Fashion Communication and Promotion
Module 2: Creative Networks
Reference Number: FASH10106
Brand Launch and Promotion
Module Leader: Si Beales
Year One
Beth Hamblin-Warren
N0429794
The Crude Perfumer is a fragrance brand targeted towards a unisex market aged between 25-34. Our brand is inspired by nature’s seasons, it is also tailored to coincide with our consumers social calendar. By bringing out a line of fragrances that correspond with natures season’s, it allowed us to respond to our market research, where we found our consumers were demanding for more natural ingredients within their beauty products. ‘consumers are increasingly questioning the chemical ingredients in beauty products and looking for products with natural and organic ingredients’ (A.Sahota) This really
helped to inspire and reaffirm our idea to use natures natural, seasonal notes within our fragrances. When developing our idea, our consumer was at the forefront of all our decisions. As a fragrance brand, The Crude Perfumer realises that sent is the closest sense linked with memory. By harnessing this idea, we create scents that will instantly help our consumer recall those memorable occasions within their social calendar. For example, we help our consumer’s remember that fantastic New Year’s Eve party they attended in winter or that amazing festival they went to during the summer via scent.
As The Crude Perfumer is constantly updating their line of fragrances, we like to think of ourselves as a brand that is ever evolving. After releasing a full year of fragrances, The Crude Perfumer will develop an archive. Our consumers will be able to come into our boutique east London store; where by personal appointment only. They can request a fragrance, that after smelling it, takes them back to a memorable event they attended whilst wearing that particular scent. Another feature you receive when retrieving a fragrance from our archive is the ability to personalise your fragrance bottle. This idea and the archive will be discussed further on in my report.
To further understand the different ways in which we could potentially launch and market The Crude Perfumer. We engaged with some successful case studies.
We first looked towards the Burberry Body campaign. This launch particularly captured our attention after its international success due to its heavy presence over digital media. Christopher Bailey has well and truly launched Burberry into the digital age and leads the forefront in the collaboration between luxury brands and technology. Dedicating 60% of their marketing budget to achieve an online presence, didn’t go unnoticed by Burberry fans. By pairing themselves with Facebook, Burberry was able to create a buzz around the launch, by giving their Facebook fans the chance to request a free sample of the fragrance, two weeks prior to the launch; over 250,000 free samples were sent out. (ANON) Bailey then continued to appeal to the Burberry consumer’s ‘self-ideal’ by offering them the chance to be the very first to experience the fragrance, through an exclusive launch event in their store in Knightsbridge London. Creating this initial hype around the fragrance and by appealing to their consumer’s ‘self-ideal’ meant Burberry were able to secure a loyal fan base around their fragrance, before it had been released. By applying this same tactic to The Crude Perfumer’s launch I hope to create the same loyal fan base.
We were attracted to the idea of giving out free samples of the fragrance before the launch as a way of capturing our consumer. However because The Crude Perfumer is a niche brand, I don’t think that using Facebook as a way of targeting our consumer would fit our brands personality. Therefore we would look to target our consumer directly and place free samples of our fragrance within magazine’s that our consumer is attracted too, for example Fiasco and Hunger magazine. Throughout the launch of Burberry Body, Christopher Bailey has put his consumer’s and his loyal Facebook following at the heart of his campaign. By giving them exclusive offers and events Bailey has made his consumers feel 100% involved in the launch; which resulted in his consumers creating a buzz around the campaign. This is something we wanted to emulate when thinking about the launch of The Crude Perfumer. As our consumer was at the forefront for our concept we only think it would be right to continue this ethos when strategizing our marketing and launch campaign.
Continuing the study on successful fragrance launches, I came across a successful re launch of a fragrance. The J’Adore fragrance needed to re strengthen its position on the fragrance market. Its goal was to make it the number one selling fragrance, without changing a single aspect of the perfume. The Dior marketing team decided to create a film that would reactivate J’Adore’s place within the industry. The film needed to reflect Dior’s emblematic status and be in the spirit of haute couture. The film featured not one but four glamorous Hollywood icons. It was shot in an extravagant venue, The Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles, a venue that truly corresponds with the brands elite status.
