Challenges of advertising a perfume effectively

While almost all of the products advertised in media have tangible features to be communicated to the audience, advertising perfumes to the audience can be a rather difficult task. All perfumes come with a unique aromatic composition which has defined notes of various ingredients but when all of these ingredients are combined together to create a perfume, it can be interpreted differently by different people. Communicating a smell correctly to people comes with many viable constraints. It is not possible for any mass media to properly convey that. The only way to do so successfully is through interpersonal communication that has to take place with all parties being present at the same place physically which makes advertising of perfumes even more difficult. This is why most perfume advertisements do not even go into describing the scents but instead try to promote the brand and the feelings associated to them! 

While for some people vanilla can have an innocent and young vibe, to others it might be seductive or sophisticated and so explaining it in a way that appeals to all the people at once is a rather tedious job. Perfumes to begin with are highly niche products hence while advertising them, the brands need to have a very clear picture of which they are appealing to so that the advertisement is favorably received. Unlike most other advertised products, to successfully advertise a perfume, the brand must understand the human psychology and content the brand with an attractive yet abstract idea, such as sensuality, femininity or masculinity. This is also the reason behind so many perfume advertisements being erotic in nature.

To make up for the lack of details about the features of a perfume, brands always try to make the advertisements a very flashy and glamorous affair with the addition of fancy graphics, highly rated stars from the industry, vivid color schemes and even controversial imagery to make an impact of the audience so that people are intrigued about it even if they have absolutely no idea how the perfume might smell.