The Smell of the Future Perfume

'What we like in a smell is determined by our culture and environment.

'Making scent for western tastes used to be easy, but things are changing.'

The European business and the American business

have not enjoyed tremendous success over the last few years and these other regions are exploding.

'But the new customers don't all want the same thing.

'The Russians want rich and heavy.

'The Chinese crave light and airy

'and the Brazilians go bananas for fruits.'

-You wouldn't use that in a perfume, would you?

-I would. I would.

'What we want in a perfume depends on where we are, but also when we are.

'In Arabia, they lust for musky oriental scents that were all the rage in Victorian England.'

I've brought some treasure for you, the best of English perfumery.

'The tastes of London, Paris and New York will soon count for little.

'What we smell like in the future is more likely to be dictated

'by the customers of Shanghai, Mumbai and Sao Paulo.'

Ah!

'Ann Gottlieb's nose is small, but influential.

'She's a predictor of global scent tastes.'

Then see if you can make it at three and if we can get the test at nine.

'The Manhattan-based grandmother works regularly for a top designer we can't name.

'His perfumers are developing a new fragrance aimed at Chinese women whose tastes are changing fast.'

You seem very thoughtful.

I'm really concerned about the viability of this fragrance,

as much as I love it and the direction in which it's going.

Asia is a very important market for us and I don't know whether or not this is going to work there.

I'm just not sure it'll work there.

This is the more different woody note. This is more amber. This is more woody.

Vetiver, cedar, this kind of woodiness.

So this is the same as I'm wearing with a tweak on top...

'There's a big sociological piece of what I do

'in understanding what the tastes of the women and men of India are,

'what the tastes of the Chinese are.'

-I'm not sure.

-You're not sure.

OK, come back again.

What happens here for me is that I go back into a little bit of that animalic dirtiness

which I don't in the rest,

so I think what I would like to do is take that and that

because those two maintain the integrity of the fragrance that I love.

'Fans in Europe and North America might also like this perfume,

'but they're not going to get a sniff of it.'

Because specific regions are such lucrative businesses,

yes, specific fragrances would be created by him for those regions.

-And not available here in North America or in Europe?

-Probably not.

What we are doing now are regional fragrances

that are available only in certain locations.

It's my responsibility to make sure

that a fragrance that is supposed to be region-appropriate is so.

Gottlieb's office on Central Park is filled with trophies.

For four decades, big name clients have had huge successes

following her advice on western tastes.

These days, her nose takes her east and south.

Gottlieb isn't limited to fine fragrance.

Thanks to her, adolescent youth the world over smells pungently sexy.

One of the projects that I've worked on and I've worked on it for 20 years

is Axe, the bodyspray.

-That we call Lynx?

-That you call Lynx in the UK.

It is targeted really to teenage boys

and I feel very much like its mother.

And we do a new one every year and we get them pretty right.

Historically, Lynx scents have been tuned to European tastes,

but Ann is going to change that.

The brand's HQ is in London and that's where she's heading.

On the banks of the River Thames sit the offices

where the future of Lynx or Axe is planned.

Teenage scent tastes change fast and there's a new bodyspray every year.

It's worn by boys all over the world,

but Gottlieb knows that the smell of the next one will be dictated by just one territory.

There is one country, ONE country, that matters more to Lynx and to Axe

than any other and that's Brazil.

They're fragrance-literate and they love fragrance, so the potential is huge there,

probably bigger than any other region in the world.

For brand manager Russell Taylor, there are practical reasons why the spray does so well in Brazil.

What we find in a lot of our Latin American markets is that they use more product.

They want fresher fragrances and they shower more as well,

so the usage occasions in hotter climates are very, very different from the colder climates

and that's effectively where the drive of growth on the brand comes from.

Three teams of perfumers are in competition.

This group believes they've got Brazil bottled.

'This is a coveted brief.

'This represents a lot of money to the house that wins.

'And if they hear that their fragrances are not loved or that they're not promising,

'it's very disappointing for them.

'There's a good chance there will be tears.'

We are at the... At this point in our evaluation, I know that we're not so happy.

And so we would like to take a look at where we are here.

Let's just smell, OK?

'We are designing a product that is specifically for a 16 to 25-year-old consumer.

'You would tend to do a product that would smell young.'