Envy glamour and power were the three main points Dior portrayed within this film. The result was the explosion of sales. It dethroned No5, gained a 4.1% share in the market and in December hit a 5.5% peak share. Sales were boosted 17% on 2010 and all around the world, taking No1 in Italy, No2 in China and was marked in the top ten in the UK and US, with sales up by 25.9%. (ANON) The power of film is inevitable, this has shown it. With not changing a single aspect of their fragrance, Dior has managed to boost sales of their J’adore fragrance, all around the world. Simply by Dior appealing to their consumers ‘self-ideal’ through the form of film, Dior has managed to reposition themselves within the m a r k e t .
Appealing to our consumers ‘selfideal’ is something we tried to do through our film. Our consumer likes to appear ahead of the trends therefore our video shows backstage footage behind our photo shoot, making them feel as if they were a part of the shoot. Regarding the soundtrack, our video displays the new and upcoming band London Grammar. By collaborating with the band London Grammar we are giving our consumer inside knowledge on the newest band that are set to explode onto the music scene later on this year. ‘it appears that the band’s upcoming album will be one of the most intriguing and talked about debuts in 2013’(J.Tanners) Again appealing to our consumer’s ‘self-ideal’, that they’re always one step ahead of the trends. An important feature of our fragrance film is it truly translates to our consumers lifestyle and our brand essence and aesthetic.
Taking inspiration from the Burberry Body launch; two weeks prior to the event we will give out free samples of our fragrance to our consumer, hopefully creating a buzz around the fragrance and us as a brand. However unlike the Burberry Body Launch we won’t be using Facebook as a means of approaching our consumer. Instead we’re going to go to them. By sampling out our fragrance at local bars and art galleries we will aim to attract our target consumer. The scent samples that we give out will be used as the invites to the official launch. Sticking with our aesthetic the scent samples will be a vintage brown label tag, and have our logo, The Crude Perfumer, stamped onto them in our font ‘Impact Label’. On the back of the fragrance tags will simply have the date of the launch, and a unique registration code. They will then be required to type in their unique registration code online to find out more about us as a brand and the official launch. Another way in which we will target our consumer is collaborating with ‘How to Spend It’ magazine supplement and Fiasco Magazine, both are magazines we see our consumer reading. Engaging with the idea of bringing our launch to our consumer, we will hold an advert within these magazines. These adverts will simply consist of our name, The Crude Perfumer, the names of our collaborators for the launch, the date of the launch and finally our unique scent tag, which will hold the registration code.
Our guests will include a variety of creative talent’s like musicians, artists, models, designers, editors and photographers. Our event will not only be the launch of The Crude Perfumer but also the chance for our consumer to socialize with industry professional’s as well, and almost aid their own careers. We would invite editors of magazines where we could potentially see our fragrance being advertised. The Crude Perfumer wants to associate it selves with new and exciting emerging creative talents. We would invite contemporary artists such as Kitty Kraus and Roger Hiorns who all create active installations, combining science and art. Another interesting and contemporary artist I also believe our consumer would be interested in is Roman Signer, who’s art has a strong focus on embracing and capturing a specific moment in time, an attitude The Crude Perfumer shares. We’re interested in inviting upcoming models to our launch, by partnering with Elite Models, we will work with them to select new models that would fit our brands aesthetic. Although the upcoming models are relatively young, we feel this would attract a secondary consumer within a younger age bracket of 20-25. By having these models included in our campaign will help our secondary consumer relate to the brand. Models that particularly stood out to us were Chris Poole and Tehila Rich, both are models that suit our brands aesthetic and style.
