 By Terry Johnson Business & Marketing Expert and Teacher Green buds are finally appearing here in the Mojave Desert, a sure signal that spring is on its way! Temperatures are slowly rising, which means much more time outdoors but also reminding us that it is time for some serious Business Spring Cleaning.
Here is my spring-cleaning list of things to do: 1. Dust Off Your Business Plan When was the last time you reviewed your business plan? If your business plan has been collecting dust, spring cleaning is a great time to give it the attention it deserves. Instead of a one-time exercise, think of your business plan as a tool that can help you reevaluate how you’re doing and where you are in your business. As small businesses constantly develop and change, unexpected things happen, and your business plan needs to adapt to these changes. 2. Brush Up on Your Vision, Mission and Value Proposition These important business tools are mechanisms that keep businesses continually focused in the right direction. Does everyone working with you within the natural essence supply chain thoroughly understand them including employees, your accountant, lawyer, banker, suppliers, and customers? 3. Do a Full Sweep of Your Customer List As a small business, your customer list is likely one of your most valuable assets. Are you nurturing and caring for those customers as best you can, or are the responsibilities of running your small business keeping you too distracted? Spring is a great time to check in with customers, past and present. For those you haven’t served in some time, see if they need your services again. While cleaning up your customer list, you can also make a list of potential customers and try to secure new business. Remember, in these post-covid times everyone needs natural essences now more than ever. 3. Scour Your Books Spring is when many small business owners are already getting their financial paperwork and tax documents in order, but it’s also an opportunity to take a step back and do a financial inventory. See where your business stands, review your revenue and expenses and identify areas where you can save. That could even include evaluating your current accounting processes to see if there are ways to make them more efficient. 4. Clean Up Vendor Relationships As part of your spring cleaning, take some time to reconnect with your various vendors to express how important they are to you and how you can work together to improve and develop even more valuable relationships going forward. 5. Spruce Up Your Marketing Strategies Marketing is vital to any small business, and spring is the perfect time to examine and spruce up your marketing strategies. Like your business, marketing tactics are constantly changing, so you must consistently improve your marketing plan. You might research new marketing trends, take a deep dive into social media, or set up new marketing technologies . What marketing efforts are producing the best results? Consider eliminating and replacing any marketing strategies that have not resulted in expected revenues. Spring is a wonderful opportunity to refocus, reevaluate, and strengthen your business going forward for the rest of the year. If you need assistance for your perfume business, follow Terry Johnson's course: Learn Business and Marketing in the essential oil environment.
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 By Terry Johnson, Business and Marketing Teacher Another year has passed, and another has begun. Last year is now history and time to reflect on what we have learned from the previous year that can be passed on by proper planning to those (including ourselves) who will benefit from that additional knowledge and experience gained in traveling on our own personal Perfume Roads.
Here are a few tips on planning this year’s Perfume Road journey: Step 1: Thoroughly review last year’s goals, achievements, and setbacks and develop an overall evaluation of how the market may have changed during the year that might impact the coming year. What modifications to this year’s planning should you make due to achievements or setbacks you might have experienced last year? Set aside enough time to give your undivided attention to the project. The best way to ensure you’re dedicating the right amount of time is to schedule a time slot for every day over the course of the week. Step 2: Review your Purpose/Vision, Mission Statement and Value Propositions which are your blueprints to stay on course traveling your Perfume Road. Did you stay on course to fulfil your Mission and Purpose for the year? Is it time to get back on track? Step 3: Incorporate your past years’ history and experience as well as the history of perfumes into your marketing strategies going forward. Friends and relatives from outside the natural essence community ask me why it is so important to educate consumers about the history and culture of natural perfumes and essences. Besides the fact that perfume history is important human history, understanding our perfume past helps us properly shape the future through effective planning, successful marketing, and giving more meaning to consumers about how important natural perfumes and essences are in their personal lives. Creezy Courtoy’s beautiful book The Perfume Roads and her excellent IPF Teacher’s Academy course World Perfume History Course teach us about the importance and value of the culture and heritage of natural perfumery. What those ancient Perfume Roads created historically has a direct and important link to what we did last year and what we will be doing this year and beyond. This is because we are still on those Perfume Roads that will lead us to a better world for futures generations, and your business success will benefit from the efforts you make today in planning your Perfume Road journey going forward. To find out more about world perfume history, visit this link.  By Terry Johnson, Natural Perfumery Business and Marketing Expert When most natural perfumers start perfume businesses, there is generally only one person involved doing every business activity. This means all responsibility and authority rests with one person. If a one-person business is the plan, then all is fine. If, however, a natural perfumer wants to take full advantage of the growing consumer interest in natural perfume or natural aromatherapy and significantly grow their business, they will have to make the decision to develop a team to professionally carry out all of the growing business functions.
