Research for my FMP

1. Research
Olivia day

2. Audience Research

3. Target Audience Profile
• I have set to target my audience for my perfume product for middle class
women aged 20 – 35 as it has a mature element throughout and its main
scent is flowers however it has a rooted innocence with the sweet
undertones of summery fruits. The reasoning for the middle class as the
demographic target audience is due to the fact that the brand that I have
created for the perfume is a high-end brand which has released a
perfume, similarly to Dior’s Miss Dior Eau De Parfum and Yves Saint
Laurent’s Black Opium Eau De Parfum which both range from prices such
as £59.00 - £142.00. As these are higher costing products, we can assume
that the target audience are those who make expensive investments with
the products they consume as they have more money to do so.
• In addition to this, the targeted audience is also aimed at those with a
personality known as ‘the aspirer’ which means that they care a lot about
‘the finer things in life’ e.g. materialistic, quality items (such as my
perfume).

4. Audience Research
• With big designer brands such as Yves Saint Laurent
releasing ground-breaking fragrances that take the
perfume commercial and market industry by a storm, it
produces pressure on other brands when releasing
products of their own. I have decided to take inspiration
by some of their marketing strategies that I believe will
help me in the production sector of this project.
• Black Opium, the fragrance by Yves Saint Laurent, has
stepped outside of the box in terms of marketing
strategies in order to widen their audience. A key one I
would like to note is how in December 2020 YSL used a
strategic approach by featuring a Holiday commercial on
the popular social media app Snapchat. Their aim was to
reach an audience of women aged 18-35. This caused a
2x lift in product awareness and an overall 5x increase in
sales.
• This goes to show how important it is to widen your
audience in ways that are unique to the marketing
industry and therefore I have taken note of this
approach.
Here is the short commercial
produced by YSL which was
featured on Snapchat.

5. Audience Research
• Many celebrity pop stars have released successful perfume
products due to their guaranteed amount of customers – their
fans. Some of note are J.Lo, Lady Gaga and Britney Spears. No
one has done it quite like Ariana Grande who has now released
overall 5 fragrance collections with 11 perfumes in total. She has
achieved global sales of $150 million in the space of just 2 years.
• This is all down to social media and Ariana’s easily influenced
fanbase. The products themselves have a very sweet and
innocent aesthetic, hence the name of Ariana’s most purchased
fragrance ‘Sweet Like Candy’. The fun and bubbly vibe to the
brand goes to show that the target audience for the products is,
much liker her music, female teenagers/young adults (under 25).
It is known that younger audience can be easily influenced and
therefore the sweet, innocent scent is quite fitting.
• The fragrances themselves are reasonably priced ranging from
£23.00 to £46.00. These make for the perfect Christmas or
birthday gift for a teenage girl due to such a great price for the
much-wanted products.
• With a following of 289 million on Instagram, all it takes is for
Ariana to post about a release of her newest fragrance and
Instagram goes wild. To be able to advertise on such a large
platform, it is incredibly easy for sales to be record breaking due
to internet commotion.

6. Market Research
Existing Products

7. Existing Product
This magazine poster for the 2015 Miss Dior launch
featuring famous actress Natalie Portman was made
to represent the portrayal of WHO Miss Dior is - the
epitome of femininity and elegance. The core
message conveyed by Dior in this campaign centres
around sensuality, love and luxury. The angle of the
image is straight-on and is a wide angle which allows
us to see the full body of the model rather than a
close up image which tends to be a lot more
intimate. The poster shows Portman slipping out of
an elegant, pink floral dress to reveal a much shorter
satin dress. This can lead us to believe that the scent
of the fragrance itself is on a fine line between
sweet and provocative as it is described as “simply
erotic, yet light and witty”.
The contrast between the creamy white background
and the black mini dress helps to make the model
stand out in the image and since she is such a
famous celebrity, it is very important to have the
model stand out as much as possible in order to sell
the product which is the poster’s purpose.

