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What can kill/cause discontinuation of a good fragrance...

post #1 of 28
1/14/12 at 6:24pm
Thread Starter 
What can kill an otherwise good fragrance and condemn it to the bargain bin and eventual discontinuation?

1) Bad bottling - This will kill an otherwise interesting offering, the paradigm of this is CK Shock! The Men's and Women's is a textbook case of moronic packaging and condescending naming.

2) Bad Naming: "Dirty English" No one wants to shower and then spray on something "dirty." Incidentally there's nothing remotely "dirty" about Dirty English, It's Bergamot, Leather and Spice...Also see above, CK Shock is as bad a name if not worse!

3) Bad or Disreputable Brand (Juicy Couture, Nautica), or the Celebrity Equivalent (e.g. Usher) can kill an otherwise good fragrance. Women's lines are more prone to this as, truth be told, Hillary Duff's "With Love" for example, is quite a beautiful coconut and fruit scent and some of the Britney Spears line is quite good too!

4) Idiotically high pricing: You may thing those "Niche" fragrances are divine and distinctive of you, but truth be told, without a market that can afford them, they're in serious peril of discontinuation. You see, without sales, quality doesn't matter because (shockingly enough) even fragrance houses need to make money. For all we know, without Cool Water, Creed's GIT might not have survived this long, it's among the oldest formulation of that line which basically "appeared" 10 years ago from obscurity.

Any others I've missed?
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post #2 of 28
1/14/12 at 6:34pm
Your fourth point is perhaps the killer IMO.
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post #3 of 28
1/14/12 at 6:55pm
Lack of SA pushing the product. A good example is nordys seeing canali black and Gucci ph2 hiding behind the popular sellers.
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post #4 of 28
1/14/12 at 10:50pm
IMO, the banning of ingredients. Several scents are now discontinued due to ingredients banned by IFRA.
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post #5 of 28
1/15/12 at 2:59am
Reformulating it and banning a major ingredient like oakmoss, that will do it.
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post #6 of 28
1/15/12 at 3:10am
Like any company selling merchandise, room has to be made for new lines that are coming into the market. Companies can carry just so much product and what gets discontinued is determined on a number of factors.
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post #7 of 28
1/15/12 at 3:14am
Market pressures in general, no matter how well a fragrance conforms to all standards of success, once the sales begin to drop and the profits to dwindle (for whichever reason), the CEO's of the fragrance industry start considering discontinuation
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post #8 of 28
1/15/12 at 3:29am
A bad ad campaign, like Bang. Sex sells, sure, but greasy sex on barbecue foil? Didn't work this time.

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post #9 of 28
1/15/12 at 3:46am
Quote:
Originally Posted by MarquisdeSod View Post

For all we know, without Cool Water, Creed's GIT might not have survived this long, it's among the oldest formulation of that line which basically "appeared" 10 years ago from obscurity.

Finally! Someone who, like me, does not believe Creed to have been in business more than about a decade.
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post #10 of 28
1/15/12 at 5:21am
Low acceptance on market, although great acceptance doesn't assure continued production, right Mr. Mugler (A* Men flankers)?
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post #11 of 28
1/15/12 at 10:35am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Primrose View Post

IMO, the banning of ingredients. Several scents are now discontinued due to ingredients banned by IFRA.

+1 on this. According to a fellow at the Creed Boutique in NYC, IFRA has been putting increasing pressure on the perfume makers to stop making products that have certain ingredients because of their allergy causing potential. He specifically mentioned oakmoss but there are literally hundreds of things on the list. He also said this was the reason we've seen so many discontinued Creeds over the past few years. Reportedly, Mr. Creed has chosen to discontinue certain Creed fragrances, even though some were still very popular and considered classics (i.e., Creed Vetiver 1948). He said Mr. Creed will not go to synthetics and has elected to discontinue a fragrance rather than change the formula.

So, basically, a lot of this comes down to the empowering of nitwits who work for this agency who have nothing better to do than go around the world policing fragrance companies and telling them what they can and can't put into their fragrances. Probably 5% of what they do is actually beneficial, while the other 95% of what they want to do is pure rubbish and simply enables them to justify having their job. Think E.P.A.
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post #12 of 28
1/15/12 at 11:38am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ken_Russell View Post

Market pressures in general, no matter how well a fragrance conforms to all standards of success, once the sales begin to drop and the profits to dwindle (for whichever reason), the CEO's of the fragrance industry start considering discontinuation

This
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post #13 of 28
1/15/12 at 12:14pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by RedRaider430 View Post

+1 on this. According to a fellow at the Creed Boutique in NYC, IFRA has been putting increasing pressure on the perfume makers to stop making products that have certain ingredients because of their allergy causing potential. He specifically mentioned oakmoss but there are literally hundreds of things on the list. He also said this was the reason we've seen so many discontinued Creeds over the past few years. Reportedly, Mr. Creed has chosen to discontinue certain Creed fragrances, even though some were still very popular and considered classics (i.e., Creed Vetiver 1948). He said Mr. Creed will not go to synthetics and has elected to discontinue a fragrance rather than change the formula.

