2 The
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Black Arts PR
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Innovative Retail
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Pop Up Music Booths
Fragrance Lab Case Study
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Competition Event
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Why 90s?
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9
Launch Event
3
Idea
Pre Launch Event
5 Location 6
11 12
#ScentOfSound
Modus Case Study
Mission PR and Social Networking
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Print Advertisement
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Outdoor Advertisement
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Conclusion
Fig.1 ‘Under electric sky’ (2013)
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LP takes you on a multi sensory journey into the world of scent, sound and memories. What would your smell of sound be if you could capture it in a bottle? A concept that will enable you to discover elements of your memories through a fragrance that is influenced by your music choices and associations. LP as a brand aim to offer a bespoke personal experience, bringing music and fragrance together to create a stronger sensory experience for the consumer. This idea is based on scientific research, known as Crossmodal Perception that changes the way we think about smell. Scientists Daniel Wesson and Donald Wilson repeatedly sent a mix of both sounds and fragrances into the brain and saw that sense responses became 30% more enhanced than when acting alone. - (theguardian. com 2012). We therefore aim to offer the consumer a very interactive experience in which four different pieces of music will be played to them, they will then choose their favourite piece and in return will receive the corresponding scent suited to that music. The four pieces of music will be inspired by 90’s Rock sub-Genres including Grunge, Indie Rock, Britpop and Techno. The concept will bring a more interactive environment for the consumer, where they can discover scents that will potentially take them back to their youth. The future of perfume is expanding in the industry and is starting to find new ways of building on personalization; this is where our concept comes into practice, beginning with more interactive retail.
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We propose to kick start LPs launch campaign with the release of our fifteen second Instagram video which is inspired by a bands tour diary/video and has a fast-paced homemade vibe to it. Like Burberry we too want to “Put music and emotion first, over just the hard product.” - (Angela Ahrendts - 2014). We want all of our digital platforms to be launched first before the launch event and release of the physical product. We hope that this will create considerable media hype prior to the launch via social media awareness and trending. The release of our Instagram video will be accompanied by our hashtag #SoundOfScent, which along with our brand logo will be the only indication that the video is advertising a new fragrance. We want to keep the adverts quite ambiguous and artistic so to create anticipation across social media, giving people ‘something to talk about.’ “Providing a hashtag is the only the start. What’s more important is giving people something to talk about.” – (luxurydaily.com/burberry 2013) We want to prove that music comes first. The campaigns will therefore be more advertainment than advertisement and so consequently should be more entertaining for the consumer rather than just trying to sell a product. “Music is emotive, it’s a greater connecter, great brand behavior” – (Angela Ahrendts - futureofstorytelling.org 2014). This is exactly the message we want to express with our video. We too want our videos to be “rich and emotional and feel more like TV commercials than viral videos” (Mr. Muellner -luxurydaily.com 2013).
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Fig 2-7. ‘90s Inspiration pinterest (2014)
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We have decided to have our initial launch event in Selfridges London, as this not only fits well with our price points but also because there are only four stores located in the UK, this will show just how unique and premium our brand is. This is important because the popularity of prestigious fragrance brands is on the increase generating a global growth of 6% in 2011’ (GMID 2013). We also found that Selfridges would be ideal as it continues its commitment to providing customers with extraordinary and unconventional shopping retail experiences which will be perfect for LPs launch event. A Step Back To The 90s that will be both innovative and interactive much like their current events such as Selfridges Fragrance Lab.
fig. 8 Selfridges bag 2013
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With our distribution being limited to only Selfridges we have considered other fragrance launches that Selfridges have presented. A perfect example is their current exhibition called Fragrance Lab that attempts to distill your character into a scent. This is a very interactive experience for consumers where they have to interact with various items to create an olfactory picture of their personality. At the end they will be presented with a scent that matches their character. This new and highly more interactive retail involvement when choosing a fragrance draws attention to the fact that scent is not just a smell, its an entire experience in which all the senses are involved. The future of selling fragrance is changing dramatically; consumers now expect personalization and participation with their fragrance purchases. A simple spray and purchase is no longer enough. “With the changes to retail, we wanted to challenge how we can merge the experiences of online and in-store into the retail environment� (Campaign creative director Philip Handford dezeen.com 2014)
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Fig 9. 90’s Fashion tumblr (2014)
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Thus with our concept we have considered the need to challenge the current retail environment in which fragrances are sold in. Our plan is to therefore create a launch event in Selfridges where through listening to four clips of 90s rock n roll music we will create a highly personal one of a kind profiling for our consumer. During our research process we acknowledged that 90’s culture is very popular right now, leading trend forecasters WGSN forecasted 90s grunge as a key trend for 2014 and along with key industry publications have continued to acknowledge its power and existence throughout the coming seasons. Our targeted consumer will consequently be someone who has a strong nostalgic tendency towards this era. And therefore when listening to the four pieces of music will have an emotional connection towards at least one of them which will reveal past memories of youth or positive associations in their life.
