Modern culture is obsessed with celebrity, almost no element of the media is impervious from the intoxicating pull of using celebrity to help sales. In short, if a newspaper or magazine puts a well known celebrity on their front cover it helps shift units from the shelves. The same can be true for television, any show featuring a celebrity can expect to see a boost in the ratings. Noticing they were under this intense spotlight, the people at the pinnacle of this focus – the celebrities themselves – have looked to turn this massive amount of attention into revenue streams. Previously it was mainly literary avenues that were thought to be the primary means of allowing celebrities to turn that attention into money, but in recent times there has been a rush to produce the celebrity fragrance.
For perfume manufacturers it can be a dream partnership, the celebrity provides a high-profile persona that, as long as they fit into the values and brand of the product they wish to sell, can really help to ‘punch through’ into the mainstream media. The celebrity also really helps promote the fragrance to consumer, they provide an instantly recognisable face and image that is much easier to use to advertise the product. It stops the consumers from seeing it as yet-another-advert, they ‘know’ the person and they identify with them.
This is a two way street though, there is the opportunity for the sales of the product to actually negatively effected by its association with a public figure. The celebrity branded product becomes inseparable from the public activities or perceived image of that celebrity. In short, if the public figure falls out of favour then that can have a direct impact image and sales of the products featuring their ‘brand’.
The increase in celebrity branded fragrance is creating a market different from jean paul gaultier perfume and hugo boss aftershave who are more traditional brands.