So, basically, a lot of this comes down to the empowering of nitwits who work for this agency who have nothing better to do than go around the world policing fragrance companies and telling them what they can and can't put into their fragrances. Probably 5% of what they do is actually beneficial, while the other 95% of what they want to do is pure rubbish and simply enables them to justify having their job. Think E.P.A.

I'd heard that about the Creed discontinuations as well. I believe I read that these ingredient restrictions were also the main reason for Green Valley being discontinued.
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post #14 of 28
1/15/12 at 12:15pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jojo Lapin X View Post

Finally! Someone who, like me, does not believe Creed to have been in business more than about a decade.

I don't know truly how long Creed has been cranking out scents for sale in wide distribution, but nonsense on "over a decade." I bought GiT in the late 80s and they had wide range of other Creed scent's available as well.
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post #15 of 28
1/15/12 at 12:17pm
This is a good thread since you see frags like Dior Homme Intense and then Terry Muglers Pure Malt that sales fly through the roof then they pull them out. Is this what I like to call the McDonalds McRib effect? Bring it in to boost sells then yank it.
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post #16 of 28
1/15/12 at 12:18pm
basically what everyone said and bad marketing/advertising, there are some great fragrances out there that dont get the recognition or attention they deserve because of limited advertising on the fragrance which causes it to be thrown in bargain bins, shame how some gems are underappreciated and collecting dust in bargain bins while the new releases that are garbage are apparently worth $70......
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post #17 of 28
1/15/12 at 12:48pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ih8buffering View Post

This is a good thread since you see frags like Dior Homme Intense and then Terry Muglers Pure Malt that sales fly through the roof then they pull them out. Is this what I like to call the McDonalds McRib effect? Bring it in to boost sells then yank it.

Hah! Lol on "MacRib effect"! Cool! And it's exactaly what you said!
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post #18 of 28
1/15/12 at 1:42pm
I hate to say it, but marketing and promotion really does play a prominent role. Remember that most people don't buy fragrances because they're aficionados who research it on basenotes; they buy it (1) because their girlfriend saw a cute ad for it featuring a shirtless Matthew McCounaghy, or smelled it on some guy at the mall; or (2) a cute SA pushed it on them and told them it smelled sexy. And for most companies, sales govern whether a scent will remain in production.
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post #19 of 28
1/15/12 at 2:44pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by MarquisdeSod View Post

Any others I've missed?

my disapproval



why else do you think Pure Coffee, Pure Malt, and Pure Havane aren't available anymore?

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post #20 of 28
1/15/12 at 2:48pm
It's the fax that its so popular. Every fragrance ha I absolutely love gets discontinued and subsequently gets cannonized into fragrance stardom.
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post #21 of 28
1/15/12 at 2:51pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by fragranceman88 View Post

It's the fax that its so popular.

people still fax?
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post #22 of 28
1/15/12 at 3:11pm
POOR SALES is the most common reason they get discontinued. After all, perfume manufacturing is a BUSINESS first and foremost. Of course you have listed some of the most common reasons for poor sales, but you forgot the most important:

Terrible Juice
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post #23 of 28
1/15/12 at 3:48pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by PuddleMonkey View Post

my disapproval



why else do you think Pure Coffee, Pure Malt, and Pure Havane aren't available anymore?


Was that cause of you??!!!! Grrrrrr! You're so naugthy! What did you say to Thierry Mugler?
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post #24 of 28
1/15/12 at 4:04pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Primrose View Post

IMO, the banning of ingredients. Several scents are now discontinued due to ingredients banned by IFRA.

Definitely this - makes me furious.


Quote:
Originally Posted by barclaydetolly View Post

I hate to say it, but marketing and promotion really does play a prominent role. Remember that most people don't buy fragrances because they're aficionados who research it on basenotes; they buy it (1) because their girlfriend saw a cute ad for it featuring a shirtless Matthew McCounaghy, or smelled it on some guy at the mall; or (2) a cute SA pushed it on them and told them it smelled sexy. And for most companies, sales govern whether a scent will remain in production.

and this.

*PuddleMonkey, great reply!
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post #25 of 28
1/16/12 at 1:46am
Quote:
Originally Posted by StylinLA View Post

I don't know truly how long Creed has been cranking out scents for sale in wide distribution, but nonsense on "over a decade." I bought GiT in the late 80s and they had wide range of other Creed scent's available as well.

Thanks; this is important information! When would you say that you first became aware of their existence?
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post #26 of 28
1/16/12 at 8:46am
I would think it simply lack of sales.
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post #27 of 28
1/16/12 at 9:16am
Thread Starter 
To those saying "lack of sales"; I would think this is an effect but not the cause. Yes, ultimately discontinuation is indistinguishable from poor sales; but that tells you nothing abot why those sales havee declined. I guess what I was getting at is why people aren't buying.
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post #28 of 28
1/16/12 at 9:52am
+1 for poor sales. If something is making lots of cashola, they keep it in production. If not, goodbye fragrance, say hello to the new boss. Simple as that. Fragrances aren't slated for discontinuation by their makers because they feel they "didn't advertise it enough." Advertising happened, it just wasn't effective, or the budget wasn't big enough to keep pushing a particular item into the mainstream.
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