Creed

A Story of the World's Oldest Fragrance Brand With Fiercely Loyal Followings

For a brand that did everything on its own terms since the beginning of its journey, people find it hard to comprehend how it got where it is at present. Creed has a long and illustrious history going back to 1760. On top of being the world’s oldest perfume house based in Paris, there is something enigmatic about the company, that it has never felt jittery about ignoring trends, and yet it is now a trend in itself.

Perfume-making: A time-consuming but rewarding process for Creed

That Creed has never been in a hurry to jump on the bandwagon is corroborated by Olivier Creed, the man behind the brand and a direct descendant of the Creed family in the current generation. Olivier doesn’t mind taking years to come up with a new perfume like it did in the case of Viking, which came 7 years after Aventus. He puts in sufficient time, energy and effort in each of Creed’s products, globetrotting, sourcing and putting together the finest ingredients with the hope that they become successful, and they do attain success.

If you aren't a little different than your competition, you're in trouble.

Rare scents handcrafted without the use of synthetics

Creed doesn’t produce perfumes the way other perfumers do with synthetic alcohols and petroleum-based solutions. Creed infuses ingredients manually. That’s why its perfumes take inordinately long to surface in the market. However, the company has been able to build a reputation of creating rare scents using ancient techniques. Erwin Creed, son of Oliver Creed, said that Creed focused more on perfume-making and less on marketing.

Special relationship with clients

The runaway success of Creed has also to do with the way it treats its clients. Normally, when clients visit a fragrance store, ordinary salespersons usually say, “Would you like to try this? Would you like to try that?” However, when the same clients come to Creed, the company's representatives will start with, “Tell us about yourself.” Creed romances its clients; it is damn good at it. The globally renowned perfumery has boutiques across the world including UK, and its high-profile clientele includes Queen Victoria, John F. Kennedy, Richard Gere, Pierce Brosnan and Naomi Campbell. 

“A brand like Creed, they’re part of a trend - they’re artisanal. Apart from the fragrance itself, it’s the story behind such scents and how they’re made that capture consumers’ attention and win their heart,” said Kissura Craft, Director and Fragrance Analyst at The NPD Group, a market research company. Kissura added, “For instance, talk to anyone who wears Aventus, and they keep saying no matter when they wear it, people are always stopping them on the street and asking what they are wearing.” That’s how seducing and overpowering Creed is.

Scarcity of ingredients and skills work in Creed’s favour

Even though the mainstream success of Creed’s iconic perfumes is credited to men like Olivier who is gifted with extraordinarily acute sense of smell, there is another factor that Creed uses in its branding. In the ultra-competitive fragrance industry, Creed builds its market value around the notion of enforced scarcity - the scarcity of the ingredients used, the scarcity of the skills needed to manufacture perfumes, and the scarcity of each new release.

To sum up, Creed’s is a story of inspiration, grit, confidence, dedication and most importantly profound understanding of the human nature and the human spirit. It has been able to remain relevant in the fragrance world for two and half centuries. Only a brand like Creed knows that things are painstaking at times but are nevertheless worth the love and respect of the entire world.