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.

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.

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:

• Consumers

Absolutely the number one priority for the learning and teaching process should be aimed at consumers, since they are the least knowledgeable of any other link in the supply chain to just about everything related to Natural Perfumery.

• Employees

As businesses grow, so does the need for additional employees who need to be continuously trained in the business’ vision, mission, and value proposition and how they can positively contribute to the success of the business.

• Growers and Processors

As with consumers, growers and processors are generally in the dark when it comes to knowledge of who they are really growing flowers and plants for. Most growers believe they are growing for their customers, which is true, but they are really growing for consumers who have specific expectations from the products they purchase, such as quality and sustainability.

• Other Natural Perfumers

Nothing builds professionalism and success more than having the ability to teach what you have learned about Natural Perfumery to other perfumers needing this valuable information. This is how Natural Perfumers can build a healthy and profitable business, and a strong Natural Perfumery community.

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! 

“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:
​

• Let consumers see your beautiful perfumes as they really are. This means using clear glass bottles, rather than colored or non-transparent ones.

 

• Put your passion to work on developing perfume bottles that will be treasured by consumers.

 

• When considering the sizes of Natural Perfumes to sell, keep in mind the passion and effort you went through to create your treasures using precious (and increasingly expensive) natural raw materials. Think of your perfumes as nature’s jewels and focus more on smaller-sized bottles, such as 10ml, 30ml, and perhaps as much as 50ml but no more. Consumers greatly value unique, small treasures they can proudly display, and you will be deftly differentiating your perfumes at the same time.

 

• Price your precious perfumes from the value and meaning they represent to consumers. Most Natural Perfumes I have encountered are underpriced, sometimes greatly so. Most times the problem is because Natural Perfumers have a Precious Undervalued Perfume (PUP) and the only way they can sell a PUP to consumers (who aren’t aware of the total value of the perfume) is by pricing on the low side. This is why perfumers need to add significant value to their Perfume Value Package and then communicate and sell that added value to consumers at premium prices befitting a prized jewel.


• Help consumers enjoy and be satisfied with the consumption of your perfume. For instance, how should they display and store your perfume? Like wine and fresh flowers, perfumes prefer cooler places with no direct sunlight. Consumers will appreciate the value of helping them enjoy the use of your perfumes. It is at this critical point-of-consumption where consumers decide whether to return for more.

​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

• Set specific goals for attendance including your purpose(s) for being there.
• Develop a budget for the event as well as a corresponding forecast for sales and profit increases that will occur because of the awards event. Keep in mind that you should be working toward lifetime customers, not just one-time sales. Getting customers is important. Keeping customers is vital!
• Have printed brand materials available. These could include articles that feature you and your brand, or shots from your website.
• Develop and print answers to frequently asked questions (FAQ)
• Some of these materials can be included in Media Kits you can make available during the event. 
• Contact key people to set up meetings during the event.
• Don’t forget to take plenty of your business cards and an ink pen or two. More than you think you will need. 

Event Participation

• Give out and get business cards from everyone you meet. Make notes about what you discussed on the back of their business card after meeting them.
• Remember, you are at this event to showcase you, your company, and your brand, and that means receptions and dinners should be all business!
• Get photos or videos of yourself with groups of people. Make sure you get business cards from all the people in each photo. If they don’t have cards, put their name, title, and contact information on the back of your card. If someone takes a photo of you in a group, get their card and ask them to furnish you with the photo.
• At the end of each day, review your notes, list who you contacted, and what you discussed, and ideas you have while they are still fresh in your mind.

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.

• First, review all business cards and notes from discussions and then determine what follow-up should be scheduled.
• Check your original list of contacts for the event. Schedule follow-up contacts for those you missed connecting with.
• Write up follow-up stories in blogs and on website pages. Use photos or video you obtained from the event. Make sure you use names, titles, and organizations correctly.
• Connect with any media you spoke with at the event. Will they be able to include you, your company, and your brand in a story about the event? Will you be able to get photos they took of you in a group with names, titles, and companies?
• Measure sales resulting from event. Remember that sales strategies should be directed at getting lifetime customers, rather than one-time sales. One customer can represent thousands of dollars over a lifetime.
• Finally, objectively critique your performance at the event. How would you improve your participation next time? 

Practice makes perfect.

“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?

• Customers
• Employees
• Suppliers
• Your local community
• Legal
• Accountant
• Bank
• Insurance companies
• The media 

If you want a dynamic company culture that attracts and retains top talent; if you wish to achieve great relationships with and respect from those you deal with, power up your Company Brand and enjoy the positive results it produces.

Terry Johnson is teaching Business and Marketing, an essential course for developing a successful perfumery or essential oil business.  ​

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:  

1. To better balance people’s lives, first ensure your professional expertise is in balance by expanding your knowledge. For instance, if you are a natural perfumer, learning to be a natural aromatherapist (or the other way around) doubles your capacity to provide High Touch solutions to consumer problems through reconnecting them with nature.
2. Follow the New Luxury Code. This code focusing on respecting ourselves and everything surrounding us should be part of all efforts to balance the continuing expansion of High Tech with respect for the High Touch of the natural world.
3. Balance your internal needs (mission, vision, value proposition) with external focus on consumers who are looking for meaning and value in the products they purchase.
4. Understand and apply balanced marketing, sales, and customer service strategies that properly communicate the value of your products for the restoration of balance in people’s lives. 
5.  Begin engaging your local community with market messaging. What percentage of households in your community need High Touch balance? Quick answer: 100%!

In our times of rapidly increasing High Tech, it will most certainly be natural essences that restores the High Touch balance to the world.