Someone in this room is fascinated with the coconut part of the...

'Brazilians love fruity ingredients, they love floral ingredients,

'so that what I am looking for captures that,

'but also something that really is tasty and yummy

'and yet decidedly masculine.'

Do you want to smell both themes maybe on skin?

-Let's definitely go to skin, yes. I'm so happy that you've brought skin with you.

-Let me test.

The skin executive represents a teenage boy.

He's probably lived on Pot Noodles and gone without showers for a week.

OK, let's have a look.

'Coconut is a yummy ingredient.'

What I would really love to do to keep the fragrance sophisticated

is find a way of sort of wrapping it, so that the sweetness so much isn't there.

What if we mix the two?

Pierre, come smell and see if you think it would work.

Yeah, definitely. I think it's pretty feasible.

Fragrance development is a journey.

If we make this one-dimensional, then we will fail, but you won't make it one-dimensional

and the magic now we need to see coming through from you

is something that you want to smell and smell and smell and smell.

Are guys going to remember this fragrance?

You guys need to do a lot more work, so let's not be lazy now and say, "This is it."

But please, you know, work on the sophistication, so we don't come across as being too cheap.

It's worth the pain. The contract for just one new version will pay millions.

It's a global brand

and it's a huge, huge contract for us,

so to win it, we'd have a pretty big party.

'Gottlieb still has to see the competing teams,

'then she'll go to Brazil to ask teenagers for their opinion.'

It seems that there's quite a lot of work still to be done?

There certainly is. We aren't finished with the process at all.

The next few weeks are a crunch period for all of us.

I will be meeting with the fragrance houses on a...a few days a week.

As they create, I evaluate, go back again, create again.

It's an elaborate process.

And I will be taking to Brazil

what I hope will be one single can of fragrance

and relying on the data that comes out of this

to tell us whether or not we have a fragrance that's done.

Brazil's opinion matters. It's the fastest growing fragrance market on Earth.

The people love anything perfumed.

The latest craze is for tutti-frutti scented footwear.

Everyone who can spends something on scented products, from perfume to air fresheners.

To cap it all, when the temperature soars and the humidity gets too much,

they shower it off and start all over again.

For the fragrance industry, Brazil is the perfect storm.

Even car dealers are fragrance-obsessed.

This is the Aston Martin scent.

Everyone coming into our show rooms will smell the scent.

We can give them a small bottle for free.

Not for free, you know. Nothing is free.

Brazil used to be politically unstable which made foreign investors wary.

But all that has changed.

We are in business for about three months.

Initially, we thought we had a market in Brazil for around 25 units a year,

but to our surprise, we sold already 25 in less than three months.

They know that when they buy one car like this, they are paying more taxes than the value of the car,

but they still want to have one of these babies. The whole country is coming up.

We're having a lot more people in this country move to the middle class.

Things are looking up...for some.

Most people can't afford a bicycle, let alone an Aston Martin.

But everybody wants a piece of Brazil's new wealth.

Those who aren't rich can at least smell as though they are,

but not with posh perfumes.

The real money isn't in eau de toilette.

It's in toilet cleaner.

The big chemical companies are climbing over each other

to make Latin bathrooms and kitchens rainforest-fresh.

Flavia Motta works for the biggest fragrance corporation of all, Givaudan.

OK, so here we are.

For her, every day is laundry day.

So, different types of washing machines. We have top loads that are very common in Brazil.

Not so common in Brazil, the front loads.

We also use drying machines.

We wash towels with different fragrances

in all these machines,

so that then we can compare how we perceive this fragrance

in the different moments, in the different washing phases -

when we pour the product inside the machine,

when it is soaking,

then when it's washing,

after, when the cycle finishes,

to make sure that the fragrance develops, performs in the best way in all these moments.

All of them are very important for the performance of the product,

-but there are some that are what we call the magical moments.

-The magical moments?

-The magical moments.

The ones that are the key ones for the decision on a product.

So this is one of the magical moments when we talk about detergent powders.

The cycle has just finished. I open the machine.

I take it out...

-I smell it in this way.

-Is that the magical moment?

-That's one of those.

Yes, job well done.

There is a very touching story. I went once on a visit up north

to very low income consumers.

It was a couple with four kids.

The six of them would share the two beds.

