SotY: Our Top 20 vs. Others
I said it at the beginning and Im about to prove it to you, this community doesnt come close to mirroring the public at large. Im going to show you that it doesnt even come that close to mirroring Basenotes at large. We are a small very dedicated community of people who love perfume. We are not the general public. Im going to prove this to you step-by-step. One step back from the hardcore who post on the forums would be the slightly less hardcore who keep a wardrobe on Basenotes. Lets take a look at the top 20 scents in all wardrobes on Basenotes.
1.) Guerlain Vetiver (#1 SotY)
2.) YSL M7 (#13)
3.) Hermes Terre DHermes (#2)
4.) Creed Green Irish Tweed (#9)
5.) Dolce & Gabbana pour Homme (#76)
6.) Thierry Mugler A*Men (#96)
7.) Gucci Envy for Men (#70)
8.) Bvlgari Black (#15)
9.) Gucci pour Homme (#35)
10.) LEau DIssey pour Homme (#128)
11.) YSL Rive Gauche pour Homme (#3)
12.) Creed Millesime Imperiale (#44)
13.) Armani Acqua di Gio (#485)
14.) Thierry Mugler Cologne (#21)
15.) Dior Homme (#4)
16.) Creed Silver Mountain Water (#31)
17.) Davidoff Cool Water (#132)
18.) JPG Le Male (#155)
19.) Guerlain Habit Rouge (#6)
20.) Chanel Egoiste (#10)
Not bad agreement at the top as two of the top three are in agreement. But then you get to #5 and the paths start to diverge as eleven of the remaining 16 are outside of the top 20 and in four of those cases outside of the top 100. So just one step removed and already were not marching to the same drummer.
What about reviewers? They probably fall in the same category as those who have a wardrobe. A community member Mystery H did a really nice correlation using the weighted averages that IMDB uses to rate the top 20 reviewed scents on Basenotes.
1.) Chanel Antaeus ( #30)
2.) YSL Rive Gauche pour Homme (#3)
3.) LArtisan Tea for Two (#41)
4.) Azzaro pour Homme (#59)
5.) Creed Bois du Portugal (#5)
6.) Guerlain Vetiver (#1)
7.) Ralph Lauren Polo (#159)
8.) Thierry Mugler Cologne (#21)
9.) Chanel Allure Homme (#103)
10.) Gucci Envy for Men (#70)
11.) Calvin Klein Obsession for Men (#301)
12.) Guerlain Habit Rouge (#6)
13.) Christian Dior Eau Sauvage (#71)
14.) Gucci pour Homme (#35)
15.) Boucheron Jaipur Homme (#172)
16.) Creed Silver Mountain Water (#31)
17.) Frederic Malle Musc Ravageur (#14)
18.) Creed Himalaya (#55)
19.) Versace The Dreamer (#161)
20.) Dolce & Gabbana pour Homme (#76)
Even less agreement here as only four of the SotY top 20 make this list. Half the list fall outside the top 50.
Lets step back one level further. People who visit Basenotes but come here for the content but don't participate in the forums or write reviews. They would be represented by the people who vote in the Annual Basenotes Awards. Lets look at the finalists from the 8th Annual Basenotes awards. (Ill update this with the results from the 9th Annual Awards when they are released).
Top 10 mens vote getters
1.) Hermes Terre DHermes (#2)
2.) Creed Green Irish Tweed (#9)
3.) Guerlain Vetiver (#1)
Thierry Mugler A*Men (#96)
Armani Acqua di Gio (#485)
Christian Dior Eau Sauvage (#71)
Guerlain Habit Rouge (#6)
LEau DIssey pour Homme (#128)
YSL M7 (#13)
Chanel Egoiste (#10)
Not bad really only four out of ten outliers and pretty close to the top three SotY scents were in the top slots. Lets see how the womens side matches up.
