Target Audience

My target audience will be for the female 13-21 age group. I chose this because I do not believe that the type of perfume I am advertising would appeal to women of all age ranges. Although all women like perfume, there is a scent for everybody and I do not believe that the older age groups would appreciate the youthfulness of the perfume.

The perfect client for my product would be someone fun, relaxed, able to have fun and knows that life shouldn't be taken too seriously. Although my research delves into the background of the classic Chanel No. 5 perfume, the type of target audience differs immensly. I chose to base my research heavily on the Chanel scent solely because it is a world renowned scent, and everybody at some point in their life would have come into contact with it. The type of people who would fit into my perfect client would be people such as Mylie Cyrus, Hillary Duff, Vanessa Ann Hudgens and Amanda Bynes.
What I will be conveying to my target audience in my production is confidence and freedom. I have also intentionally named the product ‘inhibition’. The message to go with this is ‘release your inhibition’. I have chosen this because I want my intended audience to know that its okay every now and again to completely let yourself go and have fun. Also, I believe the message that’s being conveyed to my audience is that my product is fun, flirty and fabulous. I also strongly believe that a perfume should make you feel good about yourself and this will be conveyed in my advertisement.
There are many ways that I will be conveying this message through my advertisement.

Sex and sexuality are often a very common stimuli in advertising a perfume, and the following advertisement proves this to be correct:




The above Kate Moss commercial uses sex, a very familiar stimuli in marketing campaigns. Even though most males seeing the advertisement, in this case for Obsession, mentally are unlikely to believe that merely using Obsession will make them more desirable to attractive members of the opposite sex, the goal of Calvin Klein’s marketing staff is to convince consumers subconsciously that purchasing Obsession will lead to increased success on the market of love. Undoubtedly, the market is saturated with fragrances that use explicit sexuality as a marketing tool, often conveyed by suggestive advertising, dark bottles and brand names referring openly to sex. In addition to Calvin Klein’s Obsession, Allure and Passion are other product names known to most consumers. It is generally believed that a company has to play on sex to successfully to introduce a new fragrance on the market.
After reviewing this, I strongly agree that an advertisement should involve some form of sexuality as a woman should be made to feel confident and happy within herself. Also, I have noticed that the lighting can alter the way a person percieves the commercial. With this is in mind, I had chosen to produce the commercial in black and white until the product is shown, making it unique and emphasising the product - which an advertisement should do! Here I have reviewed how the lighting of an advertisement can change how the product is portrayed:

This is the establishing shot from the ‘Chanel No 5’ advert starring Nicole Kidman and directed by Baz Luhrmann. The advert is completely black and white and already by the establishing shot you can see the sophistication. I do also believe that the black and white effect adds a touch of class to the advert.

This is the establishing shot from the ‘L by L.A.M.B’ perfume advert starring and endorsed by Gwen Stefani. This advert differs from the Chanel one because it is full of colour and light conveying a different message. This advertisement portrays fun and happiness by use of colour alone.


