In the mid 1970s, we looked at the fragrance business and found that the female business was exploding with lifestyle fragrances, designer fragrances, and we were naturally looking for entry points.
We mounted six intensive market research studies. The purposes of these studies were to evaluate lifestyles, evaluate tastes, to see where the American woman was going, what her values were, what her ideals were and her ideas. And, of course, we got back a wealth of information.
The Idea
In the midst of all this information, in the area of admiration one name kept cropping up. The Martin-Landey Agency had courage to suggest Sophia Loren as a spokeswoman because in the past the entries of fragrances keyed to celebrities had not received particularly great measures of success.