Chris Poole
Tehila Rich
To launch The Crude Perfumer fragrance brand, the launch needs to maintain a constant awareness to our consumer. We recognize that our consumer is partial to a night out, enjoys live music and more importantly creating experiences and memories with friends; our launch will cater for this. For the launch I looked back to what our consumer enjoyed doing for their perfect weekend. One thing that stood out to me was Jake Moore’s comment on how much he enjoyed going to live events held at the Nottingham Contemporary Art Gallery. I really liked the idea of bringing the launch to a venue our consumer would attend on a regular base.
Jake Moore
This is when I thought about the Tate Modern. The prestige the Tate Modern holds within the cultural industry, including art and fashion, creates the perfect backdrop for our launch event. With artists such as Carsten HÜller and Doris Salcedo Shibboleth creating amazing interactive installations and brands such as Topshop using the Tate’s impressive architecture for their shows during London fashion week, creates the perfect cultural platform for us to launch our brand. Taking advantage of the architecture, our launch would be held within the Turbine Halls and create the perfect juxtaposed setting for the unveiling of The Crude Perfumer.
To link the launch back in with our fragrance, The Crude perfumer would collaborate with an artist, to construct an installation within the Turbine Halls. When entering the Turbine Halls our guest will be greeted by an autumnal scene consisting mainly of trees that will fill the entire first half of the hall. These trees will be going through the typical process of autumn i.e. shedding leaves. Our scene will be completely interactive with our guests. As people progress through the scene, our fragrance will be pumped around the room via motion sensor technology; giving our guests subtle hints of our fragrance.
For the installation I looked at artist’s that have interesting and alternative views towards art. Berndnaut Smilde, was the artist behind the ‘indoor cloud’ his interest in science has resulted towards him creating a fascinating piece of art that relies on the viewer being in the specific moment. ‘Smilde is interested in fleeting moments, the “in-between situations” that are open to interpretation’ (D.Rosenberg) This idea runs parallel with our own brand message, capturing moments and memories with friends via the power of scent and linking in with our consumers passion for capturing experiences with friends. Smilde’s importance within the art industry is why The Crude Perfumer has chosen to collaborate with him. His contemporary outlook on art is the typical style of work our consumer would be interested in. Therefore we hope by partnering ourselves with him, his name alone will intrigue consumers and build press around our event.
‘Smilde is interested in fleeting moments, the “in-between situations” that are open to interpretation’ (D.Rosenberg)
After walking through the autumnal scene, created by Smilde, our guest will be taken through to the back of the hall where they will be seated and our fragrance film will be projected onto the back wall of the Turbine Hall. During our fragrance film we will have a live performance from London Grammar who provide the soundtrack to our film. By having London Grammar do a live performance at the event it appeals to our consumer’s idea of a perfect weekend, ‘enjoying live music with friends’. Our film is an important aspect to our brand, as we’ve seen via the J’Adore case study; the power of film can make or break a brand. By listening to our consumer and responding to their profiles, we’ve found that they are often looking for the inside edge on upcoming events and trends. Therefore by creating a film that shows our consumer behind the scenes footage of our upcoming photoshoot will really appeal to their aspirations to be one step ahead.
After the showing of our film, our guests will be invited to an after party within the Oil Tanks at the Tate Modern. Where we will have special guest Dj’s and live performances from new emerging talents within the music industry. Throughout the after party we will have photographers going around documenting the event, ensuring that they capture every moment of our launch. Our launch and fragrance concept revolves around creating memories that our consumers can relate to once smelling our scent. Therefore having our fragrance constantly being emitted around the room whilst the launch is taking place,our consumers will create a subconscious association with our fragrance and the launch. After the launch our guests will have the chance to log onto our website and post their story, memories and thoughts from the event onto our online Archive. An accumulation of personal memories will be forged together online to create a digital scrapbook of memories from the launch.
