Making your own artisinal perfume can be a rewarding activity and your starting point, your inspiration, can come from almost anywhere. But, if selling perfume profitably is your interest, there is only one starting point and it is the same for every company and individual. The starting point is your market.
Any company that spends millions producing and marketing fragrance spends a great deal of time and money defining and researching their market. The fragrance they offer will "fit" the market they have identified. This market is where the money is to be found. If you want to sell your own perfume profitably, defining and researching your market is your first step. This step comes before you begin to develop your fragrance.
What happens if you work backward? The fragrance first and then the search for a market? The result will almost certainly be a fiasco. Why? Because now you first have to find a market big enough to offer the potential you need. Then you have to find media that will let you communicate effectively with that market. But the reality is this after-the-fact market you've identified is likely fragmented. Fragmented markets present promotional difficulties. If your market is scattered you must use multiple media to try to round up buyers. Each has its own expense. You now have to work harder and spend more hours and dollars to make sales, assuming you are able to discover where potential buyers might be found.
The emotional problem that puts the product before the market is enthusiasm for the product. This enthusiasm is typical of creative people. The cool-headed marketer on the other hand studies markets and looks for opportunities to sell perfume. Like a shark getting a taste of blood, the cool headed marketer rushes to develop a perfume after the market is spotted.
For the creative person, developing the fragrance is the the fun. Working on a fragrance can make for great conversation. Talking about markets and market analysis and media costs is pretty boring, unless you are that marketer shark looking for an opportunity to make money.
Then too, the person inspired by the desire to make perfume may have only the vaguest idea of how it will be sold. Ask this person how they intend to sell their fragrance and they might say, "Macy's," or "online," or "Walmart. This is simply not real. This is not how the start-up perfume entrepreneur makes money.
So how do you, the novice perfume entrepreneur, go about finding a viable market for your first perfumes? Sadly, you must put aside your creative outlook and become analytical. Think small. Can you spot an opportunity to sell a few dozen bottles locally? Look around, in your community. Talk to people in the business of selling. Look for clusters of people with similar interests -- clubs, religious organizations, sports teams and their followers, local bands, local tourist organizations. Get out and talk, meet people, look for modest opportunities. Small successes are better building blocks than large failures. Small successes can lead to significantly larger opportunities.
But whatever you do, if it's money you want, don't start spending it on your perfume until you've nailed down a ripe market.
Friday, February 12, 2016
Thursday, February 11, 2016
Why my men's fragrances are better
It strikes me from time to time that the men's fragrances I've developed are good; better than my women's fragrances although those, too, are not without merit.
I think the "refreshing originality" of my men's fragrances results from my interest in developing, for my own pleasure, fragrances outside the handful of commonly accepted scent styles for men. The world is full smells that can be found to be beautiful. The world of smells is not limited by popular taste.
Why can I have such a warm feeling about my men's fragrances and feel less so about my fragrances for women? I suspect it may have something to do with sex bias. My wife is my chief tester and I suspect I'm a bit uncomfortable having her wear a fragrance that in some cases might be a bit "risky," scent wise, and in other cases simply not as good as what she can buy from Estee Lauder.
With my men's fragrances I attempt to seduce neither men nor women. I am simply seeking my own pleasure. I do want it to be pleasing to others. I wouldn't wear a scent I believed to be offensive. I suspect that my men's fragrances blend closely enough with the environment so as not offend even those who speak out against fragrance.
One of my fragrances caused some controversy with my wife when I first used it. The first 20 minutes of its evolution bothered her. After those 20 minutes she found the scent pleasing. In time she began to enjoy it right from the beginning. Tastes can evolve and this is where I part ways with the scents of many marketers. Rather than encouraging the consumer to stretch a bit in their tastes, they simply target the consumer's taste as it is. Good business; poor art.
I sometimes feel I should drop women’s fragrances altogether and focus on scents for men. But in truth there are also scents which interest me which I feel should be worn by a woman. I have one in particular that fits this description but I only made a small quantity, and I used aroma materials I may never find again, and so I've never been able to offer it for sale.
"Passion" is the word that best describes your attitude when you're doing your best work. I've probably put more passion into my fragrances for men because of my urge to create something I can use, myself.
