Lagerfeld Classic Grey Karl Lagerfeld 2022

Attention:
The following story is NOT based on real events and is purely fictional. Any similarities are purely coincidental. Furthermore, I would like to incorporate my perspective as an aspiring businessman in marketing communication into this story.

This is my first review with a story; whether there will be more or stylistically different ones in the future is still unclear.
Many thanks in advance to Puderperle for encouraging me to embrace a literary style.

2022 in the marketing department at Karl Lagerfeld, glorious times are far behind.

The absence of the master can be felt everywhere… fashion is sometimes appealing, sometimes not… but there is a missing product that is affordable for “many” and can share a part of the “Lagerfeld spirit” of his lifestyle, and what better way to do this than with a fragrance?
The problem is, the current fragrances may look chic in their bottles, but the criticism has not been what one would expect for the Lagerfeld brand. In terms of scent, they fall short…

The board is horrified: “No, no, no… we must do justice to the name ‘Lagerfeld’ again. Joop! is on everyone’s lips, and we?” states CEO P.P.R* with a trembling voice.
Marketing manager Mr. Viral now sees his chance.
“We have conducted market research… popular themes right now are vintage & retro. While we can’t achieve our sales with vintage, new products are being sought more specifically, and these are shown on Parfumo under New & Noteworthy: thus, we can play with the retro theme.”
“Retro? Do you think that will work?” the CEO marveled.
Mr. Viral smiled with the grin of his life. “Oh yes, at Mäurer & Wirtz we saw that they are very successful with an old look using ‘Tabac Original Craftsman’ and spreading it modernly… we can certainly keep up and use our classic, which will attract both the old fans and bind the youth to us.”

P.P.R lets his skeptical gaze turn into a nearly tearful smile: “Wow, that’s genius… but is this perfume even enough” … “No, that’s just a tool in the marketing mix… we can do much more with it. We need to see if we can get Jeremy from the red Ferrari, but we can also look further: DagiBee, Sophia Thiel, Thomas Gottschalk… maybe some rappers like Sido, Bushido, or Eko Fresh and a few reality stars & Wildecker Herzbuben, and then we sponsor Masked Singer & co… we can grab a lot there!”

“Great!!” the CEO’s eyes shine with Euro signs.
Product researcher Klara Testweg’s eyes sparkle and she asks, “But what can we name the product then…”. The meeting gets louder as the department heads murmur… until Mr. Viral exclaims: “That’s it… we stick with Lagerfeld Classic for the old fans, but we need an addition, preferably something we can show externally, and wait… Craftsman is gray, we can do that too… and bam, Classic Grey, that’s it!”

Intern Lisa-Marie Schnuffel asks: “And what should it smell like?”
“Oh, we can do something; some perfumer will make it smell a bit classic and very modern… as long as we can call the product Classic Grey, we can do anything,” sighs the CEO.

Now the fragrance was composed: a few grasses & herbs combined with sweet-synthetic wood.

The moral of the story is, it’s a good approach to want to complement a classic… but this product is soulless & has no comparability in any area with the original.
How the fragrance will fare or not, time and personal taste will decide.

For me, this is already an affront to Lagerfeld Classic, not equivalent - rather a jumping on a trend without making the effort that a Lagerfeld Classic Grey would deserve.

Thank you for reading.

*the name of the CEO is not mentioned.