Triumph & Disaster

‘My Daddy was a bank robber

But he never hurt nobody

He just loved to live that way

And he loved to steal your money

Some is rich and some is poor

And that’s the way the world is

And I don’t believe in lying back

And saying how bad your life is
…’

The Clash

I always dug the spirit of this song, its one song that when it gets stuck in my head all day I never tire of it, it just keeps milling around and I find myself making up lyrics and rolling with it.

I think this is the magic of the Clash’s songs, they wrote hooks that by anyone else risked being cheesy, but somehow they infused integrity into the core of their melodies to make them always legit.

Whether its broken understated ballads with hollow, airy tones echoing images of rugged lives lived or ripping punk edged anthems that make your veins bulge, with a clash song there always seems the possibility that something rock n roll might happen.

To evoke imagery and ideas in the listener or viewer is surely the essence of art itself. I would love to think that this could be achieved with a brand, a product, and a business.

I guess the key component will always be integrity, without that it’s just another pop song with a hook.

God Bless the Clash.

(regarding the description of fragrance 357)

‘a vitalising and cleansing aroma with connotations of the arid desert, top notes of the Blue Nile and its braken,cedar,sandal on the southern slopes inhaled as one looks out into the burnt yet smoky balsamic distance at dusk’.

Phil T&D Perfumer

(aka ‘Phil the Nose’)

As a young cricketer plying his trade under the harsh antipodean sun I was exposed early to both sunscreens and zinc. At some point I used my first post sun application, probably some form of Aloe Vera gel for sunburn.  Products like these acted as a gateway to bigger stuff, balms for cracked lips, face wash and on the odd occasion the real hard stuff; moisturizer - usually applied directly to the skin.

 It wasn’t long before I was using once sometimes twice a week. I openly began to enjoy the feeling that wearing moisturizer gave me; I didn’t care who saw or what they thought, I was hooked, a user.

Sure you could put this down to peer pressure and the failings of youth, but I knew what I was doing, I began seeking out more refined products, higher strength substances, better purity.

Once hooked I was rampant, frequenting department stores, chemists, duty free counters, it got so bad at times I found myself lurking in back aisles of small town supermarkets searching out cheap women’s products just to get through a day.

It couldn’t go on, something had to be done, I needed help. So over night I stopped, no more cheap nasty products made with god knows what, full of filler and preservative, stuffed with cheap nasty parabens and silicones, my time of abusing this junk had come to an end.

Instead I would make my own range, come out of the closet and be proud of what I have become, in the hope I can help other users find their way out of the darkness and into a brighter place, a healthier place, a place where products are pure and natural, hell, even normal.

I decided to call that place Triumph & Disaster; goodness knows it will be one or t’other…

Firstly what is the product?

Meaning what is it that you are really selling?

The answer to this question will determine how you approach both your marketing strategy and your sales strategy.

Who is the target consumer, what is their profile and what are their purchasing habits?

It is important to see marketing for what it is, which is selling and brand building, it should only be seen in the context creating a proposition and delivering sales.

Product integrity cannot be overstated, the product must do what it says on the pack, design is also important, packaging serves a huge role in telling us what that product does and in attracting us to it. This is backed by the fact most purchase decisions are made at the point of sale.

Building facings and distribution is the engine that drives sales. After a great product distribution and sales are the next most important areas to focus, because if consumers cannot find it they can’t buy it.

Once a great product, great packaging, strong and efficient distribution and clear and numerous facings are taken care of then attention can turn to communications.

The communications must work to sell or endear the product to consumers. Picking up on consumers wants and needs in the product and category and wherever possible differentiating the product from others in the category.

Key themes might be authenticity, performance, uniqueness, provenance, ingredients or quality.

Again though these communication themes need to act as selling points of the product.

The language you use and the method for delivering the communication or selling point is also important, but should not overshadow the message or selling point or indeed the product itself. This is a mistake that many marketers make, a case of entertainment and style over substance.

In an ideal world the style of delivery embellishes the product as much as the content of the communication, when all these things collide is when real magic occurs.

At university I studied Art History, of which all I remember is a single word,  ‘Sprezzatura’, more than a word it is a concept, it was explained as follows;

“Sprezzatura is a young girl, one you witness caught in a moment, hair flowing and sunlit, she is totally relaxed, absorbed in what she is doing unaware of her own beauty and potential, unaffected, free ”.

Only by being totally unaware of yourself and lost in something can the word apply, the moment you become self-conscious or aware the meaning is gone.

To this day I do not know if there is really a word ‘Sprezzatura’ but it sounds pretty cool and it reminds me of how I thought about girls when I was thirteen - things change.

Not certain what this has to do with Triumph & Disaster or mens grooming, but I guess not everything has to make sense.