Tuesday Musings
I’m experiencing a minor case of writer’s block, and instead of forcing myself too much, I want to share a quote I came across while reading my Perfume Legends book. Speaking of writing, there was a discussion yesterday on the fragrance discussion forum I frequent about whether perfume bloggers get paid by companies to write glowing reviews of their scents. This annoyed me a little but mostly cracked me up – I’d be seriously flattered to be approached by houses like Dior or Chanel to write for them. If that was the case, methinks they’d prefer a more profitable medium for such reviews as opposed to a perfume blog that has a fairly limited influence on the general public. However, such the case is not, and I hereby proclaim my complete autonomy – I write what I like and how I like it. In my almost one year existence, I’m yet to be approached by anybody with a monetary offer for a rave review. (It still cracks me up as I write it).
But back to that quote (and to not bore you any further), Suzanne Grayson, a beauty marketing analyst, said in “The Myth Of Fine Fragrance – American Cosmetics and Perfumery”, all the way back in 1972, “Fine fragrances are only something mystical for the perfumer himself, because he is on a quest for beauty, truth, love… The consumer, on the other hand, merely expects it to “smell good”. Marketing is what determines whether or not a perfume will join the ranks of the great products, or quietly vanish from the market. It’s up to marketing to put a very specific meaning into a fragrance”. What do you think – true or false?
32 comments May 7th, 2007