The art of being different
Once upon a time there was a perfume called "C'est la vie". A pretty name for a magical scent. It came out in 1990 - as a small Gesamtkunstwerk with bulbous flacon and coral stopper in a pink box. The advertising effort was enormous. For the first perfume of the then trendy Parisian designer Christian Lacroix was saved on nothing. Theoretically it had the makings of a classic. Nevertheless, it fell through. So life is. Or, as they say in France, "c'est la vie". Falling in the nose with a novelty is no art in the perfume industry. "98 percent of the market launches flop," says Stefan Seidel, managing director of the French Groupe Clarins in Germany. Most newcomers disappeared after six months. Creations that last more than two years are considered potential contenders for the coveted classic title. But to actually sustain that, they must survive for at least seven to ten years, according to Seidel. How does a perfume do it? "It can not be planned," says Jacques Polge, perfumer at the Paris fashion and fragrance empire Chanel, "creating a classic is a stroke of luck and happiness is unpredictable."
Number one among the classics since 1921 is "Chanel No. 5"
Even the fragrance blender of successful perfumes like "Allure" or "Chance" has no magic recipe. Is not synonymous. Just one (unequaled) role model: Chanel's "No. 5", the industry's first evergreen, which despite its age of 93, is still a bestseller worldwide. When Paris fashion designer Coco Chanel introduced him in 1921, he was a blatant outsider. At that time, perfumes were associated with lush flower flavors, playful bottles and romantic names. Instead, "No. 5" came as a no frills number girl and put on aldehydes, relatively unknown synthetic fragrances. But the time was - fortunately - ripe for it. The prime example shows how important the right timing and joy of experimentation are for the successful start into a long perfume life. Who dares wins in the perfume business. It is a game of roulette, the use of each determined itself. So helped the name "Opium" the oriental heavyweight of the French fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent in 1977 for breakthrough. It was a purposeful verbal slap against the perfume poetry valid until now. In 1989, the German designer Jil Sander came up with the idea of releasing the first sun fragrance: "Sun" - and thus introduced a new category of fragrance. The curvy bottle "Classique" by Jean Paul Gaultier, which the fashion designer twice a year a new outfit misses, is an eye-catcher since 1993. And collector's item for a dedicated fan community. In 1994, US designer Calvin Klein used the unisex fragrance "CK One" to break gender segregation in fragrances introduced by post-World War II marketing experts. "Kenzo", launched in 2001, sowed hope again with its visually stunning poppy campaigns between New York, Paris and Moscow after 9/11.
A scandal was the name "Opium" 38 years ago
The French creator Thierry Mugler enriched in 2005 with "alien" the fragrance selection by another facet, a woody women's fragrance. No idea is the same as another. Unusually, they were all at the time of launch. They topped the fragrance notes created with love for the special with the aura of the extraordinary, which distinguishes every trendsetter. From the many copied pioneer to the classic ascend but still requires a lot of condition. The "brand appeal", as it is called in the industry, must not fade. That too makes "No. 5" perfect for decades. Several Grailkeepers miss the Chanel legend a constantly contemporary image. This begins with the subtle, barely visible change of the bottle shape for laymen. Sometimes the plug is more powerful, sometimes the flacon shoulders are a touch narrower. House perfumer Polge leaves the powdery-floral primer untouched (the recipe is in the safe), but has nevertheless modernized it by mixing two lighter versions of the ingredients and bringing them out as Eau de Parfum and Eau de Toilette. And finally, changing brand ambassadors, most recently movie stars Audrey Tautou and Brad Pitt, give the "old" fragrance a star character. All these are the building blocks of a permanent makeover, with which the mixture remains in conversation and thus up to date. Meanwhile, other brands are also oriented towards this pattern. "You have to rekindle the appetite of customers for the fragrance over and over again," says Joel Palix describing the constant challenge of class (n) content.
A star on the scent sky is "Angel"
From Paris, the head of the Thierry Mugler perfumes ensures that "Angel" is still in demand after 22 years. Mick Jagger's daughter Georgia May is the new angel face for creation, the first gourmet fragrance with refillable bottles to reach its status. A careful image maintenance keeps the competition at a distance. And she does not sleep. Too tempting is the prospect of playing in the top perfume league. Because the first 20 top sellers share 80 percent of the total sales of fragrances - in 2013 that was 1.5 billion euros in Germany. Among the top ten fragrances in the list are "Coco Mademoiselle", "Chanel No. 5", "Jil Sander Sun", "Alien" by Thierry Mugler, "Trésor" by Lancôme, "CK One" by Calvin Klein and "J'adore" by Dior. The latter, released in 1999, is a symbol of increasing hedonism, the pleasure of doing something good for oneself, with its slender golden bottle neck. Together, these glorious seven, all classics, bring it to 200 years of popularity. Last year, 380 new perfumes were launched against them. 281 of them, almost 75 percent, were women's fragrances. Just for comparison: in 2007, there were 175. Also that was a number that documents the changed consumer behavior in terms of fragrance. The desire for fragrance grows continuously. It is now a lifestyle to own several perfumes and to use them according to the mood. An attitude from which our mothers and grandmothers were far away. The American Fragrance Foundation registered only 30 new fragrance introductions throughout the 1950s. It was already 128 in the 1970s and 543 in the 1990s. Since the turn of the millennium, several hundred new compositions have been released worldwide each year. The perfume carousel turns very fast. It's madness - for manufacturers, retailers and consumers, "says Clarins CEO Seidel, and there is no chance for a shopkeeper to come up with some 1100 perfumes, which are currently available to men and women Scarcely sold, it is rigorously phased out and there is a demand for free space on the shelves of the perfumeries C'est la vie.
Perfumes - perfectly planned
Many factors must be right for a perfume to become a star. Most important is "the juice", as the fragrance mixture in the industry is called. There is a briefing for this, a concept. Based on this, the "noses", the perfumers of various fragrance manufacturers (companies for perfume ingredients), develop sample mixtures. One of these proposals wins the bid and is refined until the final creation. During the process, a computer program helps to calculate the prices of the ingredients. The magical limit of five euros per bottle of finished fragrance should not be exceeded as far as possible, but may be significantly higher in individual cases. Many companies clarify in advance in consumer tests, how a new creation arrives. Newcomers must insist on popular fragrances. A hurdle that makes it difficult for innovative fragrances to get a chance. At the same time, designers are commissioned with the design of the bottle, and this is also done through a competition. Relatively complicated is the search for the name. He should be attractive and internationally understandable. The rights have to be secured with a lot of money worldwide. More and more often, actors or athletes are hired as a brand ambassador for a fragrance. They provide for the "image transfer", that is, their VIP status is to rub off on the perfume. Finally, a uniform advertising for cinema and television commercials, website, advertising campaign and presentation in shop windows and perfumeries must be created. The preparation phase lasts on average two years. As a rule of thumb for the total costs: In fragrances, the z. For example, if you want to spend 50 million euros, the same amount has to be invested first. Only about two years after a successful (!) Introduction, the profit zone is reached. This is currently possible, for example, with the perfumes "La vie est belle" by Lancôme or "Sì" by Armani.
