Scented Quote of the Day, from Guy Robert: On Marketing

Here follows an interesting quote from perfumer Guy Robert (Calèche, Dioressence, Madame Rochas, Monsieur Rochas, Amouage Gold, The Pink Room...) about the role of marketing in perfumery seen in a more positive light than is usual to convey. It has become a little bit bon ton perhaps, and conformist even, to decry marketing and oppose it to Art with a capital letter as if they were enemies.

I think that Robert's thinking is a more balanced assessment of the historic role of marketing, which one can't ignore, in shaping the destinies of perfume as we know it. This insight helps to surmount over-simplistic dichotomies and make us realize that the object we love as perfume is beholden to the progress of that branch of perfumery too...

"Thanks to marketing which has become both a profession and a fashion, perfumery acquires a quality in its conception, a refinement in its conditioning, a strength in publicity, a sophistication in its promotion, its shape and colors, all which turn it into nearly a new art."

in Les Sens du Parfum (2000)

It is also clear in Guy Robert's account that those people who specialize in perfume marketing in his experience are passionate about fragrances and that it is structurally speaking often the other path taken by perfume lovers who do not take the route of the perfumer.

And independent perfumers performing on a more artisanal scale have to engage in both activities, that is the creation and the promotion of their products, as a blog like that of perfumer Andy Tauer reveals. It is both a journal about his creative process, a means to access his panels of readers/customers for feedback influencing the creations of his works (no ivory tower here), both regarding formulation and packaging, and a great platform for viral marketing.