8. Existing Product
The poster for the fragrance J’adore by Dior shows
famous actress Charlize Theron who has been the
‘face’ of this product for 18 years since its release.
The idea behind the ad was to relaunch the
J’adore brand by embracing its French heritage.
The advert follows its brand values by using a
beautiful model in a stunning dress with an
elegant backdrop and the colour gold mirroring
wealth. The aesthetic of the poster matches Dior’s
target consumer and brand values –
sophistication. The model’s dress resembles the
fragrance bottle as her neck is covered in a similar
way to the bottleneck. This gives the audience the
impression that wearing the fragrance transforms
you into a glamorous feeling. The demographic
target for this product is adult women who have
quite high incomes as perfumes are
something not everybody can afford.

9. Existing Product
This TV commercial advert for Sì by Giorgio
Armani features famous Australian actress Cate
Blanchett in a red dress, clearly standing out
from the crowd with her blonde hair and
obvious elegance and confidence. The video
shows her in normal settings such as a hotel
room, café and what seems like a formal event.
We, as viewers, can assume that the model in
the ad is wearing the fragrance being
advertised. And so the ad shows Cate Blanchett
acting free and joyous and therefore the
audience is simultaneously aware that wearing
the fragrance makes us feel the way Cate is
portrayed in the advert. Giorgio Armani
positioned itself to focus on products of high-
class, sophistication and style. Armani's target
market includes celebrities, high-earning
individuals and business class. Consequently,
with this knowledge, this may make the appeal
to the audience even stronger as people often
tend to crave the feeling of wealth and
elegance and sometimes a simple product like
a perfume, despite the heavy price tag, can
enable that feeling.
The video also shows the model skydiving
from a plane, again in an all red outfit, once
again portraying the feeling of freedom in the
ad. The use of the colour red being a
continuous pattern within the ad is used to
symbolise the seductiveness of the scent.

10. Research Analysis
• What common features do the researched
products have?
Each product which I researched and analysed has a main theme of
femininity and the desire of a luxurious, elegant lifestyle. This is
because this is often seen as the ideal life for a woman to be viewed as
desirable in this way.
• What aspects of the research will you
within your own work?
I will include different types of camera shots I have noticed within the
tv ads I have been researching, particularly the artsy and visually
pleasing shots, and shoot them either personally or with assistance. I
will also pick up on the lighting and editing techniques used withing
the perfume ad posters I have researched and edit my images in a way
that I think will stand out the best to my target audience.

11. Practice Research
Here is my first attempt of my perfume bottle that will be shown throughout
the perfume advert campaign. I am proud of the outcome however I realised
it does not match the aesthetic of the initial plan of my product I had in
mind. I had came to a conclusion previously that I waned my product to have
a mostly floral scent and I feel like this version of the bottle sells that scent
particularly well. The reason why I ma so fixated on the floral scent is
because I have already created a mind map of how the poster and tv advert
will look which incorporates a lot of floral imagery.

12. Questionnaire Analysis

13. Audience research
Question 1. What is your age?
First of all, I asked this
question to begin with so
that I could have a basic
understanding of what the
majority age group was that
answered my questionnaire
questions. As the image
shows, the majority or the
people who took my
questionnaire were under 18.
Now I have a basic understanding of the maturity of the majority of the
group and therefore this information will help me to draw a conclusion at
the end of my questionnaire

14. Question 2. How often do you buy
a new perfume/fragrance?
The reasoning for this question was
so that I could have an
understanding of whether or not
my audience would commit to
buying my product and this may
help me understand how high in
demand the product may be as
originally I am not so sure of how
often people buy a new fragrance.
The results show that most people ‘rarely’ buy a new perfume product and
therefore it is important for me to make a product that will stand out against
the large range of brands.

15. Question 3 : Do you believe that TV
adverts have an influence on your
purchases?
The answers to this question show that
most people believe that TV adverts do
not have a large impact on their
purchase decisions. Therefore I need to
be careful. This is because I need to sell
my product through its advertisement
as much as possible so that it can stand out against the others that may not
stand out as much. Therefore I have decide I am going to focus on the
cinematography element so that it has a short film vibe without the storyline.
Like most other perfume ads, its going to be an artistic visualisation of how the
perfume will make the audience feel.