Fig 10 -18. 90’s Inspiration Pinterest (2014)
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Since our brand is entirely inspired by 90s music the event will be a ‘Step Back to the 90s’ which will be held in Selfridges London at the beginning of May for a two week period. So think Crystal Pepsi, Tamagotchis, slap bracelets and troll dolls. Guests will also be asked to come dressed in their best look from the era, be it a grunge flannel, a baby tee and baggy jeans, or a jean shirt. Limited edition 90s LPs will be available to listen to and purchase as well as 90s gaming machines, videos and fashion will be exhibited. On the opening launch night there will be an acoustic performance from Noel Gallagher and his band High Flying Birds who will perform their latest album along with classic 90s hits by Oasis including ‘What’s The Story Morning Glory’ and of course ‘Don’t Look Back In Anger’. This performance will be available to stream and watch live via our Youtube channel and website. Other successful fragrances that have used live music as part of their launch event are Tommy Hillfigers Loud fragrance that collaborated with indie band the Ting Tings who became their brand ambassadors. Celebrity guests, particularly 90s icons will also be invited to the event including the likes of the Spice Girls, Richard Ashford from The Verve, Peter Hook from Joy Vision and The Light and Fran Healey from Travis. Also more recent British music talent will be celebrated with guests including Sam Smith, Tom Odell, John Newman and Alex Turner. Writers, editors and PRs from magazines such as NME, Dazed and Confused and Clash will also attend to ensure the event is covered and reviewed over print media.
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This will in turn cause huge publicity surrounding the event. British music bloggers such as Pitchfork and Consequence of Sound will also be invited to attend so that reviews will be posted across the ‘blogosphere’ and social media. Being featured on these popular and reputable music blogs will mean that their subscribers and followers will see our fragrance and trust what the blogger has to say about it. These bloggers will act as our brand ambassadors, rather than employing models or celebrities to endorse the fragrances. “Blogs are one of the fastest-growing areas of what has become known as consumer-generated media (CGM).” – (Posner. 2011). Bloggers are out there to share opinions and brand experiences. The number of bloggers has tripled from under 7.5million to 20million (Naked Converations - Posner 2011). Referring back to Burberry who have an excellent integrated marketing campaign surrounding their brand and fragrances also launched their own social media site supporting Brit Rhythm, they believe that this media will “attract younger customers as well as strengthening their existing customer base” – (Posner 2011).
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As a brand trying to establish itself in this consumergenerated media we recognize that social media in todays society has the power to drive businesses. It allows brands to directly target their consumers resulting in huge publicity very quickly, especially if things go viral. We will therefore tap into this promotion by using the conventional platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, blogs and Twitter that will be highly integrated to represent the brand (as Burberry have done.) I will go further into our digital marketing strategies later, however for our launch event we have come up with the hashtag #SoundOfScent which will support our trend campaign on Twitter. We will encourage anyone who has used the music booths to tweet their fragrance result via Twitter. This will also include the celebrities attending the launch who will both tweet using the hashtag and upload selfies to the LP ‘Wall of Fame’ via Instagram, ultimately this will be shared across the brand’s social channels, also featuring on our influencers’ own blogs and social channels. Furthermore resulting in trending across Twitter and therefore instant increased brand awareness for LP.
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“The overall aim of PR is to gain media coverage and establish and generate a favorable image for a brand.” – (Posner, 2011). PR is a cheaper form of advertising; yet can achieve similar results. LP will rely quite heavily on PR as a way of establishing itself in the market. In addition because we are quite a unique brand using conventional marketing (such as TV advertisements) would seem an inappropriate way for us to promote ourselves, also costing millions of pounds to produce. We therefore plan to use the PR agency Modus Publicity to organize the product launch and event. Modus are an alternative PR firm that have worked with many highly creative and successful brands. With their creative and personal approach they have high levels of experience and expertise in the beauty and fragrance industry, having recently launched the event for beauty’in at Selfridges. In addition they have launched fragrances for fashion brands such as Ghost, Gucci and Anna Sui to the launch of supermodel Naomi Campbell’s fragrance and more classic brands such as Yardley and 4711, the original eau de cologne. Modus also have previous experience with launch events that involve live music performances. Fashion brand Bershka recently celebrated the opening of its flagship store on Oxford Street with a performance from Little Mix.
