If you ask anyone, most people will say right away that perfumes’ high prices are because of the ingredients. Perfumes are made with oils and extracts of ingredients which cost a lot of time, products and money. Depending on the concentration, the perfume will require more or a bit less of these ingredients. However, most perfumes, even if they are Eau De Parfum, will not require an insanely high quantity of ingredients to make the perfume so expensive. Actually, in some cases the actual juice inside the bottle is the least costly when we look at all the expenses that come up when creating and selling perfumes.
Let’s take a look at those other expensive parts that we often don’t think about:
Brand name:
Be it from seniority or popularity, big or famous companies upcharge their products because people will generally buy from well known brands due to their reputation. The more well known the brand is, the more demand they will have which means that they can charge more. Either their loyal customers will pay for that upcharge or the fewer amount of customers willing to pay that price will make up for the loss of customers. This happens in all industries and the perfume and fragrance industry is not the exception.
Bottle & Packaging:
Most bottles and packaging are fully customized for each release. The cap and the shape of the bottle plus any additional accessories (like for example the world’s most expensive perfume, which contains 3,571 diamonds!) cost a lot to make. And even though they are made in large quantities, it is still expensive to create these bottles. The look and feel of the bottle is one very important part of the experience of buying a perfume. Companies know this so they make sure the aesthetic of the bottle is always on point.
Marketing:
In the clothing industry, a simple ad on TV showing the product is enough. Brands can show a model wearing the clothes and people will know exactly what the product looks like and how it can be styled, which is often enough for people to make a decision on whether they want to buy the product or not. However, very sadly we can’t smell perfume through an advertisement. You can read the ingredients, the notes, the similarities with other fragrances and still, you will only have an idea of what it smells like, but you will never have it 100% exactly how it is. That is why advertisements for perfumes need to be over the top, extravagant ads that express the scent in a way that is intriguing, dazzling and astonishing. This is the only way that people will buy the fragrance or at least go to a store to specifically smell it.
Companies also tend to hire and pay highly the celebrities to be the face of the product. High enough that Brad Pitt made it to the top 10 list of highest paid celebrities by advertisement for his collaboration for Chanel No. 5. This of course makes the price of the perfume sky rocket since each sale needs to contribute to that expense. This contributes to making marketing and advertisements, the biggest expense when creating and releasing a perfume.
So now you’re wondering why Ulric De Varens is not as expensive.
Let’s go over the same steps and see the differences:
Brand name:
Ulric De Varens was a brand created in order to fulfill and exceed people’s fragrance needs while making it available to a large quantity of people thanks to its price. The brand was created in the 80’s which means that back then, there weren’t as many brands of perfumes to choose from or so many price points. Since our vision has always been that of keeping perfumes affordable, it does not matter how big our brand gets, we will keep true to our vision and always maintain amazing quality with the best prices all around.
Packaging:
We try to keep our packaging as simple as possible while making it beautiful. For our older fragrances like Ciel or Varensia, we have kept the same or similar packaging for over 30 years. Slight tweaks have happened, but we have not changed much. Also, for lines like UDV Men, all of the bottles are exactly the same with certain variations in the color of the cap or of the bottle. For example, UDV For Men released in 1993 has the same bottle as UDV Wild which was released in 2018. This has allowed us to mass produce our bottles in order to keep the cost as low as possible.
Marketing:
None.
You read that right. None. When the founder created the brand, he believed in the product so much that he decided to keep UDV from any major marketing in order to, again, keep costs as low as possible. And ever since the start of the brand in 1981 UDV has never paid a celebrity, nor done big TV advertisements. We do minimum marketing and rely almost purely on word of mouth from our loyal customers.
Now just to clarify, we do not think there is anything wrong with buying expensive perfumes. In fact, being the fragrance junkies that we are we surely have spent a lot more of our budget on over the top perfumes. However, we do know that we cannot splurge everytime we want another bottle. Therefore, we love the idea of our brand to provide high quality fragrances at affordable prices that everyone can enjoy.
Now you know the reason why perfumes are worth what they are worth :)
Let us know what you think! Do you like this idea?