Although she was extremely poor,

one of the best moments in her day was when they went to bed.

And I said, "Why is that?"

Because she owned just one bed sheet for each bed, but she would wash it every day.

This washing powder would make the bed sheet very clean and above all perfumed.

It was a way for her of inclusion to be able to afford...

If she could not afford perfume itself,

fragrance would come through products that she used in the house.

TOILET FLUSHES

Whenever Brazil visits the bathroom, Givaudan goes with them.

There are around 50 million households in Brazil.

All the perfumers have to do is correctly decipher their tastes.

The problem is, they're changing with ever-increasing speed.

In the past, scent fashions evolved more slowly.

The Victorians loved rich, musky fragrances.

Those tastes lasted for decades

before the British fell in love with lighter perfumes.

Simon and Amanda Brooke have re-created a Victorian perfume company.

They hope the scents of the past can be their future,

but can they really turn back the taste clock?

'You need to do this with your nose.'

HE SNIFFS

Really breathe out hard and fast, then smell in very slowly.

The Brookes are not trained perfumers and turn to scent savant Roja Dove for advice.

This is Rose de Mai.

Dove is a perfumer who champions the grand fragrances of yesteryear.

He provides a sketch of the scent tastes of the 1890s.

Jasmine suggests something a little bit more, you know, a button undone, a bit of decollete on show.

The two together give you something very feminine and luxurious.

So this jasmine you're smelling here costs just over double the price of gold bullion.

Despite their reputation for sobriety,

Victorians would lose control at a whiff of civet,

the smell of a wildcat's anus.

This material is now banned as a natural material.

I have a little cache of it which I've had for years,

so I thought that this warranted smelling the real stuff.

It's quite interesting when you smell civet

to think that in Ethiopia where it comes from,

brides bathe in it,

grooms put it in their hair as a pomade on the wedding night and...

in Britain, in Georgian Britain, this was the scent of the dandy,

because it smells totally faecal,

so be prepared, it's not the prettiest thing you're ever likely to smell.

Hmm...

It's very, very sensual. I mean, this is the animal world.

It reminds me of something.

You have come a long way. If you don't think civet's horrid, you have come a long way.

Simon and Amanda Brooke's home used to smell of air freshener

and occasionally Old Spice.

Now, on Monday mornings, Rose de Mai, Tonka Bean

and Opopanax intermingle with bacon and egg.

Simon Brooke was interested in his family tree.

Three generations back was John Grossmith,

perfumer by royal appointment.

The real treasure, which is here...

And I ought to have my white gloves on for this.

But here you have in John Lipscomb Grossmith's own hand

the original formulae for almond oil, brilliantine,

almond shaving cream, hygienic salts.

Here's a special one - Regal, which was produced for King Edward.

Here we have... Ah, this is a good one - Hasu-no-Hana,

so with rose and jasmine.

New Mown Hay

with lots of jasmine and rose and orange.

Oakmoss with civet. Page after page.

Clearly, the perfume or the creativity of those sorts of things was in his genes.

In bringing a long-dead perfumery back to life,

the Brookes have changed their own.

They sold the weekend cottage and gave up their old jobs to re-create three antique scents.

This isn't my best attempt. It'll turn out looking all right.

I read Archaeology at university.

But when I graduated, I became an accountant.

We acquired the company

because it seemed...

..a kind of tidy thing to do.

It was about saying, "Let's get this back into the family.

"It used to belong to the family. We found it. It's not doing anything.

"Let's see if we can just get it back into family ownership."

A lot of the genealogy stuff is emotionally driven.

And then we realised actually it was probably quite a good business proposition as well.

One or two people said, "There's a recession on."

But mainly people said, "Wow, what an amazing idea!"

HE SPRAYS PERFUME

The Brookes were innocents in paradise when Roja Dove took them under his wing.

In 2008, I gave a lecture at the Victoria and Albert Museum.

At the end of it, a couple came and said,

"We've just discovered that we are direct descendants of the Grossmith family."

And I said, "Oh!" We started to talk about how maybe this house could be revived.

But given how fast scent tastes are changing today, is it possible

that perfumes created over a century ago can still have appeal?

Some ideas they had were so removed from how the market is today.