This is a shot from the ‘Tattoo perfume’ advert, starring and endorsed by Christina Aguilera. This is a very sensual advertisement, based heavily on sexuality. The lighting in this advert is very bright and white, with only her dress and lipstick being in colour. This adds the sexual side of the advertisement, especially by using the colour red as red has always been known to reflect sexuality. The white and bright lights also add a sense of innocence and purity to the advert.
In addition to the black and white technique I will be using, I will also limit the dialogue to a bare minimum. I would like to let the shots speak for themselves and also the music will add to the sophistication of the advert. I think that music accompanying the advertisement should be enough by itself to make the advert as professional as possible. After reviewing many perfume advertisements, my research shows that the dialogue is often kept to a bare minimum or removed completely. I think that this is a very effective method and would like to use this in my own production.
My product has a limited audience as it is very youthful and unconventional. The production itself has a very unique approach to advertising and I think that it would only appeal to a younger audience. The idea of the perfume is that it will suit any younger person and the reasoning for me choosing a younger audience is because there are alot of pefumes and perfume advertisements that are solely aimed for older people, leaving a gap in the industry. Younger people are more easily influenced by what they see on TV and I think that a production aimed at teenagers would be more successful.
Also, I have named my perfume ‘Inhibition’ which I believe to be quite an interesting name for it, also the slogan for my product being ‘Release your inhibition’. My research that I have produced shows that a person would be more interested in buying a particular perfume if it had an interesting name, and my name for the product is interesting.
I have analysed five different advertisements; ‘Chanel No 5’ featuring Nicole Kidman, ‘L by L.AM.B’ by Gwen Stefani, ‘Tattoo perfume’ by Christina Aguilera, Black Rose’ by Kate Moss and Emporio Armani featuring Beyonce. There are many things that I’ve found that occur in all five advertisements, such being: they all contain some sort of celebrity. This is good for advertisers because people aspire to be like their favourite celebrity or even if they just like a particular person, if they see them endorsing a perfume it makes that person more likely to go out and buy that perfume. Also, all of the adverts are, in some way, sexual. This pitches at the 18+ audience as women like to feel good about themselves and what the advert is portraying to the audience is that perfume allows women to feel confident and sexier whilst wearing perfume, something that would be achieved by wearing the advertised product. This also shows that my theory of the advertising industry having a gap in the market for young females is correct.

Audience and Institutions research

Chanel No 5 Advert:


Karl Lagerfeld is a man notoriously known for his work with Chanel, Fendi and Chloé. In 2004 he gave Oscar and Golden Globe-nominated Australian film director Baz Luhrmann $18 million to produce the seasonal Chanel advert, $2 million of that going to actress Nicole Kidman for starring in the advert.
A documentary about the making of the advert was made and in that documentary we find out that Luhrmann’s brief for the film was not to sell more perfume, but “to help us stay where we are”. This is what is known as “brand reinforcement”, keeping the product in the forefront of customers’ imaginations. Lots of scents are advertised at Christmas, but No 5 being No 5, it must be advertised bigger and better than anything else.
(source from www.timesonline.co.uk)

Baz Luhrmann - The director
After theatrical successes, including the original stage version of "Strictly Ballroom", Luhrmann moved into film, and has directed four so far:
Strictly Ballroom (1992), starring Paul Mercurio and Tara Morice
Romeo + Juliet (1996), starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes
Moulin Rouge! (2001), starring Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor
Australia (2008), starring Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman
His first three films are now formally marketed as 'The Red Curtain Trilogy'.

Luhrmann chose to tell a story depicting the kind of woman who wears the legendary perfume. His childhood memories of Chanel No.5 include a flash of black-and-white footage; Marilyn Monroe answering "Chanel No.5" when asked by the Press what she wore in bed; the beautiful Catherine Deneuve with a French accent on television talking about her lovers.
"As I was growing up, it was accepted that a glamorous woman drank champagne, made love, jetted off to romantic locations and wore Chanel," he says.


Nicole Kidman - The main actress
Nicole Kidman was the starring actress in the advertisement. She is an Academy Award-winning actress. In 2006, she was the highest-paid actress in the motion picture industry. She’s done films such as To Die For (1995), Moulin Rouge! (2001), and The Hours (2002). In 2003, she was awarded her own star on the walk of fame in Hollywood, California.
In the advertisement, Nicole is portrayed as very elegant and sophisticated and with stacks of class. This makes the advertisement more appealing because people aspire to be somewhat similar to her and they think that this could be achievable by buying the perfume. Artistic director for the advertisement Jacques Helleu knew Kidman was perfect for this role. When he saw Moulin Rouge, he was impressed by her “incredible power of seduction”.

About the Advert:

• The advertisement was specifically produced in time for Christmas as the main aim for the advert was to keep Chanel No 5 in people’s minds at Christmas time when they were buying presents for people, this worked hugely.