Top 10 womens vote getters
1.) Guerlain Shalimar (Womens #2)
2.) Chanel No. 5 (#26)
3.) Prada Infusion DIris (#9)
Thierry Mugler Angel (#19)
Tom Ford Black Orchid (#16)
Chanel Coco Mademoiselle (#23)
Dolce & Gabbana Light Blue (#89)
Juicy Couture (#123)
Guerlain Mitsouko (#4)
Narciso Rodriguez for Her (#21)
The women are in a little better agreement with really only two outliers. So were still in about 50% agreement or so with a person who visits Basenotes on some sort of regular basis.
Now its time for the acid test, how do we match the general public?
Lets go to the stats from a consumer group, NPD, that tracks overall fragrance sales. They released the top 5 selling scents in the world and they are:
1.) Armani Acqua di Gio 27 wears (#485)
2.) Estee Lauder Beautiful 5 wears (#1627)
3.) Chanel Coco Mademoiselle 89 wears (#108)
4.) Dolce & Gabbana Light Blue 38 wears (#323)
5.) Chanel No. 5 83 wears (#120)
Take a look at that none of the five most bought scents in the entire world managed to break the top 100. The #2 scent in the entire world was worn a grand total of five times over the last 365 days. If you added all five scents together you would still only have the #13 scent. One last bullet point for you to take home, also from NPD, here are the five biggest new scents introduced in 2008:
Juicy Couture Viva La Juicy 10 wears (#1103)
Estee Lauder Sensuous 110 wears (#75)
Ed Hardy for Men 9 wears (#1171)
Ed Hardy for Women 4 wears (#1814)
Harajuku Lovers 0 wears
Pretty impressive in a community which is as diverse and willing to experiment as this community is we cant even really come to agreement on what is new and exciting. Only one of the top five new scents was in the top 100.
So whats the take-home lesson from all of this? We are not representative of the general public. We are not even representative of Basenotes membership. We are a community unto ourselves which thrives on diversity and experimentation and which is exhilarating to be a part of and to participate in.
Thats it for comparing us to anyone besides ourselves.
Back tomorrow with thoughts on how Burr, Turin & Sanchez were able to influence things.
I said it at the beginning and Im about to prove it to you, this community doesnt come close to mirroring the public at large. Im going to show you that it doesnt even come that close to mirroring Basenotes at large. We are a small very dedicated community of people who love perfume. We are not the general public. Im going to prove this to you step-by-step. One step back from the hardcore who post on the forums would be the slightly less hardcore who keep a wardrobe on Basenotes. Lets take a look at the top 20 scents in all wardrobes on Basenotes.
1.) Guerlain Vetiver (#1 SotY)
2.) YSL M7 (#13)
3.) Hermes Terre DHermes (#2)
4.) Creed Green Irish Tweed (#9)
5.) Dolce & Gabbana pour Homme (#76)
6.) Thierry Mugler A*Men (#96)
7.) Gucci Envy for Men (#70)
8.) Bvlgari Black (#15)
9.) Gucci pour Homme (#35)
10.) LEau DIssey pour Homme (#128)
11.) YSL Rive Gauche pour Homme (#3)
12.) Creed Millesime Imperiale (#44)
13.) Armani Acqua di Gio (#485)
14.) Thierry Mugler Cologne (#21)
15.) Dior Homme (#4)
16.) Creed Silver Mountain Water (#31)
17.) Davidoff Cool Water (#132)
18.) JPG Le Male (#155)
19.) Guerlain Habit Rouge (#6)
20.) Chanel Egoiste (#10)
Not bad agreement at the top as two of the top three are in agreement. But then you get to #5 and the paths start to diverge as eleven of the remaining 16 are outside of the top 20 and in four of those cases outside of the top 100. So just one step removed and already were not marching to the same drummer.
What about reviewers? They probably fall in the same category as those who have a wardrobe. A community member Mystery H did a really nice correlation using the weighted averages that IMDB uses to rate the top 20 reviewed scents on Basenotes.
