European Advertising
'Charlie' Mounts a Comeback, Aiming for a Younger Crowd
By ALESSANDRA GALLONI
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
LONDON -- Call it retro chic or kitsch appeal, but Charlie
smells a comeback.
The perfume brand with the man's name and sassy script
logo revolutionized the fragrance market when it was
launched by U.S. cosmetics giant Revlon in 1973. Promoted
by models in pantsuits, Charlie came to symbolize a
generation of liberated women. But with a torrent of
competition in the '80s and a backlash against strong scents
in the '90s, Charlie lost ground.
In the U.K., however, Revlon is about to revive the aging
brand with a new version of the perfume under the Charlie
name. The launch -- set for July and followed by an ad
campaign in September -- underscores that the market for
Charlie in the U.K. is still very much alive, Revlon executives
say.
Revlon is trying to market its
"Charlie" fragrance to a
younger crowd.
It's no longer the scent of a
woman. "Charlie here is mainly for
teenagers. It's very different here
than it is in the U.S. where it's
seen as more glitzy," says
Charlotte Gravel, brand manager for
Charlie at Revlon U.K. "Different
markets have different needs, and
the U.K. market can sustain a new
variant," she adds.
Like its smash hit debut nearly
three decades ago, the success of
the new Charlie perfume will hinge
largely on promotion. The ads are
being created by Wieden &
Kennedy, a Portland, Oregon,
agency whose roster includes Nike
and Diet Coke in the U.K. market.
The ads will focus on the
11-to-18-year-old market -- a much different audience than
the one that became enamored with Charlie in the early '70s.
That ad campaign was revolutionary in the fragrance industry.
Charlie was the first perfume with a man's name. For the first
time, the ads portrayed women gleefully striding in trousers
-- rather than in an evening dress and clinging to a man's
arm, the way most perfumes were promoted previously. With
its breezy scent, it was a perfume that women wore to work,
when they didn't necessarily want to smell sexy. Moreover,
"Charlie was marketed as a perfume that women bought for
themselves even if they didn't have a husband or boyfriend,"
says Allan Mottus of Mottus & Associates, an industry
consulting firm in New York. "People understood the theme --
it was very American, very brash and it became an
international smash."
Wieden & Kennedy has only begun working on the campaign
and the new ads aren't yet available, but Revlon says it
wants to stick to the themes of independence and lifestyle
that made Charlie popular in the first place, even though it is
now targeting a younger audience. Charlie still sells some of
its versions -- Blue, Gold and the original bottle -- to
thirty-something consumer in the U.K., but the best-selling
versions of the perfume are Red, Silver and Urban Energy,
which are mainly for teenagers. The new Charlie perfume that
is being launched this summer hasn't been named yet.
Ms. Gravel says it makes sense for Revlon to dedicate
renewed attention to Charlie in the U.K., because it is the
No. 1 eau de toilette in Britain in the mass-market category.
Charlie is more popular than other brand lines from
competitors such as Yardley, Coty, Wild Musk and even
sports apparel maker Adidas. All these brands, including
Charlie, are sold in retail giant Boots and other drugstores
across the country. In the mass-market body-spray category,
Charlie is second to the Impulse brand, Ms. Gravel says.
"Charlie is something that teens are spending their pocket
money on."
Revlon says it has no plans to roll out the new fragrance in
the U.S. That's partly because the mass perfume market in
the U.S. declined in the late '90s as "greener" alternatives
from the likes of Gap and Intimate Brands Inc.'s Bath and
Body Works came on the market. Indeed, Revlon in the U.S.
pretty much quit the perfume business in the late '90s,
abandoning new fragrance launches and scaling back
promotions.
"The mass market is dried up in the U.S.," says Mr. Mottus.
"There is basically no mass fragrance business so it doesn't
make sense to spend on it."