• Filming was shot in 5 days in 3003 in Sydney, Australia. It was directed by Baz Luhrmann via Bazmark and Revolver film with director of photography Mandy Walker, line producer Michael Ritchie, executive producer Anton Monsted, and Editor Daniel Schwarze.

• Music is Clair De Lune by Debussy, performed by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, arranged and conducted by English composer Craig Armstrong.

• The five dresses worn by Kidman were designed by Karl Lagerfeld and additional costumes were designed by Catherine Martin.

• Visual effects were developed at animal logic, by a large team led by VFX supervisor Chris Godfrey.

• The Chanel ‘Film’ is completely different to any other advertisement shown on air and is distinctively recognisable, predictably due to the expenses inputted into the making of ‘The Film’ and possibly due to the fact that the advert in its entirety is 3 minutes long (including the 60 seconds of ending credits).

• As Chanel No.5 is recognised for how expensive it is, the biggest competition is has is the thousands of designer perfumes on the market today. There are over 30,000 designer perfumes on the market and are mostly at a reasonable price and people often prefer to pay on average £30 for a bottle of perfume as opposed to £80/90.

• The advert was produced for every single woman who wants to feel good about themselves. Artistic director Jacques Helleu explains that the film was created to help women understand that the Chanel No.5 perfume is foe everybody who has ever just wanted to escape from who they are. No.5 allows us to be who are never thought we could be.

• The advert was aired in the UK on channel 4 at 9.20pm in November 2004. It was specifically released at this time due to Christmas upcoming. The advert was shown every night on most TV channels but it was only the edited 30 second advert. However, with the launch of the film, the extended 3 minute advert was shown when it was first released on channel 4 and took up the whole commercial break as it was 3 minutes long.

• There was a huge response to the film, primarily due to such an advert like this being the only one of its kind. Critics have stated that this film is not original at all and had so obviously derived from the film ‘Moulin Rouge’ and also the film ‘Notting hill’. Another critic from the Telegraph said that “It is a romantic comedy without the comedy”.
Lesley Ali, the creative director at WCRS advertising agency, believes that by producing such a big-budget advert, Chanel has not gone against the grain but merely upped the ante in what has become a trend in the luxury-goods sector.

"Ultimately, the film, like an advert, reflects what the product is and in that way it can't be called revolutionary," she says. "Any product needs to have its values represented, whether it is a three-minute film or a four-second spiral, it still has a brand value that it wants to project. If Chanel thinks this validates its brand value to the target market, that's great. If everyone did that formula, however, it wouldn't be exclusive, so I don't think it will revolutionise the face of advertising. It's just one way of doing it.

"Obviously a lot of thought has been put into this: they believe this is a high-end product and a really beautiful, glossy film makes sense for that product." It is, she adds, not a departure but thoroughly in keeping with its previous campaigns. "Their last No 5 advert, with Estella Warren playing Little Red Riding Hood, was also a two-minute film."

Another advertising executive argues that Chanel has gone to such lengths out of desperation to reposition No 5: "Its image has slipped. It might be one of the biggest-selling scents in the world, but it's considered to be the scent you buy your mistress in the airport or your grandma for her birthday."


My response to this advertisement is that it represents the brand for everything that it is; Sophistication, elegance, class and that little bit of snootiness. No. 5 has always been a worldly recognised scent for the upper class only, and to some extent, this ‘film’ solidifies my theory. The advert shows Nicole Kidman, a world renowned actress wearing the perfume, and by doing this it somewhat reinforces the idea that Chanel No.5 is primarily for people like her.



