Do Celebrity Perfumes Have a Future?
Tiger Woods’ infidelity scandal cost him a lot of endorsement deals.
Image credit: People Magazine
Fashion trends change from time to time, and perfumes are not exempt. However, one thing has remained consistent, which is that reputation and brand image matters a lot when it comes to fashion brands. What changes, though, are the factors that influence the reputation of a brand. For example, environmental sustainability, eco-friendliness and health & fitness concerns have gained a lot in terms of their importance for the overall brand image of many products in recent years. When it comes to celebrity fragrances, one of the biggest risks is the celebrity’s brand image, which directly affects the brand equity of the fragrances they endorse. Advertisers see this and react to celebrity brand damage by withdrawing the celebrity endorsement deals they would have made. American golfer Tiger Woods, for example, lost endorsement deals he had entered into with Gillette, Gatorade, AT & T and Accenture following an infidelity scandal that damaged his reputation.
In this regard, fragrances and cosmetics endorsed or branded by celebrities risk a significant loss of brand equity every single day the celebrity is alive, because it may take only one event to damage a celebrity’s reputation, and an indefinite amount of time to recover it, if ever.
In this regard, it may be too early to tell if the brand equity of a celebrity perfume is sustainable in the long run, since a lot of the founding celebrity perfumers are still alive. Therefore, it is probable that a lot of perfumers today may see celebrity endorsements and celebrity perfumes as an opportunistic ride on the popularity of a celebrity in order to make quick financial gains, and perhaps banking on the continued success of the celebrity’s personal brand.
Another key factor to consider with regard to celebrity perfumes and celebrity endorsed brands in general, is that celebrities may not be able to convince customers that they actually like the fragrances they endorse. Rational consumers would know that this is for publicity only, and not that the celebrity really likes the product. However, where a celebrity actually becomes highly involved in making the perfume, the result of the process is a more convincing proposition for a consumer, due to the stronger connection between the celebrity and the fragrance, as was the case of Elizabeth Taylor and her line of fragrances. Elizabeth Taylor started her career as an actor, but ended up a perfumer and entrepreneur.
