Fluent Essays

Its the assignment of luxury class. No more than 5 pages Read the case below and answer the questions in the final page . 2 J’ADORE BY PARFUMS CHRISTIAN DIOR THE FRAGRANCE DIVISION OF CHRISTIAN DIOR: SETTING THE PROBLEM Antoine Duplesnel arrived in 1997 as the new Director of the Fragrance Division of Christian Dior; just one year after John Galliano came on board as artistic director. Like everyone within the company, Antoine Duplesnel was living an exciting evolution of the Dior style, but he was a bit confused. Fifty years after the opening of the Couture House, consumer focus groups revealed that the Christian Dior brand was in the middle of a potential clash in style. Antoine Duplesnel had been hired by the President of the Dior Fragrance Division, Mrs. De Facto. His mission was to take care of the next generation of perfumes. First, he thought he needed to understand what the brand was today. What was its DNA? How could it be used in a way which would be relevant to the times yet stay true to its past? Like most of the brand’s clients, he had an idea of what Christian Dior was about, but it was difficult to articulate what this brand image was. Duplesnel was pressured even more by the fact that Mrs. De Facto was always emphasizing the fact that the brand was weak outside of Europe. She wanted the brand to be an international leader. After all, at the time of Christian Dior, the company was very strong in the United States. She could not understand why the company was unable to be strong in that market today. In order to become more familiar with the brand, Antoine Duplesnel looked through the archives and all the latest visuals of the advertisements. He wondered whether there was coherence between each of the lines launched those past ten years. The different communications seemed to blur the entire picture. Who was the Dior woman today? He understood that he was facing a brand that needed some work; his weekends at La Baule would definitely be postponed for a while… CHRISTIAN DIOR HERITAGE: REDISCOVERING THE BRAND’S ROOTS She was revealed on February 12th, 1947. She was the incarnation of femininity: outrageous, yet elegant and tasteful. The Corolle / New Look was introduced to the post-war world and from this a new woman was born. Women could be women again. The first collection of the Christian Dior House made the creator a star overnight. It may have been his friend, Jean Cocteau, who foresaw the destiny of Christian Dior: that magic name made up of the name of god and gold -- god/gold = dior/or = Di/or. The same year, Christian Dior launched his first fragrance, Miss Dior, because a perfume is a door opening on to a rediscovered world. That is why I chose to create perfumes -- so that merely taking the stopper from the bottle will be enough to summon up the sight of all my dresses and so that every woman I dress will leave behind her a wake of desire. Perfume is the indispensable complement to the female personality, it provides the finishing touch to a dress, it is the rose with which Lancret signed his canvases. Miss Dior was a daring green, animalic chypre, which still remains memorable by its refined power and startling originality. More than an artistic trendsetter, Christian Dior was also a visionary manager and he disconcerted a lot of his contemporaries with his ideas of, registered trademarks, brand image . 3 and implementing licenses. He designed each of his collections as events, which were experienced like theatrical hits by the audience. Indeed, each time the fashion designer succeeded in delivering a wonderful spectacle with a theme to celebrate. It was never an issue for Christian Dior to recognize the talent of young designers who worked with him. Pierre Cardin, Jean-Louis Scherrer, Yves Saint Laurent and Marc Bohan are some examples of assistant designers whom he helped to promote with willingness and enthusiasm. In 1957, only ten years after the birth of his House, Christian Dior died of a heart attack. The direction passed immediately to the young Yves Saint Laurent. Marc Bohan later succeeded him in 1960 and stayed until 1989, where after the Italian Gianfranco Ferré took the artistic lead of the House. Over these years, the succession of one designer to the next was quite smooth and Christian Diors spirit of elegance and perfection was passed on, all the while staying true to the values of the creator. In 1996, it was the turn of John Galliano, the brilliant, young English designer, to lead the Christian Dior House. FRAGRANCE PORTFOLIO OF THE BRAND After Miss Dior, many other fragrances followed. Among those is the famous Diorissimo (1956), which is a beautiful, yet pungent lily of the valley and Eau Sauvage (1966), the first male fragrance of the House. Its composition was revolutionary because of its flowery composition and the fact that a fragrance was made, for the first time, of hedione – a molecule that closely reproduces the smell of jasmine. Eau Sauvage would also become a classic, which is still in the international top 10 today. Diorella (1972), Jules (1980), Poison (1985) or Fahrenheit (1988) are other examples of great steps into the perfumery world, each of them representing an olfactive revolution of its own. Looking at the latest major Dior perfumes, the spicy tuberose that Poison was, generated one of the biggest commercial successes of the House. It was released in 1985 and was the epitome of its era. It was about being bold and daring. On the