Chanel No.5 has been sold by the company since 1921. In its 93 years of existence, Chanel has become a high recognizable brand and No.5, one of the top perfumes in the world.
Known as one of the most perfume in the world, Chanel No.5 is the most iconic product of the brand that has always focused on innovation. Indeed, it was the first fragrance with a refined packaging and the first fragrance using a woman muse as promotion. Two years ago, it was also the first feminine fragrance promoting a male muse (Brad Pitt) in its ads, which will be developed in a further part.
But when speaking about the perfume Chanel No.5, it is the advertising launched around the perfume that comes first in my mind. In order to promote the values of the perfume and evocate ideas related to glamour, beauty and luxury, the company used different advertising campaigns. From its creation until 1965, advertisements were simple in black and white where only the bottle was highlighted. The best advertising made for Chanel No.5 remains during the period of 1954, when during an interview with Marilyn Monroe, the actress confessed “wearing” only a few drops of Chanel No.5 for sleeping. Without being involved in this speech, the brand benefited from a huge help to develop its image and attract customers.
If Chanel used both advertising displays and TV spots to seduce the consumer, the emotional codes and the communication goals on the famous perfume have changed through time.
First, advertising budget was limited and few adverts appeared in this time. In the first ads, Chanel No.5 was displayed in black and white with the portrait of the creator Gabriel “Coco” Chanel. As we can see the picture remains quite basic, with the evocation of an elegant rich woman being the perfume’s creator and the name of the brand and the bottle down of the page.
Few changes will be done with the bottle regarding the stopper and the bottle glass width, but what we can notice is that the bottle was really often showed alone in commercials until the end of 50’s, focusing the values on the product rather than the human being. The high quality design of the ads is still impressive and reflects the notion of luxury, but it appears less glamour and doesn’t evocate really much the image of dream and seduction that the brand knows today.
A major change in advertising will appear when in 1965, Jacques Helleu entered at the head of Communication department for Chanel. Indeed, Mr Helleu understood the need to go further in the dream dimension and wanted to reveal the seduction power offered by the product Chanel No.5. Seduced by the idea of presenting the product with a famous person as Suzy Parker appeared in a commercial in 1957, the director will push the concept in a far way and will be recognized as the father of the muses for Chanel, offering a “face” to the perfumes.
Thereafter, the French house will appeal to world famous actresses: Suzy Parker, Ali MacGraw, Jean Shrimpton, Catherine Deneuve, Carole Bouquet, Estella Warren, Nicole Kidman, Audrey Tautou… With its first TV spot in 1973 with Catherine Deneuve, Chanel used the service of Helmut Newton, a famous photographer to shoot the commercial. This first spot made in a black background with the French actress confessing to the audience using Chanel No.5.
The TV commercial is chic but simple and aims to develop a close relation between the audience and the beautiful actress who is “confessing” using this product to seduce men. The emotions communicated are much stronger and create a unique feeling between the customer and the product.
But more than recruiting elegant stars to promote the perfume, the collaboration with famous photographer and movie director, strengthen the high quality image of the brand and offers exceptional ideas and creation for advertising. Carole Bouquet, muse during 10 years for Chanel No.5, will play in a commercial managed by Ridley Scott for example, based on the complexity of love feelings and the emotions it involved where the actress is presented as a “femme fatale”.
Another universe will be explored in the end of 90’s, when Luc Besson made this commercial for Chanel iconic perfume:
This spot is illustrating the tale of the “Little Red Riding Hood”. This commercial starring Estella Warren, an ex-professional swimmer, has known a huge success among the audience. But why such enthusiasm? First, this commercial is in disruption with the previous campaigns. The objective of this campaign was to target younger consumer by re-defining the values of the perfume. As you probably noticed, this commercial is far different from the elitist and independent image created around the previous elegant muses. The actress is young and dressed as the little red riding hood, then she’s entering in a secret place, take a bottle of perfume and calm down a wolf with a simple “Chut!”. By using strong visual effects, we can see that the message and emotions communicated here are fuelled with color and sex appeal looking “unreal”. Even if the ad keeps notions of glamour and luxury, we can also see a touch of rebellion and “dare attitude”.
Then, 2004 marks the beginning of commercials in a very Hollywood style and it was the turn of Nicole Kidman to slip into the character of the woman for Chanel N ° 5. She’s playing the role of a famous person trying to escape from the fame and attention, and making an unexpected meeting with a man who appears as a relief for her. In this ad, Nicole Kidman appears as an elegant woman, famous and successful. The notion of dream is really present as well as the symbol of love.
Finally, after Audrey Tautou TV spot where she played a romantic and olfactory intrigue on board of the Orient Express, Brad Pitt has been selected as the next muse for the perfume. This choice can seem to be original and unusual for a luxury woman perfume brand, but could be a good innovative strategy as Chanel always did since the launch of its famous perfume. Indeed, using a man as Brad Pitt allows the brand to play on a double side: the woman watching the ad see a man with a high seduction potential and wants to be the woman who can seduce him. Chanel No.5 can help the woman to reach this goal.
To sum-up, the advertisement around Chanel No.5 has evolved through the time to emphasize its iconic and unique image, and become the most famous perfume in the world. Based on the product features in a first time, and step by step evolving to link the product values with muses’ image, the brand has always succeeded to innovate in order to seduce its audience and develop its luxury image. The use of muses and the impact of Marylin Monroe intervention have allowed the brand to develop glamour, elegant and elitist values while promoting a unique “know-how”. The participation of big names from photography and cinema sector to develop the advertisements have improved the visual effects side and high quality design of commercials relying on the notion of dreams and esthetic.
However, sales of Chanel No.5 decreased by 4.4% in 2013 on French market ranked as the 4th perfume most sold in the country. This assessment can be observed also in mature market as Japan or US and reveal the difficulties for the company to maintain the product on its top in a high competitive market. Maybe the new muse selected by Chanel, Gisele Bündchen, for its best seller product will boost the sales.
Finally, and to prove how big the perfume Chanel No.5 impacted our life, I will ask you to click on the link below to realize how important is the success of this perfume.
http://globometer.com/beaute-chanel.php
I will leave you on this thought: “A women who doesn’t wear perfume has no future”, Coco Chanel.
http://www.ozap.com/actu/gisele-bundchen-nouvelle-egerie-de-chanel-n-5/456645
http://inside.chanel.com/fr/no5
Written by Sylvain Bougnoux
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