Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Keep it cheap!

If these two bottles cost the same, and your formula requires the same amount of either one or the other, and either choice will give you essentially the same result (these shown would not!), which bottle do you think would give you a marketing advantage?


    Don't get me wrong. I love beautiful -- high quality -- fragrances. I would never ask my wife to use some cheap junk garbage perfume. But if you want to make perfume yourself, unless you are independently wealthy or have a wealthy patron, you'll find yourself giving consideration to what aroma materials cost.

    I have several fragrances in my own "line" that employ relatively costly ingredients. I enjoy them and those who have purchased them enjoy them. But mostly they were made as small scale experiments -- tests to explore my own interest in these materials. I cringe at what I would have to go through to produce them on anything like a commercial scale.

    Lately I've had the not unreasonable desire to put my fragrances in the hands of more people. That means being prepared to scale up production, and that means having to put up more money.

    I think back at the time when Honda first invaded the American market. It was with a ... MOTOR SCOOTER! In fact they had a group SING about it and the song got substantial air time, drilling into our heads the brand name and the notion that it was cool.

    Worming their way in with motor scooters, Honda progressed to small automobiles. But today, in addition to their "Honda" cars and industrial equipment, they also have a line of LUXURY cars, the Acura.

    When you're developing your formulas, give thought not only to where you want to be but also to how you might get there. Starting small can be smart. And starting small can force you to think harder about your formulas and put greater effort into producing great perfumes while keeping your formulas ... cheap!


Tuesday, March 4, 2014

The end of Confusion (II)

The Music

The fragrance
   
     I've written about the rise of Confusion II as a perfume intended for a marketing test. Perhaps I've not said much about the test itself but now a pretty explicit report has been made available to members of the Perfume Makers & Marketers Club in our February newsletter.

    As you can read it there (by becoming a Club member) I won't go into all the details here. But I will give you an abbreviated version of the story, without the numbers, so to speak.

    My plan for Confusion II was to find a band or performer who would make it their own and market it on their "merch table" at gigs and, through their online store, if they had one.

    The recruiting details and outcomes appear in the Club newsletter article but I can announce here that I have found the group I was looking for and last Saturday "Confusion II" made its first appearance as Children of the Rhythm by The Big Takeover, a reggae/ska/rock band out of New Paltz, New York, although members are scattered around the region.

    The new name of the fragrance, Children of the Rhythm, is simply the name of the band's new CD. Both are available at the band's gigs and at their online store.

    And both are getting excellent reviews!