Here are some fundamentals every growing company needs to consider on team delegation: 1. Make careful choices for every person added to the team, including looking for indications of experience in team play. For example, ask if they have ever played on a sports team and enjoyed it. 2. Ensure each member of the team thoroughly understands the company’s Mission, Purpose/Vision, Value Proposition, and policies, and how important their job is in fulfilling these fundamentals. Develop a company manual containing these fundamentals and policies and give the entire team regular access to them, reviewing the manual with everyone periodically. 3. Assign each team member’s responsibilities with some appropriate authority. It is quite easy to delegate responsibility without authority - just tell one of your team to do something. It is not as easy, however, to properly delegate responsibility that includes authority. Delegating responsibility without authority can result in failure, team disengagement, and even resentment, and is also known as "dysfunctional delegation." Proper management practices necessitate clearly stating the lines and limits of each team member’s authority and responsibility. 4. Review each team member’s job performance and knowledge of fundamentals periodically and continually re-focusing on your team regarding your purpose, mission, and value proposition. This keeps the entire team on the same page. 5. Manage the team with balance between ignoring or hovering, and monitor team performance without undermining employees. Remember, team members may do things a bit differently than you would do yourself, but that is part of the give-and-take nature of team delegation of responsibility. Want to learn more about operating a business and marketing natural perfumes and essential oils? Sign up for Business and Marketing in the Natural Essence Community.  By Terry Johnson, Business and Marketing Expert In the vibrant world of perfumery, new brands and budding perfumers often find themselves looking toward established giants like Chanel for inspiration. However, it's crucial to remember that these iconic brands have spent decades cultivating a rich cultural legacy that goes beyond just the fragrance itself. Consumers are drawn to these brands not only for their scents but for the stories, emotions, and the status they represent. In contrast, the realm of natural perfumery offers a unique opportunity for emerging brands to carve out their niche and promote powerful brand differentiation through authenticity, effective storytelling, engaging senses, deep connectivity to sustainable ingredients, and strong community relationships. The Importance of Authenticity In today's market, consumers are increasingly discerning, prioritizing transparency in the products they purchase. Natural perfumes, which often contain sustainably sourced ingredients, resonate with health-conscious consumers seeking authenticity. Brands can leverage this by being open about their sourcing practices, ingredient origins, and production methods. This transparency not only builds trust but also creates stronger emotional connections with consumers who value sustainability and ethical practices. Crafting Compelling Stories Storytelling is a powerful tool in marketing, particularly for natural perfumery. Each fragrance has stories to tell, be it the inspiration behind the scent, the journey of its creation, or the cultural and significance of the sustainably created ingredients used. By weaving these narratives into their branding, new perfumers can create a rich tapestry that engages consumers on deeper, emotional levels. This approach not only differentiates their products from mass-market offerings but also fosters a sense of community and shared values among consumers. Engaging the Senses Natural perfumes are unique in their composition and often offer sensory experiences that differ vastly from synthetic fragrances. Power Marketing strategies should emphasize the sensory journey of product: how they smell, how they feel on the skin, and even the emotions or states of wellbeing they evoke. Engaging consumers through sensory experiences can be achieved through various mediums, including samples, immersive store displays, and tailored online experiences that allow potential customers to explore the fragrances in meaningful ways.  Building Community Connections
Community engagement plays a pivotal role in the Power Marketing of natural perfumes. By fostering connections with local artisans, suppliers, and even consumers, brands can create strong support networks that enhance their authenticity. Hosting workshops, pop-up events, and collaborations with like-minded brands can help engage and build loyal customer bases that feel personally invested in the brand's success. This sense of community not only promotes word-of-mouth marketing but also reinforces the brand's commitment to ethical and sustainable practices. Finally, as the natural perfume market continues to expand, Power Marketing will be crucial in distinguishing new natural brands from their more established synthetic counterparts. By embracing these power principles, new perfumers can effectively resonate with a growing consumer base that prioritizes sustainability, health, and emotional connections in their purchasing decisions. With a thoughtful approach to marketing, the world of natural perfumery holds immense potential for innovation, creativity, and meaningful consumer relationships for a lifetime. Focusing on these core Power Marketing elements will provide new brands in the natural perfumery space with the tools to set themselves apart and thrive in an increasingly competitive market. If you want to know more about marketing your perfume our your essential oil business, enrol for Terry Johnson's Business and Marketing course.  By Terry Johnson, IPF Vice Chair and Business & Marketing Expert Don’t wait for opportunities in the distance but recognize them and embrace them right where you are! One of the biggest mistakes businesses make severely limiting their success is stopping the learning process after a certain level of business experience is achieved. It’s as though once they figure out how to make their business work initially, they don’t believe any further training or learning is valuable or necessary.
