“Who’s more important to the customer—the salesperson or the perfumer?” was just the first subject brought up during the Q&A-style session on Perfumer Support of SaIes moderated by Larry Janosky (far right), Senior Perfumer with Felton International. The panelists were (from left) Felix Buccellato, President/Perfumer, Custom Essence; Thomas DiGiacomo, Senior Perfumer & Creative Director of Cosmetics & Toiletries, Naarden International; and Howard Kennedy, Perfumer/Manager, Fragrance Development Coty.
The consensus of the attendees was that what is most important to the customer is that a successful product be sold to the consumer. Both the person who creates that product and the person who sells it to the customer are equally important. Throughout the session the familiar words “teamwork” and “communication” were used when discussion centered around the “how” of getting that successful product.
Communication in this context referred to the smooth working relationship among all of the departments that work together to come up with a successful product both at the supplier and customer level. At Richardson-Vicks, the perfumer is part of the marketing team. At Avon, sales, marketing, evaluation, and technical department representatives from both the supplier and Avon are included at the presentation of the profile so all questions are answered at that point.