Sammarco Perfumes: Lean Canvas of a perfumer
Entrepreneurial choices of an Artisanal Perfumer
One of the best way to learn and improve you life, is to search inspirational experiences. Giovanni is the Sammarco Perfumes CEO, today. He left Italy some years ago and now he takes care of his dream in Swiss: “I want my perfume return memories, and life moments to my customers”. This is a success story: Giovanny sells his fragrances in some of the major capital cities of the World. Enjoy his journey with us!
The idea
Giovanni Sammarco: a PhD in civil law , and today Perfumer and CEO of Sammarco Perfumes. Your company today sells its perfumes in some of the major capital cities of the World. How did you start?
“It all happened by chance. I was never interested in perfumes before my graduation, but the following summer I’ve stumbled into the world of perfumes, to a series of coincidences. While studying for my civil law Phd, I started to learn how to make perfumes and at some point I realized that I wanted to try to transform it in my job. At that time I was alone and everyone told me I was crazy, anyhow I tried to start building my network: I took first contacts going to visit fairs, trade show.”
The Minimum Viable Product
Yours are niche fragrances. What are you selling, when you sell a perfume?
“Buy a niche fragrance should mean buying a high quality product: mine are a mixture of raw materials and alcohol that incorporates my inspiration (usually related to a woman). To do this I focused on the best raw materials, without compromises. I hope my perfumes will be able to transmit a part of me and excite people who will choose them. I want my perfume called them back memories, and life moments.”
Logo and packaging. What’s the message of your design?
“Truth and quality.
The packaging and logo in their linearity and simplicity contain something precious. For me the most important values in perfumery, and not only in perfumery, are the truth and quality. My packaging are simple, essential. Among the many critics that you can received, surely you can find observations about the packaging. There is a kind of obsession with the packaging, which is often considered more important than the fragrance.
My packaging has a good quality, it hasn’t to be the decisive factor that pushes someone to buy my perfume.”
Not only a parfum
In the website of the Sammarco Perfumes, you also can find: “Consulting and service trainee”, “Legal consulting”, etc. Why this choice?
“The product concept is very transversal today, so it’s necessary a culture of perfumes, but today it’s difficult to build a perfume culture , because you can find so many information, that aren’t so accurate. For all theese reasons legal consulting my company offers, is a possible answer to a very important issue: the regulation on perfumes and cosmetics, especially in the European Union is extremely invasive and complex.”
Customer segments
How do you imagine people who sell your fragrances?
“I imagine my customers as people who like to try a different product than usual ones. I don’t like labels, so I’m not sure if mine it’s or not a Luxury Brand, but certainly I’m trying to offer an experience that leverages the quality and the product’s ability to move to a deeper level. This, you know, request attention, sensitiveness, research of beauty.”
Channels
You’re in the most important events of the world capital, your channels seems to be real perfume boutiques instead of large distribution. Why this choice?
“Because for perfumes like mine can not be a large supply chain: they have to be recounted. Mine is an experiential approach: I want my customers live my fragrance, before to choice them and this is possible only in specialized boutiques.”
Unfair Advantage
When you transform your idea in a real project, you have to use your personal features too. What’s feature of a good perfumer? What’s Sammarco Perfumes freatures?
“I think the most important feature for a good perfumer is culture. But I don’t mean raw materials culture, which is certainly important: I mean the literary culture. Creating a perfume is like to tell a story. For example, if you read Tolstoy you can learn how to tell a story, and you can also realise that nothing is really new. Another important element is to have sources of inspiration. For me this source is women world. Women are the only real source of inspiration to the world, always.”
Conclusion
We hope this story inspires you. We hope you understand the most important thing: to be a success entrepreneur, you have to start to build your business. It’s not matter if your project isn’t perfect from the first moment, or if not come from a business masterclass student. You have to try, and improve then. If you don’t start, you can’t reach any result. Be courageous, be a visionary.
Perfumers design dreams and give new life to emotions, to those living inside us as olfactory reminiscences. To do this we trust the strong mix between innovation and traditions, by following a vision. — Giovanni Sammarco