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Modus will work closely with High Flying Birds PR agency Black Arts to ensure that the event is as much about music as it is about fragrance. Black Arts are a highly reputable music PR company; having represented the likes of Sterephonics, Blur and Bestival. They will ensure that the event has maximum media coverage due to their “unparalleled relationship with 250+ music writers within UK Regional Press.� (blackartspr.com 2014) Noel Gallaghers performance along with the other celebrity guest appearances will result in a strong media hype and coverage surrounding the event and will hopefully result in positive brand recognition.
Fig 19. artrocker.tv.com (2012) fig 20. stopcryingyourheartoutnews.com (2012)
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However the main focus for the launch event will be to create the desired interaction and innovative retail experience for our consumer. We therefore propose to have ‘music booths’ scattered around the event. Consumers will be asked to enter the booths and put headphones on, they will then listen to four different pieces of music which will be inspired by 90s Rock n roll music. After choosing their favourite piece a corresponding scent sample will be released from the bottom of the booth and the full scent will be available to purchase if they desire. We believe that it is important to give shoppers something tactile when promoting a product, as the Internet is now taken for granted as a means of marketing and also lacks on personalization. Furthermore, the scent sample will be accompanied with automatic entry into a competition that will give consumers the chance to go to a secret LP gig that will take place at the 02 Academy, Brixton, London at the end of summer. This is an example of a ‘star prize’ product launch technique that will in turn mean that LP is both constantly interacting and engaging with its consumers, whilst also creating excitement surrounding the competition and the undisclosed gig line up. The gig will celebrate British music talent with particular reference to the 90s. “Competitions can be developed that are much more interesting and engaging. The key point is to ensure that the prize is enticing enough and believable – they have a reasonable chance of winning.” – (Posner 2011).
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After LPs first launch event at Selfridges London, we will arrange for the pop up Music Booths to be available at the four other Selfridges stores across the UK. The booths will be designed to look like red London phone boxes, this will add a fun and witty Britishness to our campaign: after all we are celebrating British Rock n Roll. More music booths will also pop up in other major city centers around the country such as Newcastle, Liverpool, Nottingham, Bristol and Southampton so that everyone has a chance to find their personal music scent and also to be entered into the gig competition. Furthermore we aim to use music festivals such as Bestival, V Festival and Glastonbury as another major promotion and distribution channel for our booths. Our initial launch event at Selfridges is taking place in early May, therefore by the summer LPs brand awareness should be in a high enough position for our target market to recognize the campaign and want to join in. In addition, music festivals are the perfect place to find our music loving consumers on mass, where they will be ready to try out the new interactive fragrance booths. We will not actually sell the fragrances at the festivals but instead use the music booths and competitions for more of a marketing incentive to promote the brand, just giving out the free samples. Scents will however be available to order and there is always our website for orders as well.
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As previously mentioned our competition prize will be the chance to win VIP tickets to a live music event at the 02 Academy in Brixton, London. Long hailed the flagship venue of London, 02 Academy Brixton is a “must-play for artists and must-visit for music lovers.” -(o2academybrixton.co.uk 2014). NME have given it the “Best Venue” award on several occasions, which proves its popularity with fans and the media alike. The solid line up will include 90s bands such as Blur, Stone Roses and Beady Eye whilst newer British talent will be celebrated with the likes of Jake Bugg and London Grammar. The official line up will be kept undisclosed; we will use the ‘dripping tap’ product launching technique where only certain ‘rumors’ will be leaked out about the gig and who will be performing as it draws nearer. In turn this should create ‘buzz press’ surrounding the acts and the event. People should also start to begin to talk via social media, creating trends using our hashtag. Overall brand awareness for LP will increase as more consumers will want to take part in our interactive booths because of the incentive to win tickets to this exclusive gig.