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:

1. Focus on value to overcome consumer resistance to the premium prices you need to charge. If you build value that consumers consider benefits, they will respond despite higher prices.
2. Identify and sell higher income consumers in your local community that will be better able to budget for higher priced products they need.
3. Identify what you think high value consumers should consider valuable about your products. Examples of this could be sourcing from growers and producers who grow and produce with care by not using GMO seeds or synthetic pesticides, and utilizing sustainable packaging.
4. Avoid lowering prices. Consider charging for shipping but occasionally offering free shipping for a period of time as a way of discounting without having to lower your price.
5. Recognize that the most important sale is not the initial sale, but the second, third or twentieth sale. Effective selling creates lifetime customers.  And remember, it is always much less expensive to sell to an existing customer than to find a new one.
6. Move your selling strategies from discretionary sales (things that consumers may want, but don’t need) to necessary sales. Everyone needs the health benefits of natural essences.
7. Sell solutions to consumers problems. Natural essences reduce stress, improve immune systems, and promote well-being for everyone!  

Good Selling!

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.

Anyone following news about the economy and business will hear about job cutbacks occurring due to economic weakness and sales declines.
The most popular comment from CEOs on company layoffs is:
“We will have to do more with less.”  
The good news from this is that every business needs to do more with less all the time!  It’s called about being more productive, and this is much easier to achieve for smaller businesses like natural perfumers than for larger businesses.
So, how can a business do more with less and achieve high productivity?
Here are some suggestions:

1. Purpose and Meaning
The first step in doing more with less is ensuring that your business has a clearly defined purpose and that your products have real meaning and value to consumers. Purpose is the internal direction you want your business to pursue; product meaning is the external force that helps you connect and engage your products with people’s daily lives. Having a specific purpose and meaning for your business gives you direction, allows you to focus on the most important matters, and give you the ability to develop daily, weekly, and monthly priorities that will maximize the efficiency of your decision-making.

2. Re-Setting Priorities
Setting or re-setting priorities means identifying and ranking the importance of business tasks over time. This activity should be totally subjective and should be modified as the daily dynamics of business unfold. It is also important to understand that most High-Value Consumers, rather than cutting back on purchasing, are actually re-setting their purchasing priorities, so High-Value business priorities should reflect this trend. Start by setting priorities for actions that will need to be done in the next 6 months. Then one for the next 30 days. Then, this week. And finally, make one list for today and one for tomorrow.

3. Time Management
Once you’ve determined your purpose and meaning as well as set your priorities, managing your time allows you to schedule your prioritized activities to ensure that your time will be spent efficiently while fulfilling your purpose. There are many time management systems available, so look for one you feel comfortable with and begin doing more with less!
​
Learn more about this important topic and how to prepare for the many exciting opportunities ahead for those marketing High-Value natural essences by enrolling in the Teacher’s Academy MasterClass Business and Marketing in the Post-Pandemic Natural Essence Community. 

The term Consumer-Centric Marketing refers to making consumer satisfaction a focus of your activities regardless of where you are in the supply chain. One might say “But doesn’t every retailer already do that?” Surprisingly, most retailers have either not developed effective Consumer-Centric policies or have not significantly modified them since the beginning of the pandemic.
For High-Value Natural Essence retailers Consumer-Centric Marketing depends on retailers educating themselves with what consumers now want and also what they should want.

What High-Value Consumers Want
High-Value consumers are those who demand more value from the products they purchase, are willing to pay more if those demands are met, and if satisfied, will re-purchase again and again.
The post-pandemic world has changed everything, including High-Value consumers’ purchasing behaviors. What were priorities for them before, aren’t necessarily what they prioritize now. 
One way to get a better appreciation of what current consumers want is to study how and why similar industries, such as sustainable brewed coffee (Starbucks) and premium wines (or other High-Value products similar to these examples), have succeeded. Find out how these companies engaged consumers using Consumer-Centric Marketing strategies.

What High-Value Consumers Should Want
A key point in convincing consumers to purchase from High-Value Natural Essence retailers is to first assume that most consumers don’t know your product well or at all. This should not be difficult, since if you are a Natural Perfumer, you are competing with synthetic perfumes that have 99% of the perfume market share. This lack of market share underscores the importance of Natural Essence retailers needing to differentiate themselves from competition in as many ways as possible. And keep in mind, we have products that are better for consumers’ health and happiness. This has great value to consumers, with wellness now at the top of every consumer’s purchasing priority list.
Knowing what High-Value consumers should want (that they may not be receiving now) can put Natural Essence retailers in a much stronger competitive position to successfully engage their market.
Here is a list of what potential High-Value Natural Essence consumers should want:

• Superior Product Performance
• Truly Natural Products
• Sustainable Products and Packaging
• Highest Standards
• Absence of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO)
• Absence of Synthetics
• Products that Provide Them with Greater Value than the Price They Paid

 
Are Consumer-Centric Marketing strategies included in your Vision Statement, Mission Statement, and Value Proposition ?
Consumer-Centric marketing practices should permeate throughout your business, so it is absolutely necessary to incorporate Consumer Centricity into your Vision Statement, Mission Statement, and Value Proposition. 
Nothing is more important to a successful Natural Essence retailer’s future than these three related documents. They express exactly what you intend to do and can focus everyone on the importance and value of why you are doing it.
Yet most retailers have either never developed them, have not properly developed them, or have not updated and modified them since the beginning the pandemic.
Including Consumer-Centric Marketing strategies in your Vision Statement, Mission Statement, and Value Proposition will empower you, your business, and everyone working with you to clearly differentiate your business, and your products, while maximizing the market impact of your brand.