Shannon's Journal Discussion

[Shannon]

Ultimately my goal is to make it so beautiful that people can't stop smelling it. So far the only branch I have had that from was decidedly feminine. I'm trying for unisex.

Just a thought - are there notable differences between nationalities in terms of preferred fragrances? In other words, could one perfume do well in the US, but poorly in the UK based entirely on the fragrance?

Absolutely. No perfumer is going to please every gender, every race, every ethnicity, every nationality, every age, or every anything for that matter. Something that sells like crazy in the United States would not sell as well in France, because of the fact that Americans are generally obsessed with "clean" and "fresh" smells, and the French (from what I have heard, I could be wrong) generally prefer denser, more sensual, more animalic fragrances. Likewise, a fragrance that a man would wear and get interest from the ladies for in India, might mark him in the American mind as "gay", because from what I understand, India considers Jasmine a masculine scent, and Americans (united Statesians, to be more specific) generally consider it decidedly feminine.

Therefore, the goal is either to go for as broad an appeal as possible and not please everyone as much as possible (more like it, less love it) or focus in on a niche group and please them to death while making everyone else feel neutral or less about it.

My goal is of course to produce the fragrances that make the most financial sense in terms of profits, while remaining as broadly appealing as possible. So I guess I am aiming for a bit of middle ground.