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Mood and Food: NPD Adapting To Generational Shifts

Perfumes and Flavorists need to be aware of what exists in the mind of the market at that time. It’s constantly shifting. Consumers, were once happy with either healthy food or great tasting food. Now they want both. They are increasingly demanding. They want sustainability, they want natural and clean label and less sugar.

A better understanding of sensory marketing and the role of emotion in fragrance and flavour in NPD can help them better adapt to these shifts as new products typically have 80-90% failure rates. Trying to reduce that figure is important, especially for new brands. And for people to get an emotional attachment to a brand, it’s got to be as quick as possible. So if you can remove any hindrance, so much the better.

Full article by Oliver Morrison in Food Navigator here.

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How Chanel N°5 Stays Relevant with Trends and Generations

The best marketers aim to know both:

The emotions that are in fashion at the moment
and the most on-trend fragrance notes

We then selectively highlight the most positive and persuasive notes and their associated emotions within our marketing comms.

Via analysis of their website from 2017-to-2019 Chanel.com has added details about the provenance of their ingredients. While adding, the note Neroli and removing vanilla and citrus from the fragrance description for Chanel N°5 Parfum Bottle.

How Chanel N°5 Parfum Bottle Changed its Fragrance Descriptions (2017-2019)

?Dropped is the mention of “bright citrus top notes”

?Removed “smooth touch of vanilla” from the base

?Aldehydes are not described as creating a “unique presence”

✅ Included are the mention of “neroli” top notes

✅ Ingredients are now the “highest quality”, “exceptional” and provenance is “Grasse”

✅ Aldehydes provide an “airy freshness” and “abstract effect”. Interesting, the term “abstract” was favoured by Chanel between 2010-2015 . N°5 Parfum was then a “bouquet of abstract flowers”.

✅ Emotionally, “sensuality” is now derived from the May Rose and Jasmine floral notes; whereas in 2017 the sensuality was from “Vanilla”.

Analysis of N°5 Eau de Parfum Bottled

Using way back machine, I examined the online published fragrance descriptions from 2010 in order to discover what from the numerous N°5 Eau de Parfum Bottled fragrance notes available their copywriters were selectively highlighting.

December (2010):

Description A bouquet of abstract flowers of indefinable femininity. The first of its kind to contain such a high proportion of aldehydes (substances derived from scientific research), in combination with floral extracts. A timeless classic. An elegant, seductive, modern fragrance. Modern and practical in use.

June (2012) & January (2015)

Floral-aldehydic, a bouquet of abstract flowers with an indefinable femininity. A drop behind the ear, on the inside of the elbow, or on the pulse point of the wrist

May (2017)

Description N°5, the very essence of femininity. A powdery floral bouquet housed in an iconic bottle with a minimalist design. A timeless, legendary fragrance.
Olfactory atmosphere The eau de parfum draws inspiration from the parfum with which it shares its floral aldehyde signature. This floral bouquet composed around May Rose and Jasmine features bright citrus top notes. Aldehydes create a unique presence, and the smooth touch of Vanilla an incredibly sensual trail.

May (2019)

Description N°5, the very essence of femininity. A timeless, legendary, powdery floral bouquet. Composed using raw materials of the finest quality, the parfum is the most precious version of the fragrance. It is housed in a bottle with a minimalist design, hand-sealed with a baudruche film and topped with a cabochon cut like a diamond.
Olfactory atmosphere An abstract fragrance that reveals a delectably powdered bouquet, the N°5 Parfum is the quintessence of femininity. Top notes of Neroli from Grasse blend into the sensual, floral notes of two exceptional raw materials, May Rose and Jasmine from Grasse. Aldehydes provide airy freshness and lend an abstract effect to the fragrance

Reformulations

There is a lot written online, with regard to reformulations. According to Chanel, the formula used to produce N°5 has changed little since its creation, except for the necessary exclusion of natural civet and certain nitro-musks [1]. I know that there has been a big reformulation due to the perfumery restrictions by the RIFM organisation that specify a low ratio of jasmine grandiflorum that is allowed (0.7% under the 43rd amendment) [2]. Likewise, the amount of Oakmoss has been reduced [3] [4] to keep in line with tight regulations.

