Trend Radar - Global Fragrance Market - PART I

THE SHIFT IN THE MARKET

According to Carlin International, a French communication company,  we are to see a shift in the luxury market. The main reason is that Generation Y has different cultural expectations regarding to luxury.
In my next posts I will bring the latest trends and try to show here what is already happening in the luxury market of fragrances.

You all know I am not a fan of Gabrielle Chanel as a person**, but the brand is definitely one step ahead of all other fragrance brands.

What is Chanel currently doing:

The newest advertising campaign for Chanel Nº5 brings back the most iconic moment of fragrance advertising of all times.
Marilyn Monroe five decades ago stated that she went to bed wearing nothing more than some drops of Chanel Nº5. At that time the story of the most seductive fragrance was published by the London Daily Mail when a reporter made the following observation "Marilyn Monroe never had trouble attracting men. Now it appears that her colorful love life may have been down to a simple choice - her perfume." 
Truth is that Marilyn Monroe was never paid to endorse Chanel Nº5 and she never appeared in any advertising ad for the brand. 
So why now? 
Many will jump and say that after Brad Pitt there is nobody more appealing than Monroe! 

The new campaign suggests that the brand recently got hands on the record of MM's being interviewed by Georges Belmont, the former editor-in-chief of Marie Claire Magazine, during the shootings of the film Let's Make Love many decades ago.

The recorded tape reveals a conversation that goes like this: "You know, they ask me questions. Just an example: 'What do you wear to bed ? A pajama top ? The bottoms of the pajamas? A nightgown? So I said, "Chanel No.5", because it's the truth… And yet, I don't want to say "nude'. But it's the truth!" 

MARILYN MONROE & CHANEL Nº5

...humm...they only put their hands on this now? I find this hard to believe. 

What really made Chanel bring MM back to the scenario?  

Let's understand why Chanel marketing machine is sharper than ever!

I think the marketing managers of Chanel brand recently LOOKED FOR the records in their old archives to search something to use in the new advertising for this incoming Christmas (when most financial market radars are watching closely which brand is going to sell the most in this particular season).

Why? Because they are aware of what is trendy now!

According to Carlin, the concept of time regarding luxury brands has shifted to incorporate iconic value and the importance of time in their advertising and product developments. As generation Y is in an intersection trying to balance their style of living fast with their soul searching. In this case we are about to see a revival of myths and legends. 
As the experts of Carlin explains "Time matters to this generation!" 
We have also learned that NOSTALGIA is in full gear as a trend  - read here).

Chanel happens to have lost grounds to other brands lately and it is desperate to regain that title. The launch of a Coco fragrance flanker, Coco Noir, was a step into nostalgia.
Also, Brad Pitt was a previous choice for Chanel Nº5 advertising after a research that pointed him as the most desired man of the last decades. They paid him 7 mi and he was there selling Chanel in that crazy monologue, that later became a joke in the internet. Chanel once had the most iconic personality/celebrity of all times endorsing the most sold fragrance of the world. Marilyn is globally known. Everybody thinks that her statement of going to sleep naked only wearing Chanel was THE SEXIEST thing ever said by a celeb...plus icons and legends are now trendy, so using her is Chanel's ultimate marketing strategy to sell A LOT this Christmas!

But what is an iconic product or iconic brand? How we define that?

In marketing an iconic brand is one that is recognizable all over the world and it is not shaken by economical or political convulsions. They have a cultural and emotional significance. They are rooted in our culture and consciousness.

According to H B Holt, a Harvard Business School professor, an iconic brand is the one that go way beyond the products benefits and features. Iconic brands appeal to a certain set of values and attitudes and are life style driven.

All iconic brands seem to fulfill 3 requirements:

Create an identity myth; involve multiple story tellers; and weave powerful brand stories.

Icon means image and in the modern culture icon means a symbol. 

So Marilyn Monroe was and still is a sex symbol. She represented an image of a certain type of woman - The one who was desired by all men. She was considered a GODESS.

If you want to know why she became an icon it is very easy to explain. First of all she died young and carrying with her the mysterious truth of her death. Till today there is a pending question whether she committed suicide or was killed. As she died young, we only have the image of a beautiful sexy young lady. We don't know how she would have aged. Not only that, she married or had love affairs with other iconic celebs such as Joe DiMaggio, Marlon Brandon and JFK. And the cherry on top: she had the bombshell mix of naiveté and sex appeal. The dumb sexy blonde.

