From The Star Online:
IN a market flooded with fragrances, it is mind-boggling that every season, a whole new range pops up to entice an old customer or, better still, engage a new one.
In New York earlier this year, StarMag met with two experts who live and breathe fragrances.
Working closely with fashion designers, singers and actresses is all in a day’s work for Lori Singer, Coty Prestige’s group vice-president of global marketing and Carlos Timiraos, group vice-president of global marketing of celebrity fragrances.
Timiraos, who handles Jennifer Lopez, Sarah Jessica Parker and Gwen Stefani fragrances, says Jennifer Lopez was the first celebrity to work with this French-American company, on her perfume Glow, back in 2002.
“That set in motion an avalanche of celebrity brands. It’s flattering to be told that J Lo is the most significant celebrity brand since Elizabeth Taylor’s fragrance back in the 80s and 90s,” he adds.
Following that, Parker and Stefani were signed on in 2005 and 2007, respectively, to collaborate with Coty’s signature perfumes.
“We have carefully chosen those celebrities who give us real star power, and have a great track record and global presence,” Timiraos explains.
Gwen Stefani’s fragrances are marketed under the Harajuku Lovers brand template, and every now and then new ideas are added to freshen up the line.
Timiraos says that in March 2011, Coty will launch Wicked Style (from her song Harajuku), which will replace the Harajuku Lovers line.
It seems that on a trip to Japan, Stefani was so inspired by the creativity of the young women she saw in Harajuku, who expressed themselves in outrageous outfits and details. As she has her own brand, Lamb, the team tapped her creative ideas to develop her fragrances.
Wicked Style offers different scents packaged in small bottles featuring different girls, each garbed in an outfit that fits her personality.
“Gwen’s name is not on her fragrances. They are a pure expression of her amazing creative skills and imagination, from music to fashion,”Timiraos says.
He shares that Lopez, Parker and Stefani are all perfectionists who go through dozens of sample scents over many months.
“It’s normal to be spraying all down our arms at meetings. The difference is so subtle, but that’s what makes a perfume such a work of art.”
Creating a new scent involves going back and forth and Timiraos has the tough role of reminding the celebrities about deadlines. In turn, they have a hard time deciding on the final sniff as they want their scents to be perfect!
But the hardest part of developing a fragrance is finding the right name for it, he adds.
“It has to work around the world. There are so many brands and there are only a number of words. So, inevitably, you will fall in love with something but another company already has that name! It is not as easy as people may think.”