In contrast, if there is one attribute that all successful businesses have in common, it is having the ability to continuously learn and then teach what they have learned to others needing that information for a lifetime. So, who should we be learning from and teaching to, and who benefits from these learning and teaching processes? Everyone in the Natural Perfumery supply chain including:
Action Steps all Natural Perfumers should consider: 1. Decide what content you should be teaching, to whom you will teach it to, and by what method(s). 2. Determine the best content to learn and where that content will come from. Sources of learning can come from a variety of places within the Natural Perfumery Community, and each Natural Perfumer should learn as much as possible about what makes Natural Perfumery as valuable to consumers as it is. Two courses from the IPF Natural Perfumery Teacher’s Academy immediately come to mind: World Perfume History, and Teaching Methodology. Both courses are taught by IPF Founder and Chair Creezy Courtoy, and you can find the teaching methodology course here: https://www.teachers-academy.org/masterclasses.html and the World Perfume History course here: https://www.teachers-academy.org/courses.html 3. Don’t wait for opportunities in the distance, but recognize them, and embrace them, right where you are!  By Terry Johnson, Perfume Business and Marketing Expert and Teacher “Precious Things are Without Value to Those Who Cannot Prize Them.” The Rooster and the Jewel-Aesop’s Fables After talking to Natural Perfumers or reading their website content over the years, its completely clear to me that Natural Perfumers are universally passionate about their perfumes. And why shouldn’t they be?
Fine Natural Perfumes, like fine wines or fresh flowers, are truly alive and precious - each in its own way! Yet, many potential Natural Perfume consumers act like the rooster from the Aesop’s Fable above: Upon finding a jewel on the ground, the rooster declared that he would rather have a single grain of barley than the jewel. The lesson for Natural Perfumers? Consumers will always purchase what they consider valuable and meaningful to their lives. The challenge for Natural Perfumers today is to use the same passion they applied in creating their Precious Undervalued Perfume (PUP) into developing a Perfume Value Package that will be appreciated and prized by consumers for a lifetime. So, how do Natural Perfumers turn their “PUP” into a Prize? Here are some suggestions:
 New Luxury Awards 2023 Creezy Courtoy, Vedrana Perhoc and Françoise Rapp By Terry Johnson, IPF Vice Chair, Business and Marketing Expert Teacher During 30 years as a marketing consultant, one of the most common mistakes I have seen businesses make has been failing to properly prepare for, attend, and follow-up from an awards or other event.
Yet natural essence events, such as the New Luxury Awards, Perfumery Congress or International Natural Perfumery Summit represent profitable opportunities to network, gain industry insights, and showcase yourself, your company, and your brand. For Natural Perfumers or Natural Perfumery Brands, proper event marketing management starts with the decision to attend. Ask yourself: Does the event have the potential to improve my brand? Can my attendance lead to greater and more profitable sales? Managing attendance at events properly allows you to reach these and other important goals. Remember, we are in the Natural Essence High-Value Market, where higher prices can be achieved by offering consumers more value. Event attendance demonstrates industry leadership, which has great value to customers looking for companies, people, and brands they can trust and have confidence in. Additionally, being nominated for or winning an award has tremendous consumer value to a perfume brand. Here are several steps you can take to boost your profits from participation at an event: Pre-event Planning for Success
Event Participation
Profitable Post-Event Strategies Post-event follow-up is the most important part of event attendance, but it is also the least understood by most attendees. Many returning to work after an event fail to find the time to adequately follow up as they should for such a high marketing priority.
