Creating and marketing a fragrance brand | lecture with Karen Gilbert

Fragrance triggers memories, Memories create emotions, Emotions cause reactions.

The limbic system is associated with our moods, feelings, emotions, sexual behaviour and memory. 

Build associations to your perfume 

Think about textures, abstract themes of fragrances.

Fragrance branding must engage the customer in an instant. 

Train the brain : To recognise what you are smelling, to translate in into an idea, to communicate that idea to others via fragrance composition.

1920's Emancipation. Chanel no.5 - women were working, smoking, new world out there for woman. So Chanel no, 5 was the first fragrance by a fashion designer. 

Try to link the smell and story to customer

1930's and 40's. Hollywood glamour - Perfume was a real luxury, in this period there was a lot of poverty. A lot of the fragrances were adapted to create a Hollywood glamour to subside the reality. 

1850's/70's. Establishing Mass Market. Estée Lauder was the first to make perfume accessible to women on the streets. Women wouldn't spend perfume on themselves due to its high price. 

Charlie : first fragrance brand to make it available and affordable for women to buy perfume on a daily basis. 

1980's Money and Power. Dior.. Designer labels and bigger, better, wealth was in trend at this era. 

1990's. Zen and Spirituality. Calm peaceful trend. New era for fashion and fragrance. 

2000. The cult of celebrity. Less about fragrance more about merchandising and branding, the fragrance is just another way of income.

Niche and High end Luxe. Packaging is very simple with most Niche fragrances. 

What flavour are you? Vanilla or Pistachio 

Is your brand - Art or consumer product?

The exhibition of scent

Rather than having this pyramid structure. Most fragrance have a linear process / fashion the top note will last throughout the day. This is a generic system to targets wide consumer target.

Heritage brands such as Gurlain, Chanel and Dior, stick to what there background is all about.   They all have a spefic history and consumer target whist keeping to their heritage.

Niche line focuses on packaging and ingredients. Packaging is an expensive cost. They often have a generic bottle shape, then adapt the lid. 

- Smaller reach : cult following

- More spent on juice than visual

- More polarizing :  must be creative 

(Frederic Malle) brand creator. 

Man Ray inspired jean Paul Gaultier 

Look at Moet and Hennessy brand relate to perfume. look at  Killian ..website all about decadence and luxury.