A new perfume, (another) new blog

I'm working on an (almost) new perfume. It's a variation on a perfume I did slightly over a year ago on the theme of Patchwood, a new aroma chemical. (Yes, "chemical," ugh! But the whole world is chemical and that includes you. Sorry about that.)

Anyway, I'd been working to smooth out some bumps in the formula when I read about a new social networking blogging site that, according to some, has really hit it with the ultra trendy.

So naturally (or not so naturally) I opened an account and, for starters, decided to post some comments on the steps I'm going through to develop this new Patchwood perfume. You can read all about it and follow the story there.

While I've done a good deal of writing in my life and while My writings have been financially rewarding, I'm not much at this "keep up the heat" kind of social network interaction that has become so popular for marketing, but neither have I ignored it. I now understand that today life isn't complete unless you have an iPhone, Blackberry or equivalent. (I'm now carrying the Blackberry in my left pocket and the iPhone in my right. I like each of them for different reasons. One doesn't seem to replace the other.

But this isn't about devices. It's about how we communicate today. I've had a Facebook page for ages but, until I started using the Facebook iPhone app I never paid much attention to it and rarely returned the individual messages I received.

Now, thanks to the iPhone -- which I still look at as something of a toy -- I can sit watching TV and, during the commercials, check Facebook feeds, email, etc -- kind of like playing a video game. It's the most fun since PAC-Man.

But it's more than fun. Through Facebook I've connected with people I have known in the past but who I haven't seen for years. And now, living away from the big city, through these media I can still, easily, keep in touch with the wider world. It's the internet at a far faster pace.

And, as you've probably discovered by now, it's being used by companies, large and small, to sell things, like perfume.

The social networking sites, unlike the traditional website, have greater marketing power because they create communities, communities interlinked by common interest.

When I first started to use the internet to sell, a friend introduced me to the concept of having one or more forums on your website. They were interactive and dynamic in drawing appropriate visitors and, for a time, they were great for improving your standing with search engines and, ultimately, for making sales.

But forums became difficult, and then almost impossible to maintain. Flamers, spammers, advertisers, hackers all sought to disrupt your forum and take it over for their own playground. So one by one, forums that had sincere purpose and nice followings disappeared. But the urge to interact did not.

Blogs offered some of the virtues of forums without the pain since the software was given to you (you didn't have to set it up yourself, on your own website) and comments could be moderated -- they didn't get posted until the owner approved. The old spammers continued to try to post crap -- crap disguised as legitimate interactions -- but this was pretty easy to weed out (although I have let some slip by me.)

But again, blogging is a slow and time consuming way to build a community. Those who do it successfully -- Victoria Frolova -- for example -- put out a steady stream of thoughtful writings.

But if your head is into some new perfume you're developing, there isn't much room in it for thoughtful writing, much less a steady stream of thoughtful writings.

So we get Twitter. 140 characters that -- in most cases -- say nothing. Or, say "this is what I had for breakfast today." Who cares?

But Twitter plus Blogs start to add up. Twitter is a quick way to TELL people what you've done. Then they're directed to your blog.

Facebook, for me, has been a slow eye opener. The tools to build your own community are intense. When I look at "friends" suggestions I find myself reading a virtual who's who of the perfume business today -- the smaller, independent perfumers -- both the creators and the bloggers -- and discover many I know by name and some I know from personal encounters. And then, with Facebook, you're introduced to the "friends of friends" who you might want to make friends of your own.

And now there's Tumblr, yet another social networking site no doubt headed for success. At least I'm giving it a try.

All of this comes down to something rather simple. It's the reason companies like Coty, Parlux, and Elizabeth Arden sponsor so many celebrity perfumes. To sell, you have to have a fan base. Wal-Mart has its fans. Lady Gaga has hers. If you don't happen to own Wal-Mart and if you don't have a following like Lady Gaga, you're still free to DEVELOP your own following using social media. Developing a following is the first step toward being able to successfully market your perfume.

