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Friday, 27 December 2013

Low-cost perfumes, anyone?

Posted on December 27, 2013 by niten


Raiders of the lost scent


So many, many discussions about it, just take a trip on Google to find a lot of infos. We are speaking about the famous-infamous "supermarket perfumes beating designer scents".
In summary, a well-known supermarket brand decided to produce their own scents, with only one rule: producing a perfume with a final price "less than five Euros" (4 UK pounds, or 7 US dollars), all inclusive, and on-par (same quality) with well-known designer scents.
The maximum of the trick was a sort of "blind tests" using original designer scents, asking a group of volunteers "what's the best perfume?". Well, the results was that at least 50 % of people said that best perfumes were the supermarket ones (the designer scents used for blind tests were Coco Mademoiselle by Chanel, and Hugo Boss Bottled , both with a considerably higher price than "supermarket" ones). 

Well, let's make the same thing. 
In this test it was decided to repeat the same experiment: on the first side there are the two supermarket perfumes, namely Suddenly Madame Glamour and X -Bolt (total cost: less than ten Euros), on the other side there are samples of Chanel and Hugo Boss.

The results? "Supermarket perfumes" are not clones, because there are at least some difference. But, in one of ther two cases, it's a very slight difference.... 

With regard to female fragrances, Suddenly Madame Glamour is different from Coco Mademoiselle, it's not a clone, but (this is important) smells like a high-class perfume, fine, persistent, elegant. It could be a Chanel flanker, and no one would reasonably argue about it. .
Regarding the men fragrances , the comparison is almost embarrassing: X - Bolt is 90% identical to Hugo Boss Bottled , and it is difficult to find differences at first smell. Only after an hour you can detect some difference, whereas the longevity of X- Bolt is slightly lower than the Hugo Boss Bottled one.

What's the conclusion ? Let's put aside the discussion whether it is possible to produce perfect imitations at lower cost. The question, in my opinion, is another. It's about the price.
It's really embarrassing to have to admit that there are very good perfumes available at bargain prices, because this means that prices of traditional, designer scents are very (too ?) high, and the quality/price ratio is definitely unfavorable. 
It's obvious that  perfumes on sale at such a low price are entirely chemicals products, but it is obvious, at the same time, that a good perfume, "built" by experts hands, can be produced/sold/bought at affordable prices. There is no reason to pay big amounts of money for a perfume, unless you "buy" the brand, the marketing, the "glamour".
In any case, if a provocation had to be, the supermarket chain hit the target: today, it is possible to produce good products at low prices. 



raiders




Raiders of the lost scent




Raiders of the lost scent
on left: X-Bolt ("Hugo Boss Bottled" alleged clone)
on right: Suddenly Miss Glamorous ("Mademoiselle Coco Chanel" alleged clone)

Raiders of the lost scent







Se ne è già parlato estesamente, e basta fare un giro su Google per trovare info a non finire. Riassumendo, una celebre catena di supermercati ha deciso di produrre profumi in proprio, con la regola precisa del prezzo finale inferiore ai cinque euro, tutto compreso. Il colmo della provocazione è stato quello di fare test in cieco (blind tests) utilizzando profumi blasonati, e chiedendo a un gruppo di volontari quale fosse il profumo migliore. Ebbene, è venuto fuori che almeno il 50% degli intervistati ha affermato che i profumi migliori sono quelli del supermercato. I profumi "blasonati" in questione erano Coco Mademoiselle di Chanel, e Hugo Boss Bottled, ambedue di prezzo notevolmente superiore a quelli "da supermercato".
In questa prova pertanto si è voluto ripetere lo stesso esperimento: da una parte i profumi del supermercato Suddenly Madame Glamour e X-Bolt (spesa complessiva:inferiore ai dieci euro), dall'altra parte i sample di Chanel e Hugo Boss.
I risultati? Per quanto riguarda i profumi femminili, Suddenly Madame Glamour è diverso da Coco Mademoiselle, ma, e qui c'è d riflettere, sembra un profumo di alta classe, raffinato, persistente, elegante. Potrebbe benissimo essere un flanker della controparte blasonata, nessuno avrebbe ragionevolmente da ridire.
Per quanto riguarda i profumi maschili, il confronto è quasi impietoso: X-Bolt è al 90% identico a Hugo Boss Bottled, ed è onestamente difficile trovare differenze se non dopo un'ora, laddove la persistenza di X-Bolt è leggermente inferiore a quella di Hugo Boss.
La conclusione? Lasciamo da parte il discorso se sia possibile produrre imitazioni perfette a una frazione del costo. Il discorso a mio avviso è un altro. E' davvero imbarazzante dover ammettere che ci sono in giro profumi validi a prezzi stracciati, perchè di riflesso questo significa che i prezzi dei profumi tradizionali sono molto (troppo?) elevati, e il rapporto tra qualità e prezzo è decisamente sfavorevole. E' scontato che i profumi in vendita a un prezzo così basso siano prodotti di laboratorio interamente chimici, ma è altrettanto evidente che quando un prodotto viene "costruito" da mani capaci, è possibile ottenere buoni risultati a prezzi abbordabili.
In ogni caso, se provocazione doveva essere, la catena di supermercati ha colpito il bersaglio: oggi, è possibile produrre prodotti validi a prezzi popolari. Al contrario, è lecito domandarsi se le grandi case non stiano spostando l'ago del prezzo sempre più verso il marketing, il nome, il glamour, piuttosto che sull'elemento principale.il profumo stesso.

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