Finding A Great Name For Your Perfume
Step # 2 in a series of 5 articles
In the first article in this five part series I suggested that your fragrance itself is the most important element in making sales successfully. Not all would agree for, in the big, commercial world of perfume, a "perfume brief" precedes the development of the fragrance and, while the perfume brief may not finalize the naming, it certainly points to the final name.
For the major perfume marketers, the market itself is the first consideration. A perfume is developed to exploit a particular market. The marketing company writes up its brief which suggests, at least in some vague way, what the fragrance should smell like.
The major perfume marketer, now armed with the brief for the new fragrance, approaches an outside fragrance company such as Quest, Givaudan or IFF and highly skilled professional perfumers go to work to develop a perfume based on the verbalizations and visual images provided by the brief.
But the "home" or independent perfumer generally does not work this way. The home perfumer starts with a series of experiments and develops a fragrance that he or she — and hopefully some friends and neighbors — like!
Thus, unlike the professionally crafted perfume that emerges from a corporate perfume brief, the home perfume's perfume can be born without a clue as to what it should smell like or who if anyone might buy it.
The weird world of perfume naming
Let's look a bit at the names of famous (best selling!) perfumes to see if we can learn any smart tricks. Pierre Balmain names his first perfume "Elysees 64-83." Was this something out of Greek mythology? No. It was simply his phone number in Paris.
L.T. Piver sold "Trefle Incarnate." The name of the perfume was simply the name of the species of clover that it was supposed to smell like. Likewise, Francois Coty's "La Rose Jacqueminot" represented the fragrance of this particular species of rose.
Gabrielle Chanel names her first perfume "No. 5." Lucien Lelong named his first perfumes "A," "B," "C," and "N." At least "N" stood for his wife's first initial.
How would the marketing people at any advertising agency react to these names? Badly, no doubt. We do know for at fact that her marketing people urged Elizabeth Arden not to name a fragrance "Blue Grass." She ignored their advice and "Blue Grass" was a huge success.
So names aren't everything. But, if the choice is between an out-and-out poor name and a brilliantly good name, I would certainly put my money behind the good name. In spite of the success of so many perfumes with lackluster names, I think most people — particularly people with a lot of marketing experience — would agree that a good name can boost product sales dramatically.
Some good names from successful perfumes
Estee Lauder made her business breakthrough with her bath oil/perfume, "Youth Dew." Today, more than 50 years later, the company is still trying to milk "Youth Dew." The name had been that good!
When Caron named a fragrance "Tabac Blond," it captures the spirit of an age when women were being "liberated" and finally free to smoke tobacco in public.
When, at the height of the Great Depression, Jean Patou introduced "Joy," he was giving hope to clients would were experiencing financial complications and needed a little joy in their lives!
Guerlain's "Shalimar" captured the Oriental spirit that had swept France and "Vol de Nuit" captured the spirit of the opening of the age of air travel and the literary world of Antoine de Saint-Exupery.
To jump ahead, Calvin Klein was a master of fragrance naming with "Eternity" for romance and "CK One" for the rebellious unisex generation.
So what are the rules for coming up with a great perfume name?
Over the last 30 years I have named many product. After a product has sold a certain amount of goods, I can safely tell myself that the name I chose was, at least, acceptable to the consumer. Sometimes when sales are better than expected, I've been able to conclude that the name was actually a good one.
A name appears on the product, in this case a perfume. So I have to ask myself, "How will the consumer feel about the name I have given my perfume?" Will the name give the consumer a good feeling toward the product? Will the name strike the consumer as bland? Or, as can happen, will the name actually repel the consumer or discourage sales in some way?
Two elements of a name
The first element of a perfume name is how the consumer will feel about the name. Will the consumer feel good to possess a fragrance with that particular name? How good will the consumer feel about possessing a fragrance with that particular name? The higher on the scale of "good feelings," the stronger the bond that will be created between the perfumer and the consumer and the more likely the consumer will be to buy.
The second element involves the bond between the fragrance itself and the name you give it. Piver's "Trefle Incarnate" smells like the trefle incarnate clover. Coty's "La Rose Jacqueminot" smells like the rose in question.
When the buyer tries the fragrance, will he or she say, "Oh yes, the name says it all!" Or will they find it difficult to make any mental link between the name and the fragrance?
For example, my wife is usually my first "test" for a new perfume. I might bottle it and give it a name that will be pleasing to her. This is exactly what happened in the case of our "Summer Air" perfume which started out as "To Janice For Christmas."
Once I decided that I wanted to produce this fragrance on a large scale and sell it, the name presented two problems. First, by using the name "Janice," the perfume might make a strong bond with all those women named "Janice". But there are a lot of women I would like to sell to who are not named "Janice. In fact, I would guess that there are very few "Janices" in China, India, South America and the Middle East. Since I don't want to exclude these women from wanting my perfume, the name "Janice" had to go. (If my wife was a big celebrity, the situation would be quite different!)
