Smelling good for fun and profit
Posted on December 3, 2003 @ 5:54 pm
Every time I see Ally Hilfiger prancing around on MTV’s latest so-bad-it’s-good reality series, Rich Girls, I can’t help but reminisce about the brief period that I spent as a foot soldier in the Tommy Hilfiger empire. In fact, it was right around this time of year in 1996 that I began working as a Tommy Hilfiger “fragrance model” in a department store at the local shopping mall.
For those who might not be familiar with the fragrance modeling industry, I was that person who wanders around the store spraying cologne on little cards and attempting to pawn them off on unwitting shoppers. Or, to put it another way, I was a scented magazine insert come to life. To draw yet another analogy, the fragrance modeling biz–and make no mistake, despite all the glamour, it’s still a business–is surprisingly similar to telemarketing. Basically, one’s entire job as a fragrance model consists of rudely interjecting oneself into people’s lives in an attempt to sell them a product that, far more often than not, they have no interest whatsoever in purchasing. Unlike telemarketing, however, fragrance modeling transpires face-to-face, so the would-be customers (or “marks,” as we called them) don’t have the easy option of simply hanging up–or even slamming their doors as in the case of door-to-door salesmen and proselytizers. Needless to say, this can create a wide range of rather uncomfortable scenarios.
In my experience, most shoppers recoiled in an odd mixture of fear and disgust when offered a card that I had generously sprayed down with Tommy cologne, shouting “No, thank you!” over their shoulders as they ran away to hide in the shoe department. In other words, they reacted just slightly more positively than if they had been offered a vial containing a live strain of the bubonic plague. We usually referred to these customers as “maybes.”
On the other hand, a sizeable portion of the shopping populace apparently suffers from severe allergies, and they’re not at all afraid to share this fact with a well-intentioned fragrance model if he or she approches them with a sample. In fact, it wasn’t uncommon to receive a thorough dressing-down right there in the middle of the store. It usually went something like this: “How dare you, you insensitive clod! Get that freaking card out of my face this instant, or I’m going to have a talk with your manager!” Meanwhile, the customer would cover his or her mouth and nose with one hand while clutching their children close with the other to protect them against my olfactory assault. I can’t really blame them, though. By the end of my eight-hour shifts, I would inevitably end up with watery eyes and a sinus headache to end all sinus headaches thanks to the noxious wares I peddled.
Finally, there were the customers who simply walked by and pretended they could neither hear nor see (nor smell) me. If I had my guess, these were the customers who were in fact most likely to buy a bottle of the cologne when it was all said and done–assuming, of course, that anyone actually bought a bottle of the cologne as a direct or indirect result of my efforts.
To add insult to injury, since I was selling a Tommy product, I also had to sell the “Tommy look.” This meant dressing head to toe in Tommy Hilfiger couture, which at the time consisted primarily of button-up shirts emblazoned with unspeakably gaudy red, blue, and yellow flags and chinos featuring an almost implausible number of pleats. At first, I was somewhat comforted by the assumption that I would be taking these hideous garments home with me as a perk, where I could then properly dispose of them with a ceremonial burning. Much to my surprise, however, at the end of each day, the store manager would simply reattach the tags to whatever clothes I had just worn for eight hours (and in which I had presumably perspired) and place them back on the racks.
Needless to say, it wasn’t the most fulfilling job I’ve ever worked, but as a poor college sophomore, I certainly couldn’t complain about making $15 an hour. Plus, I can’t overemphasize the added bonus of being able to spend the rest of my life telling stories that start out, “Back when I was a fragrance model…”
Posted by Jess | Filed Under Life in a Nutshell, Random Musings |
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It’s funny how people seem to lose their humanity and become something more along the lines of pure numbers or variables when you’re doing a client-based job.
My job at a calldesk made that clear to me.
The fragrance model gig is probably the only job I’ve ever worked where my customers/clients/prey absolutely hated me simply for performing my assigned duties. At the end of the day, it’s hard to feel like you’ve accomplished anything when all you’ve done is make people angry at you.
Oh, and being dressed like a color-blind rodeo clown doesn’t help either.
Sounds a lot like telemarketers. I’m one of those people who RUNS AWAY FAST when a fragrance sample person approaches me. And it’s hard to avoid them since dept stores put their cosmetics dept next to the opening to the mall.
I can’t help but wonder whether anyone in the history of commerce who wasn’t already shopping for cologne has been convinced to buy a bottle thanks to the efforts of a fragrance model. I’m betting that the answer is an emphatic no. Then again, if it didn’t work, I guess the department stores probably wouldn’t bother to hire fragrance models (much less take the time to give them such a ridiculous job title).
How horrible! I am one of those severe allergy types. I also, am a bitch. Let me edit that to Bitch. I usually make very loud, “oh god! my nose is going to fall off!” comments and hope that the person wearing perfume that you can smell ten feet away will get the hint. My personal opinion? If you can smell it when you are farther away than 8 inches or so, you have too much on. Also, 99% of perfumes smell horrible anyway.
I worked with a lady once with overladen perfume. After blowing my nose all that day, and wishing I had an entire bottle of tylenol at my disposal, I discussed it with one of her coworkers. “Oh, she’s all the time complaining about her allergies. I wonder why?”
Kara,
I agree with you 100%. Sometimes I wish that there was an emergency perfume hose required by all building codes.
Of course maybe they’re covering up some other even worse smell.
Now that I think about it, maybe it wasn’t the whole fragrance model business paradigm that kept me from selling any colonge, but rather the fact that my eyes were watering and my nose was running the entire time.
“Oh–I want whatever cologne it is that’s giving that nice young man a severe allergy attack right before my very eyes!”
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Hi I was wondering if anyone knows a way to write Ally Hilfiger at email or home? If anyone has any information i would greatly appreciate it. My email is punkychrissy@msn.com Thank you so much and Happy Holidays!
I am actually a fragrance model for Tommy Hilfiger at the current time and I LOVE my job. First off, I only give cards to customers who already seem interested in a fragrance purchase. Seeing how someone is going to have to eventually spray something on a card in order for the customer to make a purchase, this gives them yet another option. Secondly, most customers aren’t horrrible at all. In fact, they are glad to receive a card with a new fragrance or something they’ve never smelled before. Most everyone wears one fragrance or another and will eventually need help in making a decision as to what they should wear. I am simply a possible stepping stone towards that decision. Although I am supposed to only push my product, if I can see they don’t like what I have to offer, I simply suggest something they might really like even if it is a competitor. I don’t have to wear any ugly uniform and the actual department store didn’t hire me. I wear business casual attire and am hired by Estee Lauder, who owns the Tommy fragrance. I have no onsight boss, therefore i can take longer lunches and shopping “breaks” granted that I am reaching my sales goal. I find my job to be very fun and fulfilling, not mention the pay is great.
I am a professional spokesmodel, I promote a variety of things and would like to get into fragrance modeling as well, I find a lot of my work through agencies. How do you contact these companies for work? Any help would be appreciated! I am in the Seattle market.
Thanks, Holly