What Chanel is bringing is an icon of culture and Chanel is not selling Chanel Nº5! It is selling an attitude! Chanel is selling a myth.

But Chanel is not the only brand tuned in the trend. Paco Rabanne is also a brand on the rise. This very successful and iconic brand of the 70's and it is now launching "Invictus", a fresh-woody sporty fragrance for men, which is not only bringing a shirtless sexy Australian rugby player, but also mythical "Greek Gods". 

NICK YOUNGQUEST NAKED

Here the marketing team is mixing the image of a six pack successful young man (fit, rich, sexy, beautiful) with a sort of epic saga and an allegory for victory and references to Hercules, a demi-god and the son of Greek Zeus . And why Nick Youngquest? Besides being gorgeous, he has no problem to photograph naked for gay magazines. The answer is YES if you are asking about photos with front nudity... but you know...my blog is about fragrances...not porn...so I can't really publish them here...but I think you will enjoy googling them...Paco Rabanne, the iconic brand, is bringing the image of a virile champion full of testosterone and with an attitude of this Generation Y which is being opened when sex is concerned and being cool regarding the same-sex relationship issues. Nick has no problem whatsoever with his sexuality and his profession. He came out of the closet and he is respected by his teammates in the locker room. 

 


"Paco Rabanne is turning a sensational new page for men’s fragrances. With Invictus, Paco Rabanne is exploring a new dream – the fantasy of victory – a new hero – the champion – and a new scent territory – the sensual freshness for men. The perfume is named after the demi-god of Invictus – a contemporary hero, the ultimate masculine ideal, a magnificent specimen of manhood. His virility is raw, almost animalistic. He is what men aspire to and women desire. Beyond his physique, it is his triumph that makes him desirable. This victory not only gives him wings; it is an aphrodisiac. He also has a sense of humour, making his smile his ultimate weapon". Extracted from Business Today.

OBS.: The Pew Research Center poll has recently shown:

The new survey finds 70% of millenials in favor of same-sex marriage, which is far higher than the support among older generations. And since millennials make up a larger share of the adult population today, the overall trend has also changed, with a 49% majority supporting gay marriage, as opposed to 33% of the population in 2003. In 2003, millennials made up just 9% of the adult population. Today, 27% of adults are in the millennial generation.

Additional interesting reading: Selling the dead, by The Telegraph. Read about posthumous advertising royalties and commercial transactions involving delebs.

FLORIS RECEIPT OF PURCHASE BY MARILYN MONROE

Photo credit: Floris brand

Additional interesting info: Chanel Nº5 was not MM's only choice for frangrances. Truth is that the bombshell also had a secret love affair with FLORIS. In 1959 she ordered 6 bottles of a perfume called Floris Rose Geranium under the name of her secretary, Miss Dorothy Blass. Fragrances were delivered to her hotel room while she was filming Some Like It Hot. It is also known today her passion for rose geranium, cedarwood, citronella notes.

** My personal opinion about Miss Gabrielle Chanel was that she was a social climber and a prostitute. She was a Nazi collaborator and a promiscuous antisemitic woman. IMO she should have been arrested, tried and convicted for attempt of murder of her Jewish partners, The Werthemeir family, with intent of stealing their shares of the company she owned in partnership with them by using her influence with Nazis and try to send them to concentration camp. As everybody knows from all biographies ever written about her and proved to be true, she tried to send them to a concentration camp to be exterminated - read as "attempt to murder or assist to murder". She IMO would also have to face trial as a spy and nazi collaborator during the occupied France. In that case it would have been a pleasure to see Miss Chanel have her hair shaved, her clothes taken off and be left out for public humiliation like the French did to ALL FRENCH WHORES who slept with nazis at that time, which it did not happen because she was also at that time helped by one of her many sexual clients - Mr. Churchill. So, as much as I like Chanel's fragrances I despise the woman who created this brand. I only wear the perfumes knowing that because a Jewish family was also a part of the Chanel Beauty Brand.

Stay tuned for more trends as I will continue to bring them here to you!