The second problem with the name is that it relates to Christmas, a Christian holiday that comes only once a year in a particular season. For non-Christians (most of the world!) the name might be expected to give a negative impression in spite of a world-wide secular trend which accepts Christmas simply as a festive holiday. Caron, for example, marketed Nuit de Noel. But the market they were shooting for, at the time, was predominately Christian, even if the perfumer himself was not.
Also, as mentioned, Christmas is seasonal. Why be trying to sell a Christmas item from January through October?
So the name "To Janice For Christmas" started to evolve. Experimental artwork was produced and a "star" shape emerged. So a "star" name was considered.
But the "star" name didn't link with the fragrance itself. (It didn't smell like a star!) The fragrance had been inspired by a particular section of a particular garden in August, not a star. Finally that mental link was made the the fragrance became "Summer Air." Now all we had to do was change the colors of the artwork from cold "star" colors to bright "summer" colors!
Names To Avoid
Over the last few years I have been presented with a number of names for a new fragrance by home perfumers and would-be perfume marketers. At times I cringe when I hear a particular suggestion. I try to be positive but honest in my evaluation but I have some suggestions for names to avoid.
Names that, all by themselves, are expected to sell a perfume
The most outstanding error in name is to think that a name alone can sell a perfume. Some of my knowledge here is confidential but it boils down to this: "I have a name for a perfume. Do you think my perfume will sell?"
That's it. A name alone. No perfume. No marketing plan (or marketing experience!). No financial backing.
I have to point out to this person that they don't have a perfume, they only have a name. And to turn the name into a successful perfume is going to take a lot more money than they have to spend and only equally ignorant partners would be willing to invest with them.
Names That Are Very Personal
If you are a known personality, you can sometimes get away with a name that is very personal to you — the name of your dead departed; the name of a family pet. If you are Gabrielle Chanel, you can name your fragrance "No. 5" (your lucky number?). If you are Estee Lauder, you can name you men's cologne "J.H.L" for your husband. If you are Charles Revson (Revlon), you can name your perfume "Charlie," for yourself. But it is because you are Gabrielle Chanel or Estee Lauder or Revlon that people are buying the product, not because of the name.
If you are not a known personality — a person with a personal following — stay away from names that have meaning only for you. They won't necessarily kill your perfume sales but they won't help sales either. It's better to work to find a name than will help sales.
Names that are very trendy
Ironically, some celebrity perfumes fall into this category. He or she who is a celebrity today may be a great unknown tomorrow. If you don't believe me, see the movie "Sunset Boulevard".
Events out of today's newspaper are largely forgotten tomorrow.
If you want to introduce a perfume to "capture the moment" of a particular event, don't plan to market it to an audience who is unaware or indifferent to that event. An example of this would be my "To Janice For Christmas" fragrance. Exactly one, 2-ounce bottle with this name was produced.
Summary
The name of your fragrance is important and can be a positive factor in making sales. Thus it is worth spending some time developing a name for your fragrance.
A good name links to the fragrance itself. The consumer can associate the fragrance with the name. If the fragrance "matches" the name, a stronger bond is created between the consumer and your perfume.
A name that is universal rather than tired to a time and place (unless it is a fantasy time and place!) tends to give you more years in which you can make sales.
Homemade perfumes generally lack commercial value, regardless of how wonderful they may be, because their creators fail to record how their perfumes were made. To profit from a perfume, to sell it, to sell the rights to it, or have somebody sell it for you, you must be able to make more of it. To make more you need the formula, the record of how the perfume was made: what materials were used and how much of each material was used. While the formula is nothing more than a recipe, a simple piece of paper, it is the key to unlocking your perfume's commercial potential. With the formula in your hand you have the ability to make a few dozen bottles more or, like the celebrities, tens of thousands of bottles. How to create an international production formula for your homemade perfume is a guide to getting you started on the right foot, correctly documenting everything you do as you are doing it, and then using these notes with some basic mathematics to write a simple, accurate, universal formula for your perfume. Writing formulas for your perfumes can change the way you think about them. With your formulas in hand your creations are no longer "here today, gone tomorrow." Now, thanks to your library of formulas, your perfumes become immortal!
