marketing and branding

virtue and its reward

Today a little exercise, oil on canvas again, done over the holidays. I am not satisfied, yet and started another painting that will need some time to get finished. Although this is a picture of Mr. Trump, this is not a political post, but when reading Theresa’s comment on the blog post yesterday, saying “virtue is its own reward” I could not help coming up with this post “virtue and its reward” and thinking about a blog phenomenon that we see this year like every year: The end year lists.

I can be happy there as “I made it into some of the lists”, mostly through tauerville. This is nice, but to be honest: Not very relevant, mostly. As a creator, I want to look at what I came up with and be able to say to myself: “well done, without bending myself too much”.

And as a businessman I want to be able to look at numbers that tell me “well done, you sold enough, allowing you to continue”. The end year lists are nice, but neither do they tell whether I have created a good perfume (or not) nor do they reflect what sells in the stores in the end nor do they make a difference there. A fact that nobody wants to know or hear about: Blogging has become quite irrelevant for sales. It used to be different. These days, sometimes I think the world of (niche and indie and artisanal) perfume would be better off without some bloggers, not in light of sales numbers but in light of “in what pot with what other brands an indie brand is put”. Most perfume blogs are nice, though and driven by passion and love for perfume. Some are not, unfortunately.

You know, I mentioned it a couple of times here: Perfume blogging is somewhat dead, too much negative writing, too much bad writing, too little joy of sharing beauty and too much greed. In discussion with perfumery friends, in the past, we came often to the conclusion that although blogging is dead and some of the blog corpses start to stink and disintegrate, we need to keep on going and treat all of them with respect. But, the more I think about it, the more I come to the conclusion that me, as creator and as a blogger who writes about what he does, and also as a business man, I need to speak out from time to time and that some blogs do not deserve our, the creator’s and business men’s, respect anymore.

Now, please do not get me wrong: (niche) perfumery is pretty much dead, too. Too much negative energy, too many bad perfumes, too little joy of creating beauty and too much greed.

The goods news, me thinks, for 2016: It does not matter much and it does not bother me at all anymore; both, the blogging and what’s happening on the other side of the table. This is what I learned in 2015: You just need to go your way and it will be ok. And you need to go your way alone, as lonesome rider. Never rely on others, don’t expect help, and don’t wait for company.

And here’s another news: Here’s my best perfume blogging list. I respect and fully support Now Smell This Perfume. Thank you, Robin.