Working on a new fragrance -- some personal notes (#1)

    Yesterday (04/20/20) I ordered some supplies I'll be using in developing a new perfume. I've already got a problem on my hands. The scent that has been evolving is out of sync with the theme I selected for the fragrance and the working name now makes no sense.

    What I want is a name and a theme and a scent that go together. The name should suggest the scent, the scent should suggest the name and together the name and the scent should fit nicely into a "story" or theme that can be used to advertise the fragrance. This is a very important starting point because it makes the whole project logical. When naming, you have the theme and the scent to guide you. When developing the scent you have the name and the theme to guide you. When developing a story for marketing purposes you have the name and the scent to guide you.
   
    But as of today, for my new fragrance, the scent doesn't fit either the working name or the story. The story doesn't really fit the working name either. So what should I do?

    To go ahead with things the way they are now, I'll be forced to force any promotional enthusiasm. Right now, while I'm still at the beginning, I think it will be better to make adjustments to my theme. This will perhaps help me with a new trend of thought for a name. Why take this approach? Because I think I have something with the fragrance itself. Maybe it just happened but at the moment it makes sense to me to go with the scent and see what kind of theme and name I can develop for it.

Audience

    Before I make changes to my theme or my working name, I have to consider my audience. Who am I going to market this fragrance to? The name, scent, and story all must be suitable for my target audience. Ideally it will have a powerful effect on them, get them aspiring (maybe even get them perspiring for my perfume!)

    Now I'll reveal a trade secret. Please don't spread it around. The only audience I'm concerned with are the men and women who visit my pglightyears.com website. This is where I'll be selling the fragrance. The audience at this web site is almost exclusively visitors who have been impressed by my writings elsewhere, my blogs, my bio-byte.com and perfumeprojects.com websites and perhaps a tweet, a Facebook posting, or a mention on somebody else's site. This will NOT be a large number of people and, as I have written elsewhere, I'll be matching my production with my anticipated sales. I'm not planning to get stuck with a ton of unsold inventory.

    So now I have to rethink this project, ask myself if the scent that is developing will be for this audience and, if so, how should I re-write my story and working name?

    I know that in my announcement for this fragrance -- the webpage I'll give it -- there will be a large photo of something -- I don't yet know what. But that photo will have to be in sync with the name of the fragrance and its story -- and the scent itself. So, as a start, I can begin to think in visual terms.

-- Stay tuned! (To be continued.)