While much is written about perfume – the beautiful fragrances... the beautiful bottles – little is available on the "mechanics" of perfume production – the steps that take place on the "factory floor" where a beautiful vision is turned into a finished product, a "ready to sell" perfume. Now you can experience all of these steps, hands on, by making just one quart of your own perfume. If you follow each chapter and do what you are instructed to do, you will end up with from 8 to 64 bottles of your own perfume, depending on the capacity of the bottles you select. Along this "insiders journey," each step is profusely illustrated with professional color photographs and you'll learn — • Exactly what alcohol you'll need and where to get it • Why you'll want (just a little!) water in your perfume • What type bottles you'll need and why you cannot use others • Why you will use a spray and not a cap • How to fill and seal your bottles • How to label your bottles with the correct information so they will be legal for sale • How to select a name for your perfume that will allow you to acquire powerful trademark rights free. If you are a developer of scents you are encouraged to use one of your own for this project. If you are not a scent creator yourself you'll learn how to get a fragrance oil that is exactly right for this project. Online sources are given for all required supplies and materials. Nothing can hold you back from starting your project immediately!
Perfume is famous for the markup it can achieve, even for a middle market fragrance. While "everybody knows" that perfume costs next to nothing to make (not completely true) the making of it is often considered an esoteric secret. "Creating Your Own Perfume With A 1700 Percent Markup!" details how a 3-person company with no experience created their own fragrance in response to a marketing opportunity that was too good to pass up. The book explains exactly what was done to create a fragrance for that opportunity but it is far more than a history of the author's project. "Creating Your Own Perfume With A 1700 Percent Markup!" lays out every step in the process of creating your own perfume, either as a do-it-yourself project – and without the benefit of automated equipment some compromises and workarounds are required – or full bore professional production under your supervision. Either way you will be producing a quality fragrance at a remarkably low cost. Do you have a marketing opportunity that would be wildly profitable if only you could obtain your fragrance at a ridiculously low cost? "Creating Your Own Perfume With A 1700 Percent Markup!" is the guide you need to do it.
A really great name, a special name that is just right for a particular perfume or perfume marketer (or entrepreneur with money to invest!) can be worth a ton of money. But few individuals with great ideas ever manage to cash in on those brilliant ideas. Instead they wait while others "discover" their idea, acquire legal rights to it and make all the money while they are left out in the cold without a penny having been earned for what was once THEIR idea.
If you are struggling to name your perfume and are looking for a name that will have real value, "Naming Your Perfume And Protecting Your Name" will help you weed out low value names and point you to names that have better marketing value plus the potential to become valuable assets in themselves.
If you have a great name you want to protect but no fragrance, "Naming Your Perfume And Protecting Your Name" will guide you through the simple steps you must take to acquire a legal right to that name before someone else grabs it! Best of all, "Naming Your Perfume And Protecting Your Name" shows you how to gain strong legal protection for your name without a lawyer and without spending more than pocket change.
Never had an idea for a product name? Never thought much about perfume? "Naming Your Perfume And Protecting Your Name" may stimulate your interest in a whole new game that, when played well, can make you lots of money without your having to leave the comfort of your home office.
You can build a perfume business of your own using this business plan as a guide. By following its detailed strategy you learn to identify motivated groups of potential perfume buyers. Members of these groups are near the tipping point of desire for a new perfume. You don't know these people and they don't know you but you know a marketer they trust, one who does not currently sell perfume and might never think of selling perfume were it not for your approach. Here is where you step in with a professional plan, promotion, and perfume to take advantage of this ripe opportunity for mutual profit. Before your first promotion has peaked, you will already be developing a relationship with your next marketing partner. Following this plan, you will gain more and more profit with each new marketing partnership.
Now when you make your own perfume you can make it fully "commercial" meaning you will be creating a product ready for regular, continuous sales to friends, relatives, and the public! If the fragrance you've made has already won praise, why not share it with others? Some might pay you for it and want it for their web stores or retail boutiques! Creating your own perfume from dropper bottles: Methods, mechanics, and mathematics guides you through steps that can turn your hobby project into a perfume business. Discover how close you are now and how little more you must do to take what you made with essential oils and dropper bottles into a business of your own! For an introduction to this book, watch this video.
When you name a perfume you create a valuable asset – the name itself. To sell your perfume you want the most effective name possible. But a good name can have value beyond the edge it gives your sales. In naming your fragrance you are creating a trademark and a trademark can have value independent of the product. The value of that trademark can vary. Much depends on how well, in naming your perfume, you follow the trademark "rules." How To Create A More Valuable Name For Your Perfume first helps you develop a name that will be effective in selling your perfume. It then prods you to make use of certain techniques that can turn a good name into a great trademark, strong and valuable. If you have questions about how to protect a name, How To Create A More Valuable Name For Your Perfume will answer many such as:
- Can you protect your name yourself or do you need a lawyer?
- Can you register a trademark without a lawyer?
- What does it cost to register a trademark?
- How do I enforce the rights I have established?
How To Create A More Valuable Name For Your Perfume covers both state, federal, and international protection.
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Philip Goutell
Lightyears, Inc.