It is not what is generally fashionable in the market,

but the cost of producing a scent like this is extraordinary

because of the volume of natural raw materials of the very highest quality.

I don't think that it will ever be mainstream, but that's part of its appeal.

And this very slight retrospective feel, they're of a particular period in history

and I think certain people crave it because it suggests something legitimate and authentic.

The Brookes hope to reconnect perfume connoisseurs with the scents of the past.

They're not making fragrance for the fast-changing mass market.

People probably like what they would call a light perfume,

something that's got a lot of head notes and then rather disappears,

that they refresh during the day several times.

Ours are not like that.

You see the names are very exotic.

This is designed to conjure up the Japanese lotus lily and the mysterious country of Japan

because in 1888 it was only just kind of opening up.

-Guerlain did Mitsouko.

-Everybody is very interested in the Orient.

This has got a lot of bitter orange at the top.

Quite a bitter start.

-I think it's like dry wine or something.

-Yeah.

'People often say, "That's very different. I haven't smelt anything like that before."

'And I think they always find them very rich.'

Let it settle. Let it die down and then smell it in a few minutes' time.

It's such a personal thing. Does it remind you of anything?

Yes, Shalimar. One of them I absolutely detest...

'It isn't instant gratification.

'Obviously, there's a lovely start and a lovely heart note, but it carries on, there's progress.

'And it takes time.'

-..a fashion for these ingredients.

-I like this.

-Good.

-Have we got the name of this?

-You have. That's Shem-el-Nessim.

'They are a very rich mixture.'

I think it's rich from start to finish.

These perfumes transported Victorian ladies to the exotic Orient.

Over at Harrods, the ladies of the modern Orient can't get enough of them.

Roja Dove has to get to work early.

It's just coming up to twenty to ten and the doors of Harrods will open at ten o'clock.

In the summer, we have a very large Middle Eastern clientele.

They love scent.

The number one doesn't translate into English from Arabic

because most of our Middle Eastern clients will buy three, six, ten, twelve bottles of fragrance.

We have just received in these fantastic presentations which are in Baccarat crystal.

The bottles are made totally by hand.

And I just heard this morning that a client came yesterday

who wanted to buy three pieces of each of these fragrances.

The Grossmith Baccarat presentations retail for around £6,000 a piece.

-And they wanted nine of them?

-They wanted nine of them.

-That's one order?

-That's one order.

The Brookes' big opportunity might be selling the Orient a vision of Victorian England.

Ann Gottlieb is on her own odyssey.

After weeks of refinement and adjustment, she has what she hopes is the next Lynx,

but until the teenage lads of Sao Paulo have approved it, it's still work in progress.

If Gottlieb has misjudged the Brazilian scent palate, it'll be back to the drawing board.

Hi, it's great to see you again.

Great to see you too. How was your trip...?

I am so happy to be in this city. I love Brazil.

Brazil is the biggest fragrance market in the world and fragrance is selling like crazy.

And it is an opportunity

for brands to come here and sell their wares.

And you don't get what they like unless you talk to them and see what they keep in their bathrooms.

And that's the way to really create products that they love.

'At the last Brazilian census, there were over 27 million boys about to turn 15.'

-What do you do if they don't like it?

-What will we do?

Well, at this point in time, it's really just a piece of information,

so that we have some idea of really forecasting and doing all of the other logistics.

At this point, it will be very sad if they don't like it.

We are going in thinking that...

This is sort of what is called the disaster check.

And I hope that that word never pops up again in the course of this product.

One of the aspects about this culture that fascinates me so is their attitude about sex.

It's extraordinarily liberal and free and this is true of guys and girls,

which maybe is one of the reasons they smile so much all the time.

Is it all about sex?

Um... It's all about sensuality. I'm not sure it's all about sex.

For guys, it's all about sex.

Gottlieb has 48 hours to hear if groups of adolescents like her bodyspray.

The boys are younger than Gottlieb had expected,

so the focus group has to feel informal, a bit of a game.

Behind a two-way mirror, executives hang on their every word

with millions of dollars at stake.

When it comes time for the boys to grade the scent, the results are curiously similar.

Ten.

-Oito.

-Eight. Ten.

-Nove.

-Nine.

-Seite.

-Seven.

-Seite.

-Seven.

-Nove.

-Nine.