1.) Chanel Antaeus ( #30)
2.) YSL Rive Gauche pour Homme (#3)
3.) LArtisan Tea for Two (#41)
4.) Azzaro pour Homme (#59)
5.) Creed Bois du Portugal (#5)
6.) Guerlain Vetiver (#1)
7.) Ralph Lauren Polo (#159)
8.) Thierry Mugler Cologne (#21)
9.) Chanel Allure Homme (#103)
10.) Gucci Envy for Men (#70)
11.) Calvin Klein Obsession for Men (#301)
12.) Guerlain Habit Rouge (#6)
13.) Christian Dior Eau Sauvage (#71)
14.) Gucci pour Homme (#35)
15.) Boucheron Jaipur Homme (#172)
16.) Creed Silver Mountain Water (#31)
17.) Frederic Malle Musc Ravageur (#14)
18.) Creed Himalaya (#55)
19.) Versace The Dreamer (#161)
20.) Dolce & Gabbana pour Homme (#76)
Even less agreement here as only four of the SotY top 20 make this list. Half the list fall outside the top 50.
Lets step back one level further. People who visit Basenotes but come here for the content but don't participate in the forums or write reviews. They would be represented by the people who vote in the Annual Basenotes Awards. Lets look at the finalists from the 8th Annual Basenotes awards. (Ill update this with the results from the 9th Annual Awards when they are released).
Top 10 mens vote getters
1.) Hermes Terre DHermes (#2)
2.) Creed Green Irish Tweed (#9)
3.) Guerlain Vetiver (#1)
Thierry Mugler A*Men (#96)
Armani Acqua di Gio (#485)
Christian Dior Eau Sauvage (#71)
Guerlain Habit Rouge (#6)
LEau DIssey pour Homme (#128)
YSL M7 (#13)
Chanel Egoiste (#10)
Not bad really only four out of ten outliers and pretty close to the top three SotY scents were in the top slots. Lets see how the womens side matches up.
Top 10 womens vote getters
1.) Guerlain Shalimar (Womens #2)
2.) Chanel No. 5 (#26)
3.) Prada Infusion DIris (#9)
Thierry Mugler Angel (#19)
Tom Ford Black Orchid (#16)
Chanel Coco Mademoiselle (#23)
Dolce & Gabbana Light Blue (#89)
Juicy Couture (#123)
Guerlain Mitsouko (#4)
Narciso Rodriguez for Her (#21)
The women are in a little better agreement with really only two outliers. So were still in about 50% agreement or so with a person who visits Basenotes on some sort of regular basis.
Now its time for the acid test, how do we match the general public?
Lets go to the stats from a consumer group, NPD, that tracks overall fragrance sales. They released the top 5 selling scents in the world and they are:
1.) Armani Acqua di Gio 27 wears (#485)
2.) Estee Lauder Beautiful 5 wears (#1627)
3.) Chanel Coco Mademoiselle 89 wears (#108)
4.) Dolce & Gabbana Light Blue 38 wears (#323)
5.) Chanel No. 5 83 wears (#120)
Take a look at that none of the five most bought scents in the entire world managed to break the top 100. The #2 scent in the entire world was worn a grand total of five times over the last 365 days. If you added all five scents together you would still only have the #13 scent. One last bullet point for you to take home, also from NPD, here are the five biggest new scents introduced in 2008:
Juicy Couture Viva La Juicy 10 wears (#1103)
Estee Lauder Sensuous 110 wears (#75)
Ed Hardy for Men 9 wears (#1171)
Ed Hardy for Women 4 wears (#1814)
Harajuku Lovers 0 wears
Pretty impressive in a community which is as diverse and willing to experiment as this community is we cant even really come to agreement on what is new and exciting. Only one of the top five new scents was in the top 100.
So whats the take-home lesson from all of this? We are not representative of the general public. We are not even representative of Basenotes membership. We are a community unto ourselves which thrives on diversity and experimentation and which is exhilarating to be a part of and to participate in.
Thats it for comparing us to anyone besides ourselves.
Back tomorrow with thoughts on how Burr, Turin & Sanchez were able to influence things.