contrary, Dune, launched six years later, was a serene floriental. More recently, in 1996, Dolce Vita was a magnificent fruity woody composition, which finally targeted an older Dior generation. In parallel to the new fragrance that was being designed, another team in the Fragrance Division worked on Hypnotic Poison, which was an oriental conceived to refresh the concept of Poison thirteen years after its launch. SETTING THE STAGE: THE EVOLVING VALUES OF WOMEN DURING THE 80s & 90s The 80s and 90s were revolutionary times for women: more than ever before they became empowered. The women of the 80’s were businesswomen living hectic yet exciting, professional lives. This era marked a tremendous change in the female lifestyle. The look of the time was often aggressive yet edgy in terms of make-up, hairstyles and dress. Thierry Mugler and Claude Montana were fashion icons of this time who translated this new female power into suits with broad shoulders and angular shapes. By the early 90s, it was common for women to juggle both demanding professional and personal lives -- the 90’s woman wanted to have it all. She wanted to simultaneously be respected as a professional, a homemaker, a good mother, and as a woman with the freedom to express herself. Not surprisingly however, playing the role of a modern day “superwoman” was not easy. By the mid 90’s, part-time jobs became a highly sought after commodity as they offered a solution for many to achieve a balance in their lives. They could satisfy their professional desires and at the same time maintain a personal life. As a result of this phenomenon, fashion and design dramatically changed. . 4 Minimalism was the rage with designers like Miuccia Prada, Giorgio Armani and Calvin Klein. Although the fashion and design trends were in tune with the “genderless” quality of the 90’s woman’s lifestyle, there still remained a yearning in every woman to express her feminine side. A few years later, fashion leaders, responding to this need, reintroduced a “baroque” style to the mid-90’s woman. The revival of accessory brands like Gucci and Prada introduced another type of competition to compound the current issue. Those brands were a strong threat for the Dior House, because the major emphasis on their designers -- Tom Ford and Miuccia Prada -- was new in the way of communicating a form of glamour through the press. You now had to have a star as a fashion designer to be a successful brand. THE ASSIGNMENT: JUSTIFICATION of the NEW CONCEPT Antoine Duplesnel needed some help in attaining a fresh look on the brand. He was assisted by Vincent Guillemard who came from the new and exciting program that ESSEC Business School created two years earlier: the specialized MBA in International Luxury Brand Management. The mission of Vincent Guillemard would be to help Antoine Duplesnel in: - Getting Dior fragrances back on track regarding international leadership - one fragrance needed to be in the top 10 worldwide and in the top 5 in France - Strengthening the unique positioning of Dior as a Couture House and cutting edge quality of the brand in the fragrance category - Offering consumers a fragrance that would embody their expectations in the most universal way, to be able to interest European women as well as American or Asian women. Vincent Guillemard had to try and capture the vision of the contemporary Dior woman. With the arrival of John Galliano as the top designer of Dior Haute Couture, the task seemed to be interesting, but also extremely challenging. He was afraid of many artistic changes. Highly controversial, Galliano was perceived as too daring to translate the spirit of Christian Dior. Vincent Guillemard had the chance to meet with the designer and observe him work on the new collection. The young fragrance manager was fascinated - he thought that the designer was a bit crazy, but since Vincent Guillemard knew the history of Christian Dior House quite well, he was able to understand why John Galliano was the newly chosen designer. After all, he recalled, what else was Christian Dior in 1947 except audacious? It made sense: Galliano was the legitimate transgressor of the codes of today as Dior was at his time. In order to design the next fragrance, one of Vincents missions was to somehow return to the cutting edge appeal of Dior couture. He wondered whether he had to go back to 1947 and truly understand what was behind Christian Dior at the time. Or did he have to understand what John Galliano envisioned for the next collection? Or was it even better to mix the essence of 1947 with the one of 1997? The challenge seemed to increase with the days. Vincent Guillemard knew that it was essential for him to analyze the codes that Galliano was using for this collection. He had to be in synchrony with the new star of Haute Couture. After weeks of research, interviews with Galliano, meetings with different people who had been working for the House for many years, brainstorming with colleagues and visits to the boutiques, Vincent Guillemard needed a long weekend to finalize the project. He felt that he had something, but could not figure out THE idea of the global concept for the next fragrance. He had different ideas for the name. The selection of the fragrance’s name was critical to the public’s acceptance of the product. He was aware that if he chose the right name, it could dramatically help in the communication of his idea and lead to the success of the entire process. Indeed, a well-chosen . 