The Crude Perfumer looks to collaborate with PR company, Village. A relatively new London based company, with a wide breadth of contacts within the creative industry. Despite them being a relatively new PR company, Village have secured a global network of creative talents through various partnerships and collaborations. We decided to collaborate with Village PR, after looking at their work with the Brand BAPE. To celebrate the arrival of BAPE’s European Flagship store in London, Village created a full media campaign around the opening of the store. Handling the guest list, talent and specific media placement. Village created such a Hype around the brands arrival, that it resulted with fans queuing from 5am to be the first to purchase from the store. The buzz Village were able to create around BAPE was due to Village’s deep understanding of BAPE’s consumer, brand message and aesthetic. A well thought out media campaign was at the forefront for their launch, specifically targeting BAPE’s consumer directly.
We were inspired to work with Village regarding the future growth of The Crude Perfumer in terms of store concessions. After their successful work with Lou Dalton helping them to secure an installation piece in Dover Street Market London. This installation truly reflected Dalton’s aesthetic and brand message. Due to Village’s close connection with each of their clients and knowing their brand vision inside out, they are able to portray the brand their representing’s message and aesthetic clearly. Their connections within the retail sector will really help us to launch our brand within targeted retail environments. Feeling confident that our brands message and aesthetic will be portrayed, we will allow Village PR to represent our brands future store proposals. With strong connections to Selfridges in London and Dover Street Market, Village offer valuable links to stores that are perfect for our brand to hold concessions within; as both these stores attract our target consumer.
As the Crude Perfumer is a niche brand we do not want to associate ourselves with social media at the early stage in our brands development. As we feel by working with a social media company like Twitter or Facebook, will take away from the personal aspect of the company. However as a contemporary brand The Crude Perfumer also realises that to remain relevant within our consumers lifestyle, we need to develop and maintain a digital presence online. Therefore The Crude Perfumer has decided to take inspiration from Burberry and their previous events and live stream the launch online via our website. Giving our consumers who missed out on the launch event, the chance to feel as if they were there.
The Crude Perfumer’s brand promise is to deliver a line of fragrances that correspond’s with nature’s seasons and also intertwine’s with our consumer’s social calendar. We produce a line of fragrances that help our consumer link memories with scents. Creating the very first seasonal and sensual line of fragrances. Our concept revolves around our consumer and so does our launch, from the concept to the invite our consumer was at the forefront for all our decisions.
‘Newer thinking believes the consumer should be at the heart of the matter’ (H.Posner)
After our first full year of fragrances have been released, The Crude Perfumer will create an Archive. This will consist of a backlog of all the fragrances The Crude Perfumer has ever released. This will be were our consumer can access a fragrance that holds a special meaning to them; perhaps because of a memorable event that occured whilst wearing our fragrance. Our consumer will have access to that fragrance, and through the power of scent be able to re-live the event. Another aspect to the Archive, is the fragrance bottle will become personal to you. Our consumer will have the chance to set a personal element, i.e. a photo, within the glass base resin of the bottle. Thus creating a personalised bottle that will instantly relate to the event. This bespoke service will be available after we have established ourselves as a brand from our boutique store in East London.
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Burberry Body Campaign [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.facebook. com/groups/322191994550866/345113618925370/?notif_t=group_ activity#!/photo. (Accessed 1st June) J’adore Film Campaign [ONLINE]Available at: http://www.dior.com/ magazine/var/dior-live/storage/images/media/medias-article/j-adore2/ j-adore9/6591-2-fre-FR/J-adore9_full-visio.jpg (Accessed 1st June) Chris Poole [ONLINE]Available at: http://www.elitemodellondon.co.uk/ details. (Accessed 3rd June) Tehila Rich [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.elitemodellondon. co.uk/details. (Accessed 3rd June) Tate Modern Turbine Halls [ONLINE]Available at: http://www. powerinspace.org/images/turbineHall.jpg (Accessed 3rd June) Capturing the Elusive Indoor Cloud. [ONLINE]Available at: http:// www.slate.com/blogs/behold/2013/02/21/berndnaut_smilde_capturing_ the_fleeting_moments_of_clouds_created_inside.html (Accessed 3rd June) We Are Village [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.wearevillage.com