References

[1] Mazzeo, Tilar J.(2010). The Secret of Chanel No. 5: The Biography of a Scent. New York: HarperCollins. ISBN 9780061791017.

[2] Vosnaki, Elena. (2010). Chanel No.5: Precious Ingredients Lore. [online] Perfumeshrine.blogspot.com. Available at: http://perfumeshrine.blogspot.com/2012/10/chanel-no5-precious-ingredients-lore.html [Accessed 6 May 2019].

[3] Basenotes.net. (2019). Chanel No. 5 Parfum Reformulation. [online] Available at: http://www.basenotes.net/threads/239233-Chanel-No-5-Parfum-Reformulation [Accessed 6 May 2019].

[4] Knapton, Sarah. (2014). Chanel and Dior forced to reformulate perfumes under new EU laws. [online] Telegraph.co.uk. Available at: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/health/news/10860886/Chanel-and-Dior-forced-to-reformulate-perfumes-under-new-EU-laws.html [Accessed 6 May 2019].

Fragrance Descriptions for Teens…Good, Better and Best (part 2 of 2)

In the first part of this post we looked at right now how a massive shift in the lexicon of language and emotion description has occurred. This is especially important for young people in their teens. You should read the first part of this post for a greater understanding of the problem. Which is, in a nutshell, that fragrance descriptions are currently depended on highly sophisticated language which is not accessible. In order to communicate quickly, effectively and especially engagingly we must think unlike bygone times.

The Best

Inspired by football. A classic example of using pre-existing cultural symbols. A lesson in semiotics was in the development of the red card system of football matches. Yellow is a booking. Red means you are off for an early shower.

The idea of using language-neutral coloured cards to communicate a referee’s intentions originated in football, with English referee Ken Aston. After the 1966 quarter-finals between Argentina, newspaper reports stated that the German referee Rudolf Kreitlein had booked Bobby and Jack Charlton, and sent off Argentinian Antonio Rattan. Though all of this was oblivious to all those that were playing as communication had not occurred. Players, spectators and journalists where bewildered. The referee had not made his decisions clear during the game.

This incident started the referee Ken Aston thinking about ways to make a referee’s decisions clearer to both players and spectators. For Ken Aston, his question was how could you play the World Cup between different countries when the referee couldn’t make himself understood to the players?

“While I was driving the light turned red and I thought, ‘Yellow, calm down and red, stop, go out.’”

Aston realised that a colour-coding scheme based on the same principle as used on traffic lights?. (yellow – stop if safe to do so, red – stop) would transcend language barriers and make it clear that a player had been cautioned or expelled. As a result, yellow cards to indicate a caution and red cards to indicate an expulsion were used. As Dave Trott said “That is real semiotics: communication without words.” ^[6]

Key Questions

How can we make ourselves understood to teen consumers with their new language?
How can fragrance marketeers (like referees) transcend the problem of languages for international consumers and their level of comprehension?

Solution…We have the best cultural lexicon at our teen’s fingertips—emojis! I have used one emoji for the aroma (Smells – Left) and an accompanying emoji for emotion (Feels – Right).

Fragrance Descriptions More Suitable for Teens

?Smells+Feels for Teens

Can you decode this one?

This is Fahrenheit by Christian Dior:

“An odd, wild, Petrol masculine start gives way to a then comforting floral quirky, feminine accord. With green chypres, wrapped with prominent leather and woods the final ending reminds of the great outdoors.”

My Method

Via the use of an Aroma Signature. It is created by decoding the emotions and aromas consumers find, then I wrote a fragrance description. Then I locate the one key emotion and the aroma that drives this emotions.

Applications beyond Marketing…This format is ideal for training retail duty free sales staff who quickly have to come to terms with thousands of fragrances, you could provide them with as summaries of the key accords, rewards and Need States in this format. Moreover, I also suggest that emojis make interesting puzzles for consumers to decode for advertising.