5 name was the translation of the entire concept. The name also helped consumers and distributors attribute the concept and make the fragrance their own. Three days in Deauville helped our young product manager visualize the total scenario. He was ready to propose a concept, a name, an idea for the fragrance and the shape of the bottle, and, of course, the entire communication around the launch. Everything fell into place and seemed to be consistent. Vincent Guillemard was quite excited and thrilled to meet with his director, Antoine Duplesnel to present him with his ideas. On Monday morning, the discussion between the two men went well, but Antoine Duplesnel needed to secure the whole concept. Indeed, Dior was not accustomed to using consumer panels. It meant that before any launch of product, the marketing teams had to secure their projects even more. Antoine Duplesnel was really satisfied with what his young manager suggested, but he needed a justification for each of the proposals that he knew would be requested by his President, Mrs. De Facto. HOW TO SELL THE WHOLE CONCEPT TO THE PRESIDENT Antoine Duplesnel and Vincent Guillemard were sure about one thing: the rationale behind the name was easy for them to justify but would it be so obvious to everyone else? The inspiration came from John Galliano himself who indirectly articulated it. The English designer was keen on saying Jadore!! at everything he would see. It was like a leitmotiv, a signature for the designer and it made sense for both marketing men to use this expression. However, to what extent could this story justify the name for the next fragrance? It was so clear for them that they were unable to explain it! The inspiration for the shape of the bottle came from various sources, but the main one resulted from the observation of the first Haute Couture collections and shows that J Galliano did for Dior. The design seemed appropriate, but why? How could they justify it? Both name and design of the future bottle seemed to be consistent. The two men also thought about the material that would be used for the bottle; one thing for sure, it would be the same color code used for the communication campaign. They simply needed to justify all these elements. Antoine Duplesnel and Vincent Guillemard were happy to have the perfumer brief almost ready: they aspired to offer a new classic for todays Dior woman. To accompany women into the XXI century, a large bouquet of flowers or a chypre – flowers, woods and amber notes -- would make sense. They indeed needed a rich and complete olfactive composition, which would represent the mystery and power of the woman today. It was also key that the fragrance was perceived as sophisticated. Too many fragrances had been launched without real sophistication in their construction, making them just functional. A touch of contemporary notes would certainly be great to lift and freshen up the entire composition and make it another of Christian Diors successful perfumes. They even thought it would have a chance to become the next Miss Dior of the time. Duplesnet and Guillemard were pleased that the concept seemed consistent with the entire fragrance portfolio of the Dior brand. Antoine Duplesnel had in mind the best perfumer companies to work with on their new brief: Firmenich, Givaudan, IFF and Quest would be targeted first. As far as the ad campaign was concerned, Antoine Duplesnel and Vincent Guillemard needed to find the best message that would be understood universally. The core values of the product had to capture an international audience. Given the name JAdore, they were sure that the message would touch the hearts of the French, but they were also confident that it would also appeal to women who loved Haute Couture and the allure of French glamour. In addition the word J’Adore could be understood in many languages. How could they visualize who this woman was though? . 6 What did she look like? In which environment would she be seen and why? How could they convey their message? Again, the objective was clear, they had the answers, but somehow they had a problem of how to justify their concept of this new Dior universe. Duplesnet and Guillemard wanted more than anything to be consistent in whatever they did and stay true to the brand’s essence. They had to be quick and efficient. Their top management was growing impatient and putting more pressure on Antoine Duplesnels team. One of the major goals of this new launch was, after all, to give a new legitimacy and leadership to Dior perfumes all across the globe. SELLING THE WHOLE CONCEPT TO THE PRESIDENT : issues to be tackled What do female of the end 90’s want? Consumer needs in terms of perfumes? Is the concept of beauty/femininity cross cultural ? What do competitors do ? which ones are successful Is there a consistency between each of the Dior lines launched those past ten years? Looking at the different communications, is there any clear picture of the Dior woman today? What are the ethics and aesthetics of the brand, What is the brand DNA? How could it be used in a way which would be relevant to the times yet stay true to its past? To what extent could this ethic justify the whole concept? How could you show a clear linkage between this ethic and the name/scent for the next fragrance? To what extent could this ethic justify the shape of the bottle for the next fragrance? How could they visualize who this j’Adore woman was? What did she look like? How could they convey their message?