Don't kid yourself. Your perfume may be great but the world isn't going to beat a path to your door UNLESS you've gone out there and gathered up fans.

How do you do it? Nobody can tell you. But, if you have enough creativity in you to create perfume, perhaps you also have enough creativity in you to find ways to develop a following.

The great thing about all this internet social networking stuff is that, for now, it's all free.

The "cost" is the time and energy you put into developing effective ways to use it.

Good luck!

The Many Styles of Perfume Web Selling

The other day I was cleaning up some links on the "members only" pages of our Perfume Maker's Club. Going through the "Small Companies That Sell Their Own Perfume" links -- clicking on each to see if the companies still existed -- I was struck by the wide variety of styles of these websites, all of which sold perfume.

Let me say here as an "aside," you can make this study for yourself without being a member of the Perfume Maker's Club simply by doing a bunch of your own Google searches.

Dead links themselves fascinate me as they aren't all dead for the same reason. Some links die because the companies (or people) simply pack it in and go out of business. Either perfume was not so profitable for them or they moved on to other ventures that were more to their liking, or more profitable.

Then there are dead links from companies that have changed their website name (Bond No. 9 for example) and moved without leaving a redirector at the older website. (Maybe they did for a while, until they were sure everybody knew their new web address -- or perhaps they just felt those who were interested would find them through Google.)

A third set of dead links arose when companies and individuals perfumers changed their company name or business affiliation and thus their web addresses. These people were still making and selling perfume, their commitment unchanged but perhaps in a new business arrangement.

You may ask, what is the great interest in all of this? For me, since it has been about five years since I first put up this web page, I'm fascinated by those who have survived and those who have not. Remember, it can cost well under $100 a year to maintain a website so, for those who are gone, times must have gotten pretty tough; or perhaps their interest simply faded.

Among those who have continued in business I have noted some changes, some "upgrades" to websites that made them more graphically appealing. Yet among the group, at least one survivor had an absolutely crude, unaesthetic web site. And it is still offering to take orders. Of course the wonder of the internet is that a very small company can have a very beautiful, professional website which gives off the aura of major company size and success. But let's go on about these small perfume marketers.

Excluding the grotesquely inartistic, the web styles I found ranged from "friendly" to "ultra sophisticated." In the middle of this are websites that I would describe as simply "businesslike," websites that exist to take orders but don't make much effort to charm.

Now for the purpose of all this discussion: If you (or I) are thinking about setting up a new website to sell perfume we've made (or perfume someone else is making for us) it is important to match the tone of the website -- the text, the graphics, and the MECHANICS -- to our perfume ... and to the "reality" of our prospective customers.

Are they sophisticates? Then our presentation should be sophisticated. Are they down to earth fragrance lovers? Then our website should be down to earth. Do they already know exactly what they have come to buy? Then let's make it easy for them to complete their purchase.

Developing a website is, essentially, is a marketing exercise. It exists to connect our product to our market. To do this we must gain credibility with the type of people who are most likely to buy our perfume. We must ask, "What do they expect to see when they come to our website?" And then we must create a website that fulfill those expectations.

It is worth remembering too that if we try to create a website for "everyone" we only manage to create a website for no one. We need to take a position; to identify our most likely prospect; to craft our website to that individual -- not to "everyone."

At the beginning this is difficult since often we don't have a clear picture of who are best prospect will be. If we also have a retail business, a bed & breakfast, a "museum" (Fragonard) or some such, we can match our web design to our shop design. We are in the enviable position of having face-to-face dealing with our customers. Lacking this advantage, we sometimes must simply take a position and say, "this is what I am going to be ... these are the people to whom I will sell my perfume" and then design the website around this fantasy and hope that it works.

Your website is your opportunity to create your own fantasy world or to extend the ambiance of your retail shop, B&B, or museum. But by studying what others have done and are doing, you get ideas that help stimulate your own creativity and lead to greater success in selling your own perfume.

