New Product Development/Tools for Creation

The Perfumery /Fragrance Brief

• Blueprint which reveals underlying story about the scent /fragrance /product

• It should be concise ,to the point & focused enabling perfumer /creator to create the right scent
/product that you imagined

 Fragrance /perfume brief includes –olfactive story ,inspirational pieces ,relevant ideas

 It gives coherency & definite work direction

 It provides strategic & systematic path to reach to desired audience

 Types of fragrance brief

 Manufacturers & Creative

 Manufacturers brief –put by marketing team/client & sent to fragrance houses for initial
submission

 Creative brief –worked & created by fragrance houses based on information received by
manufacturer with few addition from creative team .

 The Brief - Pybus Model 1

 Product: What is the product formula? What chemical environment will the perfume face? Does
the product have colour, or any other physical characteristics such as base odour?

 Positioning: What is the intended market positioning of the product?

 Place: Is the product intended for the national, regional or global marketplace?

 Production: What production processes will the product undergo, at what time and how will it
be dosed.

 Package: Can the packaging (e.g. aerosol container lining, soap wrapper) be affected by the
nature of the fragrance?

 Presumption: Ensure you understand the nuances of the country. What does ‘green’ or ‘fresh’
mean in the context of the customer’s requirements? Never presume anything about any
aspect.

 Pugilist: Who are the competitive fragrance houses in the brief? What are their known strengths
and weaknesses?
 Perfume: does your final submission meet all the criteria above? If the customer mentions a fine
fragrance by name is that that particular brand of fragrance direction really meant [action
standard]? Probe. What regulations must the fragrance meet?

 Publicity: On what platform is the product to be promoted? Are there key words such as
smooth, gentle, caring, hardworking, which the perfume will need to evoke?

 Pending: What time–scale does the brief have? If very short, perhaps a shelf product will suffice;
if long term and significant brief, market research may be feasible and a prerequisite

 Purpose: Is the product new or a range extension? What competition, if any, is it up against.
What is the key objective for the product?

 Price: Cost per tonne of the finished product is a better focus than cost per kilo of product, it
gives flexibility on dosage [note possible production problems]. Keep within the parameters set
(relevant to fragrances for functional products).

 Profit: On submission, what margin (profit) suffices so that the winning of the business is
worthwhile? A balance must be struck between what is realistically achievable and what is un-
competitive. Between what the client can afford and the true cost of what is being asked for.
[Note impact of competition]

 Reflections on the brief

 Name of the client and history including brand

 Past business with company

 Holders of present business with client

 Product and variant if applicable

 Target and / or action standard

 Brief review of task

 Brief market segment overview with segmentation issues identified

 International issues and line extensions identified

 Perfume attributes(fresh, natural, substantive)

 Action standards including country of origin

 Odour direction / profile (fruity, floral etc)

 Marketing mix issues:

  Product: use full attribute analysis

 Price

 Place (including supply conditions)

 Promotion

 Service extension issues if relevant

 Note any claims that the perfume is need to substantiate.

 Dose

 Base information and availability

 Stability test methods and requirements

 Evaluation test methods and requirements

 Market research needs

 Safety requirements (IFRA, halogen organics, nitro musks, poly cyclic musks)

 Other requirements (non animal tested, no animal products)

 Submission requirements (perfume oil and finished samples)

 Documentation requirements (marketing, costs, specifications, safety and QA)

 Time scales

 On going market research

 On going analysis of materials and retro-engineering of market leading products, long term
stability testing & other R&D

 Maintenance of a adequate international product library

 Raw materials development: captive speciality products etc

 Creative perfumery development

 Evaluations development

 Formulations: applications development & stability testing

 Account management: relationship management prior to the brief

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