nothing. The older, time tested way of life/thought/whatever is relegated to Jeopardy, history classes, pseudo-intellectual conversation, and the like. This is either a cause or a result of our famously short memory as a society. We don't learn from or even respect the past.

People want something new, so that's exactly fragrance companies give them. Quality and relevance in a historical context don't matter. The same could be said for just about any tangible or intangible consumption in the USA.

Personally, I don't have anything against the new, but it's certainly important to strike a balance living in the present and acknowledging the importance and relevance of the past.

Exactly, this is what I was trying to get at in my earlier post. The electronic media has created such a massive influx of "newness" that people who identify with it feel, I think, subconsciously frantic in trying to catch up. Television and the internet relay "new" information about "new" fashion, "new" gadgets, "new" this and "new" that, instantly.

Before these technologies existed, the local community was the source of creativity and goods. Now we get exposed to such a vast array of imput that I don't think we've learned to cope with it yet, as a society.

Cell phones, text messaging, Myspace, Gameboys and all that jazz are creating an ADD afflicted youth. I deal with kids on a semi-regular basis (volunteering, work, etc.) and I see this first hand. I'm only 21 years old and I see these young kids (14 and below) and their whole lives revolve around technology!

I'm not a cynic at all, thankfully, but it doesn't take much to realize that technology has it's limits when it's creating an unbalanced lifestyle and mentality.
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post #17 of 22
10/27/07 at 7:12pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Maxwell View Post

Before these technologies existed, the local community was the source of creativity and goods. Now we get exposed to such a vast array of imput that I don't think we've learned to cope with it yet, as a society.
Cell phones, text messaging, Myspace, Gameboys and all that jazz are creating an ADD afflicted youth. I deal with kids on a semi-regular basis (volunteering, work, etc.) and I see this first hand. I'm only 21 years old and I see these young kids (14 and below) and their whole lives revolve around technology!

I couldn't agree with you more. I'm reading Lewis Mumford's fascinating, 2 volume work, The Myth of the Machine. Mumford's premise is that we are becoming slaves to technology, which he calls the mega machine, and we are becoming more regimented in the process - sort of like soldiers.
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post #18 of 22
10/28/07 at 3:35pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ruggles View Post

I couldn't agree with you more. I'm reading Lewis Mumford's fascinating, 2 volume work, The Myth of the Machine. Mumford's premise is that we are becoming slaves to technology, which he calls the mega machine, and we are becoming more regimented in the process - sort of like soldiers.

Our possessions are possessing us. "Regimented" is a good way to describe it too. I'll have to check out that book, it sounds very good.
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post #19 of 22
10/28/07 at 5:43pm
What I find more frustrating in mass market/designer fragrance sales than celeb visibility is the lack of 'new concept' fragrances..

current formula:

take a known fragrance - sell - when newness factor wears off - tack 'fresh" or "black" or "extreme" onto the name.. tweak the fragrance ever-so slightly, jazz up the bottle.. and voila - repeat. (sure there are exceptions and some of the 'black' "blue' 'white' scents are better than their origincal counterparts)

As we all know, the goal is sales... and as long as people keep eating up these unimaginative, lazy fragrance renditions.. what motivation are we providing designers to push any kind of envelope? If they can please the public with minimal innovation, then that's what they will do. The power, as per usual.. is in the hands of the consumers..and I guess that sameness and 'versions of" are the current mass preference.. a shame really...

It just seems that there are very few 'new' fragrances that reach designer shelves.. very few 'new releases' that stands solidly on their own... which is a shame for the lot of us (generally speaking)

a..
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post #20 of 22
10/28/07 at 9:37pm
I just read that Daphne Guinness, a socialite, Guinness heiress and fashionista is going to be collaborating with CDG for a new perfume as a limited edition.

Corruption spreads fast!

Is CDG actually considered designer or niche I suppose? Not all their scents seem to be mass market. There seems to be a blurring between the two with designers creating their own line of exclusives--Hermes, Chanel, etc.
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post #21 of 22
10/29/07 at 7:15am
I think ten of fifteen years ago people were more proud when they were gaining access to using the classics. It was much more stylish and cool to wear Chanel No 5 or Aramis than Hugo Boss. Now, everything that is older than six months is OLD. This may really change the tendency of old houses to keep their original scens on the shelves. Yet, if it turns out that new X-factor-kind scents don't sell well after a year, it will actually help many my beloved classics to survive in the long term run.
And yes, there are no new concepts lately.
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post #22 of 22
11/3/07 at 6:03pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ruggles View Post

Catherine Deneuve, hopefully, wore her own celebrity fragrance: Deneuve by Catherine Deneuve, 1986 - now discontinued.


If there is one women that has class and beauty it is Catherine Deneuve not to be mistaken with a one song hit.

A legend can probably assume that she will be arround in 20 years -

not to be touched with cheap hands LOL
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Great feed back everybody

Can not wait for the PEREZ HILTON fragrance with the red stopper - inside you will get

A bit of lance bass coming out
Celine dion new single
Prison brake - closeted actor
Tom cruise on Oprah

the whole thing shaken not stired and hey presto there it is

A beautifull fat bottle containing real diamonics (just out of QVC) made by Coty.

Strange my cat litter deo-spray smells exactly like it !!!


Take care


laurent
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