I think the "refreshing originality" of my men's fragrances results from my interest in developing, for my own pleasure, fragrances outside the handful of commonly accepted scent styles for men. The world is full smells that can be found to be beautiful. The world of smells is not limited by popular taste.
Why can I have such a warm feeling about my men's fragrances and feel less so about my fragrances for women? I suspect it may have something to do with sex bias. My wife is my chief tester and I suspect I'm a bit uncomfortable having her wear a fragrance that in some cases might be a bit "risky," scent wise, and in other cases simply not as good as what she can buy from Estee Lauder.
With my men's fragrances I attempt to seduce neither men nor women. I am simply seeking my own pleasure. I do want it to be pleasing to others. I wouldn't wear a scent I believed to be offensive. I suspect that my men's fragrances blend closely enough with the environment so as not offend even those who speak out against fragrance.
One of my fragrances caused some controversy with my wife when I first used it. The first 20 minutes of its evolution bothered her. After those 20 minutes she found the scent pleasing. In time she began to enjoy it right from the beginning. Tastes can evolve and this is where I part ways with the scents of many marketers. Rather than encouraging the consumer to stretch a bit in their tastes, they simply target the consumer's taste as it is. Good business; poor art.
I sometimes feel I should drop women’s fragrances altogether and focus on scents for men. But in truth there are also scents which interest me which I feel should be worn by a woman. I have one in particular that fits this description but I only made a small quantity, and I used aroma materials I may never find again, and so I've never been able to offer it for sale.
"Passion" is the word that best describes your attitude when you're doing your best work. I've probably put more passion into my fragrances for men because of my urge to create something I can use, myself.
Monday, February 8, 2016
Two kinds of perfume: Personal -- Commercial
What kind of perfume do you make? I make two kinds of perfume: commercial and personal. If I explain the differences between them it will help you better understand what kind of perfume you are making -- or aspire to make.
Let's start with the commercial. In many ways the scent is likely to be less interesting but it is more demanding to create. For a small perfume making operation to develop a commercial scent you focus on three issues: market, cost, and continuity. To sell, the fragrance must be acceptable to the market into which you hope to sell it. Oddball fragrances are risky. They are hard to sell.
Cost -- what it costs you to produce the fragrance -- is a big issue because you are limited by what you can sell it for. For a commercial fragrance there is always competition and keeping your price at a level expected by your potential customers is important. Price your fragrance too high and you lose people. But to hit your retail sweetspot price-wise you must calculate backwards, allowing for wholesale pricing, and then decide what you can afford to spend for each bottle you make and make the profit on that bottle you're looking for. When you do this calculation you may be surprised at how little you can afford to spend to produce that beautiful fragrance you had in mind.
"Continuity" refers to your ability to replicate your fragrance in new batches, which means you must be able to purchase more of the identical materials you used to make your perfume and mix then in the exact same ratios under the same conditions. You must be able to make more of the exact same fragrance which generally means going back to the same vendors who (hopefully) have not raised prices.
If you use any "natural" materials the problem is particularly awkward because you must be assured that your vendor has not switched sources. If so, your "fresh" supply now becomes an unknown.
As to other aroma materials, if your formula includes bases, as many formulas will, you must be certain that there will be an ongoing supply of that base. Many long since discontinued fragrances (say from around 1900 to the 1940's) are difficult to recreate because they make use of specialty bases that are no longer available.
Continuity for packaging materials is less of a problem unless your sales are supported by a particular visual presentation of your fragrance. Then your ability to obtain more of that same bottle, pump and overshell becomes important.
When developing a commercial fragrance, you've got to consider all of these elements before you start putting money into the project.
Personal fragrance
Personal fragrances are a whole different story. When you are making a fragrance for love of the fragrance, with no plans for commercialization, none of the three elements required of a commercial fragrance apply. There's no market research to evaluate -- the market is you. There's no cost consideration. You can use whatever materials you have on hand or can afford to buy. There's no continuity consideration (unless you get really lucky with a formula and like it so much that you want to make more so you can use more, share it around, or even sell it.)