Look at how uncomfortable it makes them. They're all giggling.

-All the others seem to repeat...

-They use the same words.

-The same words.

Sometimes in these, one person's opinion dominates and then everybody shares the same opinion.

I travelled quite a distance to come here,

so that when a chunk of time is somewhat wasted

because the group does not give any feedback that's viable,

it's frustrating, it's a waste of time.

Failure is not an option.

The middle market is incredibly competitive

and other companies have been making their mark here for decades.

Sales to Brazilian fragrance fans account for 20% of Avon's worldwide revenue.

Juliana de Faria and Ana Alvarez are marketing executives.

We've got a lot of different words to talk about smells.

It's like the Eskimos with the words for ice or cold or water, whatever.

So we have... LISTS PORTUGUESE TERMS

Almost like slangs for describing bad odour.

It's just a lot of bad words!

But then you have a lot of good words for describing when you smell good.

MORE PORTUGUESE TERMS

A lot of "inha"!

-What do they mean? What do those words mean?

-Fresh and clean, mostly.

-But the "inha" makes it...

-Yummy.

-Yummy.

Avon's success depends on women selling an intimate product

to customers who are also friends.

In Brazil, they don't have a sales force. They have an army.

1.5 million reps in Brazil alone.

-We have...

-1.5 million women selling Avon cosmetics?

-Women and men.

Almost 1% of the Brazilian population are Avon men.

Every woman, every man, they don't have access to the Chanels of the world.

So what happens from a taste-making perspective, the Brazilian market is kind of an island

where local players have sort of shaped the way Brazil smells.

Ahhhh!

Paixao! Paixao!

Trends that are very pervasive in New York or in Europe don't necessarily translate here.

So when we brief a fragrance house, an international perfumer that's developing something for Avon,

it has to take into account Brazil and interpret the trends from a Brazilian perspective.

And if you don't do well here, with an Avon fragrance,

-are you likely to get knocked off the list?

-Absolutely, absolutely.

Some of Avon's scents are manufactured locally by fragrance company Givaudan.

They believe in total immersion

and have brought French perfumer Thierry Bessard to live here and permanently adjust his nose.

It looks nice, but very...strong.

Very natural. It's a bit creamy as well. Quite interesting.

I think that would be very good in a masculine or feminine fragrance.

'I came here for six months and it has been 15 years now.

'To me as a perfumer, it's fantastic to work in a country

'where all the people love fragrance, you know.'

-Everest.

-Everest?

OK, so that's probably why it smells so fresh.

'Here it's very important that a fragrance is always very fresh.

'It has to be fresh and clean. At the same time, they want something that is a bit sensual as well.'

Smells have different meanings in different cultures.

It's been an education for the Frenchman.

Fruity notes, you know, are not the same as in Europe, partly because you don't have the same fruits.

In Europe, vanilla is very sweet and it's a heavy fragrance.

Here it is very often considered as a fresh fragrance.

'You have to adapt to that type of thinking.'

Thank you very much.

OK. It was...

Kenzo, Homme.

'I was certainly confused with lavender.'

When you come from Europe, you think lavender is for the old lady or is a masculine fragrance.

Here it is very much loved by women, actually.

Actually, you wouldn't find that many fragrances with chocolate or coffee here.

I think partly because...

You know, they don't like to find on their skin something that they drink all the time.

Coffee is very strong here and coffee for them is cheap, OK?

It's the same with orange. Brazil produces a lot of oranges,

so if you have orange in a fragrance, this is something that is cheap.

Fahrenheit, OK.

This...

Well, it is typically a mango smell,

but for those who don't know it's a bit peachy, apricot, that kind of fruit.

-You wouldn't use that in a perfume, would you?

-I would, I would. Not alone and not obviously mango.

Bessard is concerned with public smells, but also private ones.

His tireless pursuit of local knowledge takes him into people's homes

to keep abreast of changing scent fashions.

The next is Social Class C. Her name is Ana Celia.

He and his colleague, Flavia Motta, make regular forays into the suburbs

to scratch and sniff.

She wears, uh, lots of... local brands.

We must try to understand better.

How heavy a user is she?

Ah...she wears fragrance every day, seven days a week.

When asked to describe her favourite fragrance, she says...

Funny. "It smells like a rich lady."