 By Terry Johnson, IPF Vice-Chair and Business & Marketing Expert “Smaller players must be brave enough to build a distinctive, even unconventional brand identity, rooted in the heritage and the know-how of their own brand. They must be bold enough to innovate with a disruptive identity and value proposition.” Alessandro Balossini Volpe, Professor of Brand Management When discussing the word “brand” it is important to recognize that there are two different kinds of brands each having different purposes and both working together synergistically: Company Brands and Product Brands. For large organizations such as Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton (LVMH), branding gets quite complicated. They have their own LVMH Company Brand, Company Brands of the 75 companies they own, plus the Product Brands from all companies. For this article, we are going to focus on Company Brands for perfumery and essential oils brands. Your Company Brand, whether it is your company name, slogan, logo, or other aspect of visual identity (such as the use of the New Luxury Code Logo), needs to be developed or redeveloped from your Value Proposition, which represents the promises of what value you will continue giving to the rest of the Natural Essence Community. Along with your Mission Statement and Vision Statement, your Company Brand should reflect those promises which will be fulfilled through the proper execution of your Business Plan. When you read articles that feature some aspects of branding, it is important to know which type of branding they are discussing, since it is quite common to discover authors who use Company Brands and Product Brands interchangeably. Since we are discussing Company Brands, here is a diagram of a recent survey on brand authenticity:  How do we know if a survey is talking about Company Brands or Product Brands?
One clue in this diagram is to go down the list until you get to “Uses all natural ingredients”. Only 11% thought that natural ingredients were associated with authenticity. If this had been a survey about Product Brands, especially in natural essences, “Uses all nature ingredients” would have been near the top if not the top choice. But in this survey, it only rates 11% because they are responding to questions in authenticity of Company Brands. Powering up your Company Brand presents an opportunity to revisit your Value Proposition to strengthen the value your Company Brand through improvements in messaging between your company and everyone you have contact with. Who should you communicate with about the value of your Company Brand?
Terry Johnson is teaching Business and Marketing, an essential course for developing a successful perfumery or essential oil business.  By Terry Johnson, IPF Vice Chair and Business and Marketing Expert In 1982 John Naisbitt wrote a huge, best-selling book entitled Megatrends: Ten New Directions Transforming Our Lives.
Of the ten Megatrends, the one most followed by the business world over the past 40 years is High Tech-High Touch. Naisbitt explained that in times of rapidly increasing High Tech, there will be a corresponding and increasing need to provide balance with High Touch. There is little doubt that during the past 40 years since Megatrends was written, technology has literally exploded and has continued increasing at a rapid pace. That High Tech explosion, however, continues to outpace High Touch creating imbalances with consumers. This situation greatly expands the need for more connectivity to the natural world and presents us a wonderful opportunity to restore balance in people’s lives by replacing things that weaken their immune systems and raise stress levels with products that strengthen immune systems and lower levels of stress. Suggestions for restoring the Natural Balance of Things:
In our times of rapidly increasing High Tech, it will most certainly be natural essences that restores the High Touch balance to the world.  By Terry Johnson, IPF Chair USA and Busines and Marketing Expert Competition in today’s markets has never been stronger.
Yet, I continually see examples of natural perfume and natural essence businesses that have not made many adjustments to their sales efforts to overcome the fierce competitive headwinds brought on by a deadly pandemic, numerous supply chain issues, and high inflation. These conditions have seriously changed consumer perspectives and require frequent reviews of sales and marketing strategies to reflect current realities rather than relying on consumer preferences and priorities that no longer exist. You and everyone working with you should put on their selling hats for a while and focus on how to get consumers needing to purchase your products at premium prices, not just wanting to. In the High-Value Natural Perfume consumer market, the first order of business is to identify every potential value feature of your products and incorporate those value features into selling benefits for consumers justifying premium pricing you need to charge. When consumers see something for sale that appears attractive to them, they determine the level of value that the product could provide them, and then they check the price. If the level of value is above the price, they are more likely to buy. If the level of value is below the price, they are less likely to make a purchase. Selling the value and benefits of your products greatly increases the likelihood of closing the sale profitably. Here are 7 solid tips on strengthening and updating your Natural Perfumes and Essences selling strategies:
Terry Johnson is teaching and consulting at The Natural Perfumery Teacher's Academy. If you want to learn more about Business and Marketing in the Natural Essences World, you can follow his course or contact us for consultancies. |
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