Critics response to the Chanel advertisement:
‘Now 66, Karl Lagerfeld, le grand fromage de Chanel, is beginning to look a little odd. Bound in very tight clothes, he moves like a Thunderbirds puppet and appears — thanks to the very high, very stiff collars he wears — to have broken his neck. He has also, frankly, begun to act a little strangely. For example, he gave Baz Luhrmann £18m to direct a seasonal advertisement for Chanel’s No 5 perfume. A rumoured £2m of this went to Nicole Kidman, the star of the advert.
This, you might think, is not that strange; No 5 is the market leader, a global brand and, hey, it is Christmas. But it is, in fact, very strange indeed, because the ad is truly terrible. I was shown it twice, reverentially, in Chanel’s offices in Bond Street, and in between viewings I was allowed to see a 25-minute documentary about its making. In this, Luhrmann babbles on about the motivation of his characters, Lagerfeld bobs about stiffly, taking care not to tangle his strings, and Kidman says the dress with a feathered train in which she appears was “a work of art”. Well, she was right about the dress — Lagerfeld may be odd, but he is brilliant — but everything else was a work of total BS.
What is awful about the advert is the cliché-laden plot, the off-the-shelf characters and the supinely globalised imagery. What is also awful is that Luhrmann, who made Strictly Ballroom, seems to have been buried beneath a series of increasingly vacuous projects, this advert being the climax of the process. The mask of success has eaten into his face.’
(source from http://www.bryanappleyard.com/article.php?page=6&article_id=133)

From these findings, I have realised several things that need to be considered when producing our own product in a similar genre. I have found that audiences want to see something they can relate to, not something that is out of their league and obviously unaffordable. Also, diverting the attention away from the brand and showing something similar to a ‘film’ with the product only being shown at the end leaves the production much more memorable to the audience. Form these findings about the highly talked about ‘Chanel no 5’ advertisement, I have found that people do expect a lot from a commercial. They expect to see something different and unique, something that’s never been done before. They want their attention to be dragged to the TV screen every time the advert comes on. They want the advert to almost force them to go and buy that product because they’ve sold it to you so well. Although the audience is expecting a lot, I believe that it is achievable.

Some things I think need to be considered when producing our own product in a similar genre would be to really focus on the intended audience. You need to be very specific with who your intending to watch it. For example, my target audience is the 13-21 age group, so it would be pointless to air the commercial during daytime as most people will be at school and/or university.
Also, I think the channels that the commercial will be shown on will need to be looked at. As the advertisement is aimed at women specifically and it is very feminine, it would seem somewhat pointless to air it on a sports channel.
At this stage, I do believe that my target audience will be young females. They will be very girlie and fun and open to alternative/unique things. I do have a very young target audience, but that is because anybody over 21 will not appreciate the commercial and would not be inclined to buy the perfume from watching the advertisement.
I believe that my intended audience will fit into the social grades of C1 and C2. I think this because social grades C1 and C2 are the stereotypical average people. I wanted my production to show that the perfume is attainable for all people, even if they wouldn't wear that sort of prfume, it would still be avaliable to them
I have also investigated which psychographics groups my target audience will fit into and they are:
THE EXPLORER
These people are driven by a need for discovery,
challenge and new frontiers.
Young in nature, if not in reality, Explorers are often
the first to try out new ideas and experiences.
They respond to brands that offer new sensations,
indulgence and instant effects.
In short, difference is what they seek out.
Their core need in life is for discovery.

THE MAINSTREAM
These are people who live in the world of the domestic
and the everyday.
A daily routine is fundamental to the way they live their
lives. Their life choices are ‘we’ rather than ‘me’.
As their name implies, they are the mainstream of society.
They are the largest group of people within 4Cs across
the world.
They respond to big established brands, to ‘family’
brands and to offers of value for money.
Their core need in life is for security.

Primary research - Questionnaire and results analysis

For a part of my primary research, I had decided to conduct a questionnaire. Here is the questionnaire and the results analysis:





From the results of my primary research, I have found many things. Firstly, I had specifically asked people between the ages of 13 and 21 to fill in my questionnaire as they were who I had predicted to be my target audience. Also, I chose to ask only people who were in full time education as I had predicted that my target audience would be teenagers with big career prospects as the perfume was designed for the more intelligent, yet girlie persona. By asking only these girls, it helped to clearly identify my target audience.