Hooking up with someone bigger than you

I was reading about this fellow in Thailand, a pharmacist who had a new toothpaste. He was making good sales. How? By hooking up with a popular political party, associating his toothpaste with that party, and then selling his toothpaste through the party as a fundraiser for the party.

For him, toothpaste sales were good, so good that he was already looking for a second product to add to his line.

The concept can as easily be applied to perfume if you have a credible perfume that really pleases.

There's no getting around the fact that developing a perfume that pleases a large number of people is not an easy thing to do. But think how hard it is to develop a new toothpaste, a toothpaste that can go up against the giants in the field.

Moreover, if you are a small operation, you don't have to look for a giant opportunity -- just an opportunity, someone to hook up with, that will help you get exposure and profits for your perfume beyond what you could otherwise achieve.


If you are a developer of perfume, and you find yourself with one or more perfumes that people really like, and the number of people who like them is beyond your ability to market, give some thought to marketing through another organization. It might just give you the breakthrough you are looking for.

Can You Sell Your Own Perfume, Soap, Candles, Oils, etc., etc. On The Internet?

I've been approached with two marketing problems in the last week, both of which I would LIKE to address with solutions ... if I had any, but I'm not sure I do.

In one case we were talking about shooting a video at our 2010 Perfumery Workshop -- but shooting (and editing!) a professional quality video costs money, so how is that money recouped? How is that video marketed in such a way that it makes money? And in competition with all of the free offerings on YouTube? It would take some serious thinking, researching, planning and testing, all of which would take considerable TIME ... and, as you've heard so many times, "time is money."

In short, the first question that has to be asked is whether the TIME it (and the outlay of at least some petty cash) would be worth the potential financial reward that the project might bring.

In this particular case, I can't yet "smell" enough money down the road to make the project feasible in spite of the low (almost zero) cost of using the internet as a marketing tool.

The second project that was discussed involved selling quality -- unusual -- natural aroma materials online. Now here we already have a lot of people doing it and certainly the internet -- a website -- is an excellent marketing and retailing tool for this sort of business. The questions are (1) how would I drive appropriate traffic to the website? and (2) how would I establish credibility for the products so that, in a competitive market, they stand out and are preferred over those of other vendors?

These are pretty standard internet issues and they can with effort, I believe, be addressed successfully. The first issue -- appropriate traffic on the website -- depends largely on the overall CONTENT of the website, content that is directly related to the products being sold and which goes beyond the stories being told by competitors.

This means digging deeper when researching the products you sell, digging deeper when researching your competitors products, and then being able to articulate your findings in a story using mostly words and, as appropriate, photos, illustrations, diagrams, videos, etc. And TESTIMONIALS from customers that also tell an appropriate story on behalf of your business.

If you've done your research, if you've amassed a ton of reports on the industry, your products, your competitor's products -- you ARE in a position to establish yourself as an EXPERT in the field, which gives you credibility when recommending your own products.

So you set all this in place, on a nice website with lots and lots of pages with real, relevant information about your products, their origin, their use, and perhaps ways to use them that your competitors have not yet discovered.

Then you get busy with the social networking -- make "friends" -- communicate regularly -- develop a following -- and, in time, you begin to make sales.

For those products that are "internet friendly," -- products that people LOOK FOR on the internet -- the internet is a great way to make sales. But it takes TIME ... lots of time, to put it together ... and it takes lots of creative energy.

The good news is that it does NOT take much money. Less than $100 a year if you're doing it all yourself. That's pretty darn affordable.

Getting To Know The Fragrance You Sell

When a giant fragrance marketing company launches a new fragrance today, chances are they have done a LOT of homework trying to match up the "image" they will be using to sell the fragrance (a celebrity, for example) with the fragrance itself, and with the packaging. Hundreds of thousands of dollars will be spent. By one estimate, the entire anticipated first year's sales will be plowed into developing the fragrance and its launch.

And for all that, it's a crap shoot.