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We have decided to use the company Mission PR to organize and publicize the gig. Mission are a very innovative and reputable agency that have an excellent track record of successful PR music events that have achieved accurate consumer engagement with brands. In May 2014 Mission worked with Nokia to bring Lumia Live Sessions. Which were a series of free gigs that took place in unusual settings across the UK. Emerging group such as, Years & Years performed to an intimate crowd in the abandoned Aldwych London Underground station. Mission will create the desired ‘buzz’ and ‘talkablilty’ that will lead up to the gig and will also be responsible for all press elements including prepress interviews, celebrity management and post event coverage.
The rise of communication via the web and the explosion in the use of blogs, social networking and sites such as Youtube has been “instrumental in the growth of viral marketing which utilizes the connectivity among individuals to capture attention and create a buzz.” (Posner 2011). We will use conventional mediums such as Facebook to directly target our consumers and to keep them up to date on new information regarding our launch, fragrance booths, competition and gig.
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Twitter will be used as a major conversation platform where consumers will be able to tweet their selected scent using the #ScentOfSound hashtag. “Using a hashtag is an attempt to encourage people to have an organized conversation in social media about your product or brand” (Brady Ambler, strategist for global creative agency at ATTIK, San Francisco,luxurydaily. com 2013). We will also have a branded website that will include all the relevant information regarding LP, this along with our YouTube channel will allow our audience to stream music events live to their phones/tablets such as our launch event performance from Noel Gallagher, the 02 Academy gig and future events. We want music to be at the core of the campaign so our digital platforms need to accommodate for music streaming and videos. “Luxury brands that create playlists and maintain a profile on internet music provider Spotify can show off their identities and further engage with consumers through shared music interests.” (luxurydaily.com 2013). We too will use Spotify along with Youtube to upload music, create playlists and communicate with our consumers. Furthermore with our launch event being held at Selfridges, we will gain promotional traffic via the Selfridges website which lists all the current events being held at the store.
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Regarding our print campaigns we are planning to form a collaboration with a collection of magazines that we feel target our music loving male consumer. These will include predominantly NME, which is hugely popular in the music scene with NME.com being the world’s biggest standalone music site, with over 7 million users per month. Its Facebook page also having almost 400,000 Likes. We will place a selection of LPs print adverts in NME just after our Selfridges launch, these will feature at the same time that any reviews of the event will also be published. Other potential magazines that we will feature in are British culture and fashion magazines Dazed and Confused i-D and Clash, their alternative approach to art, music and fashion should appeal to our consumer as well as also fitting with our innovative promotional concept.
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fig 20-28. 90’s Inspiration. Pinterest
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Lp Print Advertisements (2014)
When considering outdoor advertising we are not aiming to use substantial amounts of commercial outdoor advertising such as billboards. Instead we want to play on our quirky British brand identity. Therefore for the two week period that LP is exhibiting its launch event in Selfridges we are going to decorate a small fleet of London taxis and buses which will be wallpapered with our advertisements and logo. Inside, British 90s rock n roll hits will be played out as the taxi drives you straight to the Selfridges event. In addition promotions will be connected through Selfridges, with the event being publicized outside the store and in the store windows.
Fig 29 - 31. taxiadvertising.com (2014)
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Our final form of outdoor advertising that we will use is the placing of our advertisements in the London underground. “87% of Consumers actively look for advertisements during dwell time to break up the daily commute and 79% of commuters have responded to an ad they have seen on the tube.” – (hintmedia.co.uk 2014). The adverts will be placed between key shopping districts and also further out in areas’ such as Shoreditch and Isslington which are both up and coming, trendy areas of London where our target market are likely to ‘hang out’. Therefore placing ourselves in the heart of London’s diverse audience climate. Our launch period at Selfridges and the months following up to the 02 Academy gig will see our highest level of advertising regarding both outdoor and print. We hope that after this period social media and bloggers will be able to carry our promotion.
fig 32. Posterrevolution.com (2013)
fig 33. ‘London’ Pinterest.com (2013)
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Using this marketing strategy, LP is hoping to establish itself highly in the British fragrance industry, as a brand that is challenging the conventional forms of fragrance retail. A fragrance that works with all the senses to create a personalized choice for the consumer based on music nostalgia and association. Music is extremely important in sensory marketing and is proven to impact highly on buyers behavior, a concept which LP will continue to explore. LP is an exciting brand with an innovative idea towards the future of fragrance, that in time should develop into an iconic British brand that celebrates British music talent and culture. As our tagline reads:
LP evokes nostalgia of good times, good memories and good music.
fig 34. ‘Lp Bottle Designs’ (2014)
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References Cited Works: Blogs and Social Networking in Posner, H. (2011). Marketing Fashion. London: Laurence King, p. 168. Naked Conversations in Posner, H. (2011). Marketing Fashion. London: Laurence King, p. 168. Burberry in Posner, H. (2011). Marketing Fashion. London: Laurence King, p. 168. Fashion PR and Publicity Posner, H. (2011). Marketing Fashion. London: Laurence King, p. 186. Competitions and Prize Draws in Posner, H. (2011). Marketing Fashion. London: Laurence King, p. 182.New Advertising Channels in Posner, H. (2011). Marketing Fashion. London: Laurence King, p. 166.