One of the quesitons I had asked was 'Do you like to wear perfume?' and all 25 people replied with the answer 'yes'. This shows me that I do have a general idea of my target audience as every person I asked had stated that they do wear perfume and like to wear it. To coincide with this question, I had asked what was their favourite perfume and why? To this question I had various answers. I had expected to find some form of correlation between each person and their favourite perfume as most of the women were of a similar age. This was not the case, however. I had found that one woman prefered the classic scent of 'Chanel' whereas another woman had stated that they favourited Victoria Beckham's scent 'Intimately Beckham'.Interestinly, four out of the twenty-five people questionned commentated that their favourite perfume was 'Heiress' by Paris Hilton. This was not a suprise to me as it is a sweet, feminine scent.

My next two questions helped me to impove on my planning for my advertisement. The questions were 'What would you expect to see from a perfume advert?' and also 'would you buy a perfume based on the advert alone?'. These helped me to realise what is needed to be put into an advert to make sure the audience are completly taken with the product. This also helped me to understand what people expect to see from an advert. My results from these questions proved my predictions to be correct. The results shown that 95% of people asked said that they would expect music in the advert and also 50% of people said that they would buy a perfume based on an advert alone if it was for a present for somebody else.

Overall, I have found that my primary research has helped me to identify more clearly my target audience which has thus allowed me to continue with my research and enable me to ensure that I am actually heading in the right direction with my target audience.

In addition to my questionnaire, I have posted a question on the popular site 'Yahoo Answers'. I asked the question 'Do you like Chanel No. 5 perfume?' and I had a very good response. I asked this question to coincide with my research to find out whether or not Chanel No. 5 was liked by a wide variety of people. The link to the Yahoo Answers question is:

History of Perfume

Perfume was first worn by the Egyptians as part of their religious rituals. The two principal methods of use at this time was the burning of incense and the application of balms and ointments. Perfumed oils were applied to the skin for either cosmetic or medicinal purposes. During the Old and Middle Kingdoms, perfumes were reserved exclusively for religious rituals such as cleansing ceremonies. Then during the New Kingdom (1580-1085 BC) they were used during festivals and Egyptian women also used perfumed creams and oils as toiletries and cosmetics and as preludes to love-making. The use of perfume then spread to Greece, Rome, and the Islamic world. And it was the Islamic community that kept the use of perfumes since the spread of Christianity led to a decline in the use of perfume. With the fall of the Roman Empire, perfume's influence dwindled. It was not until the twelfth century and the development of international trade that this decline was reversed.

Perfume enjoyed huge success during the seventeenth century. Perfumed gloves became popular in France and in 1656, the guild of glove and perfume-makers was established. The use of perfume in France grew steadily. The court of Louis XV was even named "the perfumed court" due to the scents which were applied daily not only to the skin but also to clothing, fans and furniture. The eighteenth century saw a revolutionary advance in perfumery with the invention of eau de Cologne. This refreshing blend of rosemary, neroli, bergamot and lemon was used in a multitude of different ways: diluted in bath water, mixed with wine, eaten on a sugar lump, as a mouthwash, an enema or an ingredient for a poultice, injected directly... and so on. The variety of eighteenth-century perfume containers was as wide as that of the fragrances and their uses. Sponges soaked in scented vinaigres de toilette were kept in gilded metal vinaigrettes. Liquid perfumes came in beautiful Louis XIV-style pear-shaped bottles. Glass became increasingly popular, particularly in France with the opening of the Baccarat factory in 1765.