-She wants to smell like a rich lady?

-Yes.

-OK.

-It's inclusion. Social Class C.

-Yeah.

OK, this was the lavender from Avon that she is using a lot.

And she cannot be without it.

It's very refreshing and it really makes you feel very clean.

This one is from Natura. It's pitanga, pitanga is a local fruit.

Ah, this one is an air freshener, actually.

This one is passion flower and passion flower she likes better, actually.

This one is the one that she uses mostly at night.

This fragrance is what she calls...cologne.

Actually, they are baby fragrances, originally, but...

she likes them because she said, well, it's...

It's a good smell. She doesn't know how to explain it further.

For now, Ana Celia's collection includes local products that nod to western tastes.

Smells for the upwardly mobile. But for how long?

'Europe and the US still have a big influence on the Brazilian perfumery, but...'

I'm pretty sure that one day we're going to see the reverse.

'In North London, the Brookes are looking to different horizons.

'They are preparing a nine-bottle order for a client in the Middle East.'

Can you manage? Is it heavy? Why don't we just push this lot out?

'Their scents are usually supplied in simple bottles, but there is something more exclusive available.'

Inside we have...

..one beautiful little bottle.

-Made from the original mould the family commissioned nearly 100 years ago.

-Don't unwrap it over the sofa!

Hand-cut. And with pure gold as part of that etching process.

-Real gold?

-Real gold, pure gold.

Each stopper is individual to the particular flacon.

Just put it in. And the way to lock it is with a quarter turn.

I feel very proud that we've found the mould

and proud of my ancestors for having the foresight to commission one! We're very lucky.

So this is for a special order. It's our first commercial order

for a very special customer in the Middle East. He's ordered nine.

-And who is that customer?

-I'd rather not say.

-They're special people.

-OK.

It's going to a royal family in the Middle East.

'This precious consignment is off to the airport and so is Simon.

'There are rich pickings to be had in the Gulf and a sales drive is in order.

'Bahrain is unexplored territory for Grossmith.

'Brooke flies in to launch his trio of Victorian beauties

'in the kind of place that inspired his ancestors, but which they never saw.'

No leakages, nothing broken. Phew!

The launch party is at six o'clock tomorrow. We have the British Ambassador. He's going to be there.

And various VIPs. They love the English in the Middle East.

Darn hot, though.

'Hot and very humid.

'The scents of Araby have to be strong to survive the climate, as the local competition knows well.'

No more. They are finished. All Arabic people is taking this.

Arabic people use only strong perfume. Very strong, this one. Arabic perfume always very strong.

All Arabic people, all people is taking this perfume.

This is popular, this one. Arabic people is taking this. Very strong.

Perfume genital...

-Genital?

-Oil perfume, this one.

Very old perfume, this one.

'Doing business on a new frontier,

'local knowledge is key.

'Brooke is joined by Syrian perfume entrepreneur Bashir Nasri, a man with connections.'

A friend of mine, Sheikh Mohammed Asmawi,

is very wealthy man.

50% kerosene, British Petroleum, Saudi Arabia.

Wow.

And he LOVES perfume.

He is one of the ones who will buy yours, I can assure.

-Is he really?

-One day, yes.

I can feel the glass is really, really hot, but we haven't been outside long enough

-to know what the climate is like, I don't think.

-It's 126 degrees.

Uh-huh? Wow.

That's a record for me.

'Simon wants a local distributor and Bashir takes him to meet the Al Hawaj family,

'perfume merchants across the Gulf.'

Perfume, fragrance in the Middle East is their life.

It's their life.

British lady consume 100ml in six months.

Here, less than one week.

I'm sure in a few years everybody will know about Grossmith.

It's a pleasure to meet you.

I've brought some treasure to show you.

Shem-el-Nessim is Arabic for smelling the breeze. The best of English perfumery.

'You have to understand and know and respect the local ways of doing things.

'You forget that at your peril.'

I've never had a date like this before.

This is my new world! I love it. When you've got something as good as this, where can you go wrong?

'Brooke is confident, but his scents will have to contend with sub-zero air conditioning

'and summer temperatures around 140 degrees.

'The most exciting thing about Simon used to be a pink silk tie.

'Now he consorts with merchant princes and the kind of customers

'who can spend their days snoozing, parking and shopping in malls.