Cited From the Web: Cassie Barton. The Guardian. 2011. How sound and smell can create perfect harmony. Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/science/2012/oct/22/sound-and-smell-create-harmony Angela Ahrendts – Future Of Story Telling. 2014. Authentic Branding for a Global Audience. Available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krQG2Hceov4 Joe McCarthy. Luxury Daily. Burberry highlights music affinities with Brit Rhythm fragrance shows. 2013. Available at: http://www.luxurydaily.com/burberry-highlight-music-affinities-with-brit-rhythm-fragrance-shows/ Jen King. Luxury Daily. Burberry uses minimalist approach to promote new fragrance. 2013. Available at: http://www.luxurydaily.com/burberry-uses-minimalist-approach-to-promote-new-fragrance Dan Howarth. De Zeen. 2014. Selfridges’ Fragrance Lab attempts to distill your character into a scent. Available at: http://www.dezeen.com/2014/05/02/selfridges-fragrance-lab-distill-your-character-into-a-scent/ Black Arts PR. Why Black Arts PR? 2014. Available at: http://blackartspr.com/why 02 Academy, Brixton. Info. 2014. Available at: http://www.o2academybrixton.co.uk/Info/About LONDON UNDERGROUND AND TUBE ADVERTISING. 2014. Available at: http://www.hintmedia.co.uk/london-underground-advertising/
References Illustrations: Fig 1: ‘Under electric sky’ (2014) 90s Music Inspiration Moodboard, curated for previous project (Album online) Available at http://gb.pinterest.com/group5fcp/inspiration/ (Accessed 29th May 2014) Fig 2-7: 90s Music Inspiration Moodboard, curated for previous project (Album online) Available at http://gb.pinterest.com/group5fcp/inspiration/ (Accessed 26th May 2014) Fig. 8: Selfridges bag (2014) Available at: http://www.selfridges.com/en/StaticPage/Tax%20Refunds/ (Accessed 29th May 2014) Fig 9: 90’s Fashion (2014) Available at: http://www.pinterest.com/kmoraes1/fashion/ (Accessed 29th May 2014) Fig 10 -18: 90s Music Inspiration Moodboard, curated for previous project (Album online) Available at http://gb.pinterest.com/group5fcp/inspiration/ (Accessed 28th May 2014) Fig 19: Bestival Logo (2012) Available at: http://www.withguitars.com/bestival-2012-livestreamed-to-youtube-for-the-first-time/ (Accessed 28th May 2014) Fig 20: High Flying Birds Logo. Available at: http://www.withguitars.com/bestival-2012-livestreamed-to-youtube-for-the-first-time/ (Accessed 28th May 2014) Fig 20-28: 90s Music Inspiration Moodboard, curated for previous project (Album online) Available at http://gb.pinterest.com/group5fcp/inspiration/ (Accessed 28th May 2014) Fig 29 - 31: Taxi Advertising. Available at: http://www.taxiadvertising.com/products/ (Accessed 28th May 20140 Fig 32: London Underground Poster. (2013). Available at: http://www.posterrevolution.com/gallery/index.cfm?format=Poster&popular (Accessed 28th May 2014) Fig 33: ‘London’ (2013). Available at: http://www.pinterest.com/chriswhale/london/ (Accessed 28th May 2014) Fig 34: ‘Lp Bottle Designs’ (2014)
Bibliography Text Books: Easey. M (2009). Fashion Marketing, Third Edition: Wiley Blackwell Kolter. P, Armstrong. G. (2012). Principles of Marketing, Fifteenth Edition: Pearson Education Limited Lewis. D. (2000). The Soul of the New Consumer: Nicolas Brealey Posner, H. (2011). Marketing Fashion. London: Laurence King. Schmitt. B (19990. Exceptional Marketing: The Free Press Tungate. M (2012). Fashion Brands Branding Style From Armani To Zara. 3rd Edition: Kogan Page
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