More distinctions
When you're just messing around for your own pleasure you may be a little lax in documenting your formula or marking the bottle with your favorite trial, which means even if you have the materials on hand, you may not be easily able to produce another batch -- an identical batch -- since you're not sure how you made the first batch. If your goal is a commercial fragrance, you can't be lax. Every bottle, vial, mixing pot or test tube must be labeled and that label must relate to an entry in your notebook showing each material you used, how much of it you used, and where you obtained it, so that you can get more of the (exact) same. If you were planning to commercialize your fragrance on a re-run you would not, for example, use vetiver from a different source. The two sources would not be providing you with the same material, regardless of their being sold under the same name. But when you're making a perfume simply for your own pleasure, this isn't so important and you might find the slight variation interesting and both equally appealing.
Try both paths
Professional perfumers mess around and, for both pleasure and professional development, create for themselves scents that will never be commercialized. If you have been creating fragrances just for your own pleasure, try, as a test, to develop a "commercial" fragrance -- one that will please people in a particular market, be affordable to them and yet be profitable for you to make, and be fully repeatable -- if the market cried out for more.
Best wishes.!
Let's start with the commercial. In many ways the scent is likely to be less interesting but it is more demanding to create. For a small perfume making operation to develop a commercial scent you focus on three issues: market, cost, and continuity. To sell, the fragrance must be acceptable to the market into which you hope to sell it. Oddball fragrances are risky. They are hard to sell.
Cost -- what it costs you to produce the fragrance -- is a big issue because you are limited by what you can sell it for. For a commercial fragrance there is always competition and keeping your price at a level expected by your potential customers is important. Price your fragrance too high and you lose people. But to hit your retail sweetspot price-wise you must calculate backwards, allowing for wholesale pricing, and then decide what you can afford to spend for each bottle you make and make the profit on that bottle you're looking for. When you do this calculation you may be surprised at how little you can afford to spend to produce that beautiful fragrance you had in mind.
"Continuity" refers to your ability to replicate your fragrance in new batches, which means you must be able to purchase more of the identical materials you used to make your perfume and mix then in the exact same ratios under the same conditions. You must be able to make more of the exact same fragrance which generally means going back to the same vendors who (hopefully) have not raised prices.
If you use any "natural" materials the problem is particularly awkward because you must be assured that your vendor has not switched sources. If so, your "fresh" supply now becomes an unknown.
As to other aroma materials, if your formula includes bases, as many formulas will, you must be certain that there will be an ongoing supply of that base. Many long since discontinued fragrances (say from around 1900 to the 1940's) are difficult to recreate because they make use of specialty bases that are no longer available.
Continuity for packaging materials is less of a problem unless your sales are supported by a particular visual presentation of your fragrance. Then your ability to obtain more of that same bottle, pump and overshell becomes important.
When developing a commercial fragrance, you've got to consider all of these elements before you start putting money into the project.
Personal fragrance
Personal fragrances are a whole different story. When you are making a fragrance for love of the fragrance, with no plans for commercialization, none of the three elements required of a commercial fragrance apply. There's no market research to evaluate -- the market is you. There's no cost consideration. You can use whatever materials you have on hand or can afford to buy. There's no continuity consideration (unless you get really lucky with a formula and like it so much that you want to make more so you can use more, share it around, or even sell it.)
More distinctions
When you're just messing around for your own pleasure you may be a little lax in documenting your formula or marking the bottle with your favorite trial, which means even if you have the materials on hand, you may not be easily able to produce another batch -- an identical batch -- since you're not sure how you made the first batch. If your goal is a commercial fragrance, you can't be lax. Every bottle, vial, mixing pot or test tube must be labeled and that label must relate to an entry in your notebook showing each material you used, how much of it you used, and where you obtained it, so that you can get more of the (exact) same. If you were planning to commercialize your fragrance on a re-run you would not, for example, use vetiver from a different source. The two sources would not be providing you with the same material, regardless of their being sold under the same name. But when you're making a perfume simply for your own pleasure, this isn't so important and you might find the slight variation interesting and both equally appealing.
Try both paths
Professional perfumers mess around and, for both pleasure and professional development, create for themselves scents that will never be commercialized. If you have been creating fragrances just for your own pleasure, try, as a test, to develop a "commercial" fragrance -- one that will please people in a particular market, be affordable to them and yet be profitable for you to make, and be fully repeatable -- if the market cried out for more.
Best wishes.!
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