'The launch is to take place in an Al Hawaj perfumery.'

Grossmith! Everywhere! Grossmith.

Yes!

'Back at home, an event like this might pull in the squire-archy and a local beauty queen.

'Simon greets the British Ambassador.'

Hello. Thank you very much indeed for coming along to this.

I'm still getting used to this. ..Your Excellency, honoured guests

and friends in Bahrain, friends in Al Hawaj, my new...

I've thought about what my Grossmith ancestors would think and they'd be absolutely delighted!

'They'd be even more pleased if they knew the identity of the next Grossmith customer.

'The morning after the night before, there's a call from the palace.

'A courtier wants to meet them at the Al Hawaj offices.'

The King, when he appoints a buyer, will not appoint anybody.

He'll appoint really somebody who is expert

and keen to find for His Majesty the fragrance which he loves.

They know about him. They know everything about their boss, the King, and they make the selection.

-This is it.

-So there we are.

-The packaging, presentation, everything is absolutely delightful.

It's the very best materials without reference to cost.

This is beautiful.

'Peter Dodds has the ear and the credit card of the royal family. He selects all their luxury items.'

This is Shem-el-Nessim.

A sweet opening...

Yes.

-This is...

-Shem-el-Nessim.

Florentine auras, so very, very expensive auras.

And, um, it's becoming my favourite. It's a favourite out in the Gulf.

We've used really lovely materials. We've gone for it and done it properly.

It's a real pleasure to share with you.

-Oh, that's gorgeous.

-This is the perfume your grand-grand-grandmother...

-This is the perfume.

-It's really lovely, really lovely.

Mm.

-He'll love it, this one, believe me.

-They're gorgeous, they really were stunning.

-Yes.

-Yes!

-Wear by ladies also.

-Yes.

This is very...

Yes.

'It's the palace. State business.'

OK, three o'clock. Have the swimming pool ready.

Yes, please. All right, thank you very much. Bye bye.

So this is the spicy one.

This is a lovely one.

The riches of the Middle East. Gold-plated.

-Like the first one...

-Yes.

-Hello?

-'The palace - again.'

Fine, thank you, sir. Yes, how are you, sir? Good.

Yes, he is aware of this. He will inform Major Khaled to arrange this.

Yes.

OK.

No problem.

All right, sir.

OK, sir.

Thank you.

Thank you. Bye bye.

Sorry, gentlemen!

Yes...

I have a little gift for you, which I would be very grateful if you would accept.

-There's a 2ml vial of each of the three in there for you.

-It's beautiful. Thank you.

There's always been a stigma in the West, to a certain extent, that men shouldn't have a manicure.

-It was shame.

-Ashamed. It wasn't a manly thing to do!

But, of course, now

men, you know, in... the Arabic part of the world

and even in Far Eastern parts,

I think they tend to look after themselves better than probably we do in the West.

-It's part of their culture.

-Yes.

Pleasant journey back.

What a charming man.

-Yes!

-The brothers in action!

Yes! Yes!

'Dealings with the palace are hush hush, not rush rush.

'Simon and Bashir head for the airport and Oman, the next kingdom in need of their fragrance.

'In Brazil, it's morning for Ann Gottlieb.

'Her first Axe focus group didn't yield reliable results.

'The second must deliver the local stamp of approval for her new body spray.

'Gottlieb has just 12 hours left in Brazil.

'These teams have more power than they know.'

Hi.

I'm Ann Gottlieb.

This looks like a perfect group. Absolutely perfect.

They're certainly the age.

In just thinking about what my expectations were,

this is...this is it.

TRANSLATING: Now I would like you to introduce yourselves. I am 20 years old.

-20.

-I study civil engineering.

-I'm engaged.

-Ooh!

-I use a deodorant to make me feel confident, you know?

How do you... apply the deodorant? Do you mean to show it? Yes.

Aerosol. It's a spray, so I go like this.

Look at him! All over the place.

Then I apply it on my body as well when I am going to play soccer.

'The test version of Axe. Has Ann correctly predicted their tastes?'

When I'm watching respondents in a focus group, I watch their faces

as well as anything else because their eyes and facial expressions

speak volumes about what their nose is perceiving.

TRANSLATION: I think it's very good. What does it make you think of?