16. Question 4: Would you ever buy a product
based solely off its advertisement?
This question is very similar to the last
however I was hoping that I would have
more input as to what may draw people to
purchasing a product more.
The input I did get however was quite
useful. Its made me realise I may need to
include reviews of my product into my
advertisement sometimes so the audience
will have a better understanding of how
the product has been perceived by the general public and/or professionals in
the perfume field. This way if I was a real perfume brand I am aware that I
should distribute samples in shops or PR packages for people to try before
purchasing the real thing.

17. Question 5: Which TV advert has influenced
you into buying a product in the past why?
A lot of the answers to this question were
‘none’ however a few answers were useful. I
agree a lot with the answer ‘Daisy – Marc
Jacobs’, this is because I was heavily
influenced by this advert campaign. It has a
very simple aesthetic and incorporates the
floral vibe throughout. With this input it has
made me realise that this way of marketing
has worked well and now I am more
confident in the plan I have for my own
product.
In addition to this, the input about how car
ads show a lot about what is being
advertised. This has also helped me to
understand how the audience want a clear
advertisement of what is being sold so I will
be sure to apply that knowledge when
creating my poster and tv advert.

18. Question 6: Which scent/s do you look for in a
fragrance?
The most common answer to this question
was floral, this is a relief as this is prominent
scent of my product and now I know that
floral sells very well. As I want my product to
be as successful as product this is why I chose
this route of the floral, summery scent. The
additional input of other popular scents such
as fruity, vanilla and sweet are also helpful as I
may be able to find a way to incorporate those
scents in my product too. This means that in
my adverts I need to find a way to show off
those scents somehow, potentially by the
colour palette of the video.

19. Question 7: What is the most you would spend
on a perfume/ fragrance?
The most common answer to this question was
£70 or less. This is perfect as this is the price
range I have decided to set my product in. My
product is a high end perfume fragrance and is
comparable to the product ‘Miss Dior’ by Dior
which is priced at £59 for 30ml and £118 for
100ml.
My target audience for my product is classy and glamorous young women or
those who aspire to be. Therefore my perfume is slightly pricey as it is an
investment into the glamorous lifestyle and it isn’t too unreasonable of a price as
my questionnaire results show that people willing to spend that amount if it
means that they will be happy with their purchase.

20. Bibliography

21. Bibliography
1. Source 1 – Natalie Portman for Miss Dior Advert (2021)
https://youtu.be/62mUh2MEQr8
2. Source 2 – Harper’s Bazaar Magazine Article on the 2021 Miss Dior campaign (2021)
Natalie Portman Miss Dior and falling back in love with beauty (harpersbazaar.com)
3. Source 3 – Dakota Johnson for Gucci Bloom Campaign Film (2018)
https://youtu.be/wafe6kDBb6c
4. Source 4 - Harper’s Bazaar Magazine Article on the 2018 Gucci Bloom Campaign Film (2018)
https://www.harpersbazaar.com/fashion/designers/a10317796/gucci-bloom-fragrance-alessandro-michele/
5. Source 5 – Viva La Juicy Advert (2021)
https://youtu.be/qmFnlIbOZUY
6. Source 6 – Zoe Kravitz for Black Opium by Yves Saint Laurent (2019)
https://youtu.be/1a_CSvNVUak
7. Source 7 – Sweet Like Candy by Ariana Grande Advert (2016)
https://youtu.be/eNSxmqCza6Y
8. Source 8 – Billboard Magazine Article on the making of the Sweet Like Candy fragrance by Ariana Grande
Ariana Grande: The Making of Her Sweet Like Candy Perfume | Billboard – Billboard
9. Source 9 – Charlize Theron for J’adore by Dior Advert (2014)
https://youtu.be/yZ1XM9LwS64
10. Source 10 – Cate Blanchett for Si by Giorgio Armani (2019)
https://youtu.be/yJWx1hz5xac