PARIS — Guerlain went back to the future for the development of its new women’s scent, L’Instant de Guerlain, due out this fall.
The fragrance, a mix of old and new, is intended to be a global hit, according to executives at the LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton-owned brand.
“In the Guerlain portfolio, we have fantastic classics, but we don’t have a worldwide fragrance,” explained Renato Semerari, president and managing director at Guerlain. “Shalimar is very much a French and U.S. phenomenon; Samsara is stronger in Europe, and Champs-Elysées is [strong] in the Middle East, Russia and Asia. [But] we wanted to have a flagship around the world.”
Everything about L’Instant de Guerlain is supposed to hark back to Guerlain’s roots, yet simultaneously ground it firmly in the present and lure the brand’s core consumers, aged 30 and over.
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Take its name. L’Instant de Guerlain is immediate and self-reflective. Yet, at the same time, it is reminiscent of such other Guerlain scent names as L’Heure Bleu, said Fabienne Ruault, director of the fragrance division and international marketing at the firm.
The new scent’s crystalline amber juice, created by Symrise perfumer Maurice Roucel and Parfums Guerlain’s director of evaluation and development, Sylvaine Delacourte, contains the house’s traditional “Guerlinade,” or accord of notes that appears in practically all of Guerlain’s scents to varying degrees. But, for the first time in Guerlain history, the new fragrance includes a magnolia note.
L’Instant de Guerlain’s juice has citrus fruit notes, such as mandarin and bergamot; white flower and “intense light” notes, like magnolia flower from China, jasmine sambac and ylang-ylang, and musky and amber notes, which count vanilla and benzoin among them.
The scent comes as an eau de parfum and as a parfum extract, which also contains notes of iris and some light spices.
L’Instant de Guerlain’s bottle, including the cap, is made entirely of glass. The flacon, which was created by L.O.V.E., is tinged with an amethyst hue. “It is to give a contemporary feeling,” explained Semerari.
The fragrance’s white outer packaging and cap sport the Guerlain Paris name curved in a circle. The logo is a reinterpretation of that which first appeared on the Vol de Nuit scent in 1933.
The print advertisement for L’Instant de Guerlain features model Ingrid Pajerwick in a sensual reverie while her back’s being stroked. The visual, which also shows a picture of the parfum extract, will come as single pages, plus double- and four-page spreads. It was created under the art direction of Tho van Tran, of Air agency, and shot by Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott. So were the 30-second ads for TV and movie theaters.
The ad campaign also will include outside posters. Samples, such as scent seals in magazines, will be available starting around launch time, which begins Sept. 15 and runs through early October in all worldwide markets, save for the U.S. There, the scent is slated for a March 2004 introduction.
While Guerlain executives would not discuss numbers, industry sources estimate L’Instant de Guerlain will generate $50 million in wholesale sales during its first 12 months.
The new fragrance line includes a 7.5-ml. parfum extract for $104, an 80-ml. eau de parfum for $96, a 50-ml. eau de parfum for $73 and a 30-ml. eau de parfum for $52. Ancillaries include a 200-ml. body milk for $46 and a 200-ml. shower gel for $38. All dollar prices are converted from the euro at current exchange rates and are for France.