It's a strong smell of flowers.

I've tried some others and this is the best.

The best of all.

This is a type of deodorant that you can spray on your body. You don't need to wear perfume.

It's pleasant, it's good.

It reminds me of a pine fragrance.

It reminds me of...

LAUGHTER ..the guest bedroom,

the guest bedroom when you have, like, good soaps and flowers.

And it smells of woman, you know.

Of women. It's like a woman's perfume, woman's fragrance.

The other brands, I don't think construction workers could use, but not this one.

This one they would use.

That's interesting. I guess that's their idea of plumbers or something, right?

Cos I like chocolate.

Because everyone likes chocolate.

So...

They'll mix up the chocolate and my chocolate!

It smells of cocoanut.

And I think of Malibu, the drink.

You've made me so happy because this is the newest one and I'm so glad you liked it.

I heard that you thought that it smelled a little bit feminine.

Men's fragrances are going in that direction. But who said cocoanut?

There is. And you like chocolate, right?

It's sort of like the chocolate fragrance, where it's very yummy.

And the truth is that things that appeal to your mouth are sexy and they appeal to your nose, too.

That's what makes you think it's sexy. ..We had some concerns

about the fact that this was a brand-new fragrance and it was a little bit on the feminine side.

And so it was reassuring to hear that even though they perceived that,

it was fine.

What I also did find about this and it certainly plays into

my own knowledge of the Brazilians is they're happy.

And they sat here talking about fragrance in loving terms.

And that's exactly why I have such faith that this country

is going to just...fly ahead of everybody else in fragrance usage.

'Gottlieb heads home to make the spray even more of a must-have for these boys.

'Simon and Amanda's scents already enjoy must-have status in the Gulf States.'

We've been very fortunate. We've had lots of cover.

In this sort of magazine, there's a whole section dedicated to our launch in Qatar.

'Now the breeze has carried the heady fragrance into Central Asia.'

We have an order from Kazakhstan

and he had gone into Roja's perfumery

and seen our perfume, smelt it

and just thought it was stunning and sent me an email from Almaty in Kazakhstan.

And we'll ship out to Kazakhstan.

'His Victorian potions have served him well, but how long before Simon changes direction

'and makes something more modern?'

It's an aim of ours to innovate. We've got to innovate the business to keep it going.

Innovation means new perfumes, not just going to our back catalogue and taking, "Ah, this one was good.

"Let's have a go at that."

I don't think we'll be doing that with many of our... with many of our perfumes.

We will innovate and that'll be a big thing.

Will it be successful? Will it be liked? Will it...

Will it have the romance?

Good morning, everybody. And welcome.

I'd like to introduce Simon Brooke, who owns the House of Grossmith.

Thank you very much.

Thank you very much, Roja. And thank you very much, everybody, for coming along this morning.

'The Brookes face a challenge.

'Their lineage is their strength, but brands that are only about the past risk becoming museums.

'Simon and Amanda's next fragrances must nod to their antique heritage,

'but smell of the 21st century.'

We launched with three classic English perfumes.

Perfumes in the future, for us,

will be based on the original and then we go on this journey and we modernise.

You've got to think that the market,

you're creating something that you want to make people feel young.

You want to change their perception of their age.

And that's one of the obstacles, one of the hurdles

that we need to overcome, I think, a little bit in the UK.

'In New York, scent guru Ann Gottlieb is still hard at work on the Lynx account.

'Input of the Brazilian teenagers is reshaping the next version.'

A tremendous amount of work followed the trip to Brazil.

We were going for something that was a little richer and darker fragrance

and as a result of having the focus group opinions of all the people that we polled,

we've started adding more freshness to the fragrances,

a little bit of fruitiness.

What's true for Axe is being replicated across the fragrance industry.

What may have been businesses driven by the States or by Europe are going to be driven by China,

by Brazil, by India.

And marketers are gearing up for that.

And we're looking at a cultural shift right now.

So it may well be that tastes will shift and in ten years

we will be impacted by what the Chinese like.

The Western fragrance industry is trying to get to grips with the tastes of China, Brazil and India,

but how long before these new markets are doing it for themselves,

replacing the smell of perspiration with the sweet scent of aspiration?

Subtitles by Subtext for Red Bee Media Ltd - 2011

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