Giant fragrance launches need giant numbers of buyers. I was taught many years ago that to appeal to the masses -- the only place you can find a giant number of buyers -- you have to make the sales pitch as tame as possible. It must be acceptable too all, offensive to none. Leave out anything that might be regarded as controversial. Keep everything "nice." And in perfume, the same goes for the fragrance. Keep it "nice" so EVERYONE likes it. If you think this is boring, please read on.

For someone who wants to sell their own fragrance and IS NOT a marketing giant, the opposite approach works better. In fact, it is the only way to make headway against the giants. Let your product be a little "edgy" ... let your advertising be targeted to the few rather than the many. Don't try to compete with Coty and Estee Lauder on packaging.

But to make this work, you have to know your chosen market. And your fragrance.

Now let's talk about people who are making their own fragrances who are NOT part of the industry. Let me speak for myself.

When I work on a new fragrance, unlike the system of the giant fragrance marketers, I DO NOT have it all together in my head as to who (exactly) my target market will be and how I am going to appeal to them in my packaging. As to the fragrance itself, I may start off with a theme or image in mind, but for the most part I am working with my nose. I am tracking down "smells" that interest me, fascinate me, provoke me, and challenge me to "do something" with them. One of the results of this "method" was my men's fragrance, Toxic.

Of course like anything you create yourself, it's hard to see it the way others might. Among the first people to get a sample of Toxic were a perfumer with over thirty years of industry experience and a research chemist working for one of the world's largest fragrance creation houses. They were NOT impressed. (At least, not impressed favorably.) I was a bit disappointed, as anyone would be, but I kept my disappointment to myself and proceeded to offer Toxic to the world -- at least to my small niche in the world -- my websites.

At this point, Toxic has been around for a few years and I can't tell you how many men are using it but I can tell you that I use it myself. And I use it more frequently now than I did a year ago, because I have come to understand it.

Understand it? Yes. And a little background in history has helped me. First, my thoughts have very much been on "modern" art -- the art that emerged in Europe around 1900. This art was DIFFERENT from traditional art. It was scorned and rejected because it called for a new way of seeing. The eye -- and mind -- had to adjust to what the artist was doing. It took time, interest, and motivation. And today we look upon those once rejected painters as the heroes of the art world.

So ask yourself. Must today's men's fragrances smell like yesterday's men's fragrances? Is there room for a breakout? Can we adjust our noses to something new?

My nose had adjusted and, as a result, a whole lot of mass market fragrances are now nothing but stink to me ... and I am quite happy to wear Toxic in public.

But there is a second side to it that also relies a bit on a knowledge of history and it deals tenacity -- the ability of a fragrance to linger on, for a long time. Most 19th century fragrances -- particularly men's fragrances -- lacked tenacity. It is said that Napoleon Bonaparte never went anywhere without several bottles of cologne in his boot. When you think of a cologne lacking in tenacity, you can understand his need to keep refreshing himself.

And "refreshing" is perhaps the key historic word that goes with cologne.

4711, which claims to date back to 1792, calls itself "The Instant Freshener," Mennen called its famous after shave "Skin Bracer." Edmund Roudnitska's Eau Sauvage for Christian Dior was distinguished by its lack of tenacity. The deal is simple. Refresh and go away! Don't linger. Don't make a man feel "perfumed" (as a good number of men's fragrances do today!) Just wake the guy up in the morning, make him feel good, and then tone it down to just above zero by the time he gets to the office, factory, school or college, or the big government office.

In fact, seen THIS way, Toxic is a PERFECT fragrance that will not offend, even if a guy works in a "fragrance free" zone!

So here's what I've learned about my own fragrance, Toxic. First, you have to look at it like a piece of modern art. Your nose has to adjust to the concept -- and it can. Then when it does, you'll understand and appreciate it.