As with industry and the arts, perfume was to undergo profound change in the nineteenth century. Changing tastes and the development of modern chemistry laid the foundations of perfumery as we know it today. Alchemy gave way to chemistry and new fragrances were created. The French Revolution had in no way diminished the taste for perfume, there was even a fragrance called "Parfum a la Guillotine." Under the post-revolutionary government, people once again dared to express a penchant for luxury goods, including perfume. A profusion of vanity boxes containing perfumes appeared in the 19th century.
Due to its jasmine, rose and orange-growing trades, the town of Grasse in Provence established itself as the largest production centre for raw materials. The statutes of the perfume-makers of Grasse were passed in 1724. Paris became the commercial counterpart to Grasse and the world centre of perfume. Perfume houses such as Houbigant (Quelques Fleurs, still very popular today), Lubin, Roger & Gallet, and Guerlain were all based in Paris. In 1760, in London, James Henry Creed founded the House of Creed perfume.
With the turn of the century fragrance houses emerged in Europe. The Crown Perfumery was founded in 1872 by William Sparks Thomson, a maker of crinolines and corsets. Catering to the high society in London and Europe, he launched a collection of floral fragrances called Flower Fairies. Queen Victoria granted the Crown Perfumery her own crown's image to top the fragrance bottles. In 2002 Clive Christian discontinued the Crown line of fragrances.
Soon bottling became more important. Perfume maker Francois Coty formed a partnership with Rene Lalique. Lalique then produced bottles for Guerlain perfume, D'Orsay, Lubin, Molinard, Roger & Gallet and others. Baccarat then joined in, producing the bottle for Mitsouko (Guerlain), Shalimar (Guerlain) and others. Brosse glassworks created the memorable bottle for Jeanne Lanvin's Arpege perfume, the famous Chanel No.5, and most recently for Parfums Raffy single note fragrances.
In 1921- Couturier Gabrielle Chanel launched her own brand of perfume, created by Ernest Beaux, she calls it Chanel No.5 because it was the fifth in a line of fragrances Ernest Beaux presented her. Ernest Beaux was the first perfumer to use aldehydes regularly in perfumery.

The 1930's saw the arrival of the leather fragrances, and florals, also became quite popular with the emergence of Worth's Je Reviens (1932), Caron's Fleurs de Rocaille (1933) and Jean Patou's Joy perfume (1935). With French perfumery at it's peak in the 1950's, other designers such as Christian Dior, Jacques Fath, Nina Ricci perfume, Pierre Balmain and so on, started creating their own scents.

The recent popularity of celebrity fragrances has also made an impact on the industry although most experts do not expect the trend to last. Today there are over 30,000 designer perfumes on the market and perfumes are no longer for the wealthy. The perfume industry has undergone several changes in technique, material and style. All of which have created the modern fragrance industry, one that still incorporates creativity, mystique and romance along with marketing to appeal to the masses.

Brief and Improvements from AS

For my A2 course, my chosen brief was to produce a advertisement advertising a new perfume. My perfume is going to be an elegant, sophisticated scent and will stand out from a crowd. I want to produce something unique and interesting. I have chosen to do this as I think although it will be a challenge it will be highly beneficial for me as it is something I haven’t done before. It will allow me to use my knowledge I have already gained from AS level but also will help me do broaden my knowledge by doing things that I haven’t done before. Also, I have chosen specifically to do this project on my own as I have learned from AS level that I would work to the best of my ability on my own as I won’t have to rely on other people to do parts of the project.

In AS, I found that we encountered various problems, possibly due to a lack of knowledge about the subject, as it was our first time in filming and studying AS level Media Studies. I believe that our main problem was our lack of organisation. At the start of the topic, we were very organised and often ahead of our deadlines, however this was not consistent throughout and we started to fall behind and this led to a very rushed ending to ensure that everything was finished.

To improve from AS level, there are many things that I would do differently. Firstly, and probably most importantly, I am working by myself. This will allow me to work in my own time and pace and rely solely on myself. Also, this means that I can produce the product to my own standard as at AS level I believe that the final production could’ve been made to a higher standard. Secondly, I will limit the characters within the production to a bare minimum as last year’s actors proved themselves extremely unreliable. Thirdly, I will keep to the deadlines that have been set for me to ensure that I don’t fall behind with anything allowing me to keep on track of my progress and not have to rush everything at the end. This will ensure that my whole project will be to the highest standard possible. Finally, I will ensure that not only is my practical production set to the highest possible standard but also my theory work will be to a very high standard. I believe that the lack of attention to my theory work caused my grade to go down and I am determined to not let this happen again.