Elizabeth Arden Creates Exotic Look for Intro of Nuits Indiennes Fragrance

Elizabeth Arden Co. pulls out all stops this spring for the European launch of its newest perfume, Indian Nights (Nuits Indiennes in French), created by well-known perfumer Jean-Louis Scherrer. The New York-based company created an exotic gold- and green-themed counter display, dramming unit and window display that are meant to work equally well in U.S. department stores, where the scent debuts this month.The combination of displays that each retailer uses will depend on store size. Europeans sell perfume in parfumeries, which tend to be much smaller than American department stores, notes Clare Cain, vice president of sales and marketing for Elizabeth Arden. The corrugated window display, for instance, is actually two parts; the smaller piece that holds the bottles can be used without the three-fold backdrop if a store has limited space. For stores with the smallest amount of space, the Factice (oversized bottles used for display) can be set on a counter by itself."In a place like France, they'll give us a whole window for a week or so, then they use the smaller piece after that, whatever they can fit," says Cain. The dramming unit also poses space problems for the smaller stores. But Cain says it was a big hit at the Duty-Free Exposition in Cannes last fall, and Arden is getting more stores to use it. "It's a novelty for the customer. It's more interactive than getting sprayed, because she can get the vial and dispense the scent herself."In April, Indian Nights was introduced in France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, across the Middle East and in duty-free shops and catalogs. This month, it will come to selected specialty stores in the United States such as Bergdorf Goodman's, Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus.Elizabeth Arden designs all the packaging and display units in house, contracting with outside companies for manufacture. The counter display has an injection-molded base, an enamel metal back and is electroplated in 24-karat gold. The angled base has two wells that hold a bottle of the eau de parfum and eau de toilette for testing; a bottle of the pure perfume stands above them as decoration. The electroplate finish of the display resists the damaging effects of the fragrance and is thus much more durable. "That's been our biggest problem in the past: The display unit picks up the fragrance and starts to disintegrate," explains Susan Wacker, senior design director for packaging at Elizabeth Arden. The back piece is cut into a mosque shape on top, a theme echoed in all display units. Manufactured by New York-based Dauman Displays Inc., the display measures 10 inches wide by 17 inches high by 7 inches deep.The dramming unit dispenses a pre-set amount of the perfume into a vial. The 5-milliliter vial that Arden uses in U.S. stores is larger than the standard vial of perfume that other companies give out as samples. Made from custom-color acrylic, the dramming unit has the Indian Nights logo stamped on the front and a graphic panel of the perfume bottle on the side. The valve, like the tester display, is electroplated in gold. Standing 11 inches square by 18 inches high, the unit can also dispense body lotion, another product in the Indian Nights line. Trans World Marketing in East Rutherford, N.J., manufactured the dramming unit for Arden.The three forms of scent, body lotion and bath gel can be arranged in any number of ways on the two-piece window display, which was produced by Arden's Geneva division.Cain says that although this multifaceted display concept is not a new one at Elizabeth Arden, she feels that the packaging and P-O-P materials for Indian Nights is the "creme de la creme, the queen of displays." Wacker, too, emphasizes how pleased Arden is that both the packaging and the P-O-P units are "the top quality that we've done."

Elizabeth Arden Creates Exotic Look for Intro of Nuits Indiennes Fragrance

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