Secondly, Toxic's lack of tenacity is a VIRTUE, not a shortcoming. It gives you that 7AM jolt, it wakes you up and helps you get EXCITED about the day (what mass market men's fragrances can do that!) and then it settles down to just a very, very light, lingering note that won't offend the most vehement fragrance objector.

This is what I've learned about Toxic, my own creation. And now I want to learn more about the men who "accept it."

Split Run Testing

The "split run" is a testing device long employed in mail order advertising. You have two ads. Which is more effective? You get the answer with a split run test. In addition to testing the effectiveness of an entire ad, headlines, photos, color vs. black and white, etc. can all be tested.

The mechanics for a split run test are simple. The advertiser prepares two ads of identical size and gives each a separate key code on its order coupon. When the coupons (orders) come in, the numbers are read and the winner declared.

The "perfect A-B split" is made possible thanks to the mechanics of the printing press. Some (not all) publishers of newspapers and magazines are able to print in such a way that, as the pages come off the press and are bound, alternate "books" include first the "A," then the "B," then the "A" ad again, etc. Thus a "perfect" split as the publication goes into distribution.

But now we're on the internet. How do we test ads and advertising concepts? It isn't easy and the attempts we make produce much less precise results than a "perfect" A-B split. Yet there are times when we still want to give the concept a try.

I have a number of fragrances that I have created. By myself. My own formulas. And I sell them on the internet. I have been developing a website, FrankBush.com and that website has produced some sales.

But, since I'm pretty much unknown as a perfumer outside of my own blogs, I need to stand on my head to get attention -- like the owner of a used car lot -- so to give the FrankBush.com website some "personality" I have tried to make it a bit colorful and not exactly what most perfume buyers would expect.

FrankBush.com website soldiers along.

But could I do better? Would a more "serious" approach to selling my own perfume outdo the seemingly frivolous approach of FrankBush.com? Thanks to the low cost of setting up a new website, I decided I would give it a try. Thus I now have a second website selling my own perfume and men's fragrances, a "serious" site, PGLightyears.com.

This split test will never have the accuracy of a traditional mail order perfect A-B split. But, as the new site acquires visitors (this will take time), I will be able to see whether I get more sample requests from the one or from the other. This information will help me develop new dvertising pages that sell more effectively.

Ultimately, it's the perfume itself that will make or break the business. But without a "following" you can't expect sales and I want to develop effective communications to build that following. I'm sure that you want this too.

AMAZING TWO CENT SALE

I have said repeatedly that trying to develop an "internet only" perfumery is not a wise move for anyone who is totally unknown yet hopes to get rich quick. Please credit me with patience.

I do believe that developing such a business is possible and my own results to date have been, if not dramatic, at least encouraging. I believe that the "secret" to making such a business flourish is to find a compelling "hook" that will stimulate significant numbers of visitors to request a sample or samples, of your perfume or cologne.

So the fist challenge in this business, even before the fragrance itself, is finding a hook that will bring in sample requests. If you get lots of sample requests but no sales, you can rest assured that the problem lies in your fragrance, not your marketing.

So while my brain and nose are working on new fragrances, I keep my eyes open for marketing ideas that will stimulate requests for samples. My latest brainstorm, which I want to share with you, is the "TWO CENT SAMPLE" offers I am currently employing at my new retail sales website, PGLightyears.com.

The deal is simple. Send me two cents (plus postage and handling) and I'll send you a generous sample of each of the fragrances you request. Obviously two cents doesn't cover their cost. The standard postage and handling charge helps. Of course it would be nice to offer absolutely free samples because I really would like to get them out there but the last time I made a significant "free" offer, about sixty-five percent of those who took me up on it were serving prison sentences and not likely to become cash customers, even upon their release.

"Free" is a strong concept but in the practical world of business it has to be controlled. Thus "two cents (plus postage and handling.)

Will this concept work? Time will tell and I'll be happy to report back at some future date. Meanwhile for your own perfume marketing projects, always keep in mind the value of a sample and the need to get those samples out in the marketplace where they hold the potential to stimulate profitable sales.