“梅虽逊雪三分白，雪却输梅一段香”，南宋诗人卢梅坡颂扬的是梅那傲霜凌雪的气势，但也不经意地道出了一个道理——香味，总能以最奇妙的方式直达人心。
恋“香”，无关道德，道出的是私密的情与亨——宛若晨曦中随凤飞舞的纱幔那般飘逸的花香，悠远醇厚，唤起人对原始森林的记忆的木香，父亲的背散发的混杂在一块的汗味和烟味，母亲在做饭时，厨房里飘出的让人垂涎的饭香……总有一种香味能令嗅觉振翅，总有一种香味能勾起内心的缱绻之情，总有一种香味让人黯然神伤，潸然泪下，又总有一种香味撩拨了心中那根隐秘的弦，让如歌岁月重现。你在看的也许是别人的故事，感慨的却是自己的人生。那么，让这期“恋‘香’”助你释怀。
Gelebrity Sure Nose How to Sell 闻香识名人
文字难度：★★★
Perfume is one of the most 1)lucrative branches of the beauty industry. According to a research, nearly $6 billion is brought by perfume each year in the U.S. alone. The reasons for this are many.
美容业中要数香水最赚钱了。一项调查显示,单单在美国,香水一年就可以带来60亿美元的收益。其中原因,可谓林林种种。
With the fashion world becoming part of everyday pop culture due to such hit television shows as 2)Project Runway, Ugly Betty, and the fashion 3)commentary that accompanies the Oscars every year, fragrances are an affordable way for women to access glamour easily. The average working mom cannot afford a4)Dior 5)garment, but for $45 she can get a bottle of Dior J’Adore and feel like a movie star every time she wears it.
随着《天桥骄子》、《丑女贝蒂》的热播以及每年对出席奥斯卡颁奖礼的名人服饰打扮的点评,时尚产业已经成为日常流行文化的一部分;而香水则既能让女士们轻易地增添魅力,而又花销便宜。对一个普通的在职妈妈而言,迪奥时装是负担不起的,但只要45美元,她就能买到一瓶迪奥的“真我”香水,而每次喷上,她就感觉自己如电影明星一般。
Nowadays, the perfume story goes in another direction. The biggest trend in the perfume industry today is celebrity fragrances, with every actress, model and singer imaginable lending her name, her face or both to one or more scents, with 6)J. Lo leading the 7)pack, as more than four fragrances bear her 8)imprimatur.
时至今日,香水佳话又驶向新方向。当今,香水业界最大的流行趋势莫过于名人香水。你能想象到的每一个女演员、模特、歌星, 她们的名字或是脸蛋或是两者兼而有之,成为了一个或多个香水品牌标识。在他们之中,詹妮弗·洛佩兹领导潮流,如今已经有超过4款得到其许可而生产的香水了。
“Fashion and Beauty go hand-in-hand with celebrities. We live in a World of Beauty and all women (and many men) 9)flock to celebrities likes bees to flowers. Fragrance is business, and Stars sell,” said Lea Barnes, an editor of a fashion magazine. “Celebrities bring the world of fashion and beauty to the real world. Unknown foreign models look fantastic, but we can identify more with a celebrity we know. We feel a connection with them, so a perfume, 10)outfit, or 11)cosmetic they create or 12)endorse becomes a product we can believe in. The recent shift from celebrity endorsement to celebrity creation is a new trend in the fashion and beauty industry. Perhaps we can blame the reality television shows that have popularized this celebrity to designer 13)bandwagon. Who knows, and frankly, who cares! Welcome it and embrace the new star-14)studded products.”
“名人名流总离不开‘时尚’与‘美丽’。我们生活在一个讲求美的世界里,所有女人(还有很多男人)对于名人的追捧,有如蜜蜂对于鲜花那般。香水是一门生意,明星本身就具卖点。”一位时尚杂志的编辑利·巴恩斯如是说,“名人把时尚与美丽带到了现实生活中。不知名的外国模特虽然也很棒,但是我们对自己认识的名人更有认同感。我们会觉得他们有亲切感,所以经由他们设计或代言的香水、时装或化妆品可以赢得我们的信赖。而在时尚美容界,最新的趋势则是从名人代言转为名人设计。或许你可以指责是电视真人秀引发了这股名人变身设计师的潮流。谁知道呢?坦白讲,谁会在意!让我们欢迎这股潮流,接受这些全新而‘星光熠熠’的产品。”
The perfume industry’s worth is at £775 million in Britain alone and retail analysts say a major driving force behind this are the famous faces on the brands.
仅在英国,香水业价值就达到7.75亿英镑(约85.25亿元人民币)。零售分析人士一语道破这一切背后的主要推动力——牌子上的一张张明星面孔。
“For fragrance companies, it’s a very, very easy way to kind of 15)piggyback onto celebrity into the market. It’s a much cheaper way than spending millions and millions of pounds starting a brand 16)from scratch, which you then have no guarantee it will succeed. With the celebrity, you can just borrow the celebrity’s name; you have a target audience anyway because the fan base will be the first buyers. So you can guarantee sales almost instantly, and you know, whether it’ll succeed or not, it’s kind of irrelevant. If it does then it’s great, if doesn’t then we’ll just move on the next one,” said Abid Rahman, an analyst.
“对于香水公司而言,借名流之名打入市场是一种非常非常简单的方式。这比花费几百万上亿英镑从无到有创立一个新品牌要便宜得多,再说没人能打包票这样一定成功。攀上名流,你就能借用这些名人的名字,你总会有一群目标受众,至少‘粉丝’团是第一顾客。因此你可以保证销售额,这几乎是立竿见影的。而你知道的,无论产品成功与否,这两者都毫无关系。成功了,当然皆大欢喜;即使不成功,那也可以再用下一个(名人)。”分析人士阿比德·拉曼分析道。
According to a sales report from a perfume shop in the UK, the perfume that is heading for the No.1 spot is the self-titled 17)Christina Aguilera. 18)Katie Price’s Stunning comes in at second, also self-titled is 19)Kate Moss’s perfume at No.3, and 20)Kylie Minogue’s Sweet Darling comes in at 4, and last is 21)Sean John’s Unforgivable for Woman.
英国一家香水店的销售报告显示,位居第一的是克里斯蒂娜·阿奎莱拉的同名香水,凯蒂·普莱斯的“惊艳”香水名列第二,凯特·莫斯的同名香水位居第三,凯莉·米洛的“甜蜜爱人”香水排名第四,最后是肖恩·约翰的“不可原谅”女士香水。
Got the poster, worn the T-shirt, read the biography. It’s not enough though. To get closer to the idols, people need their scent, or at least the scent they are marketing.
So who is buying these star-endorsed fragrances?
买海报,穿明星T恤,读传记都还不足以拉近你和偶像之间的距离。为了更接近那些偶像,人们还需要偶像的香味,或者至少也是偶像推销的那种香味。
那么到底是谁在买这些明星品牌香水?
“I think people who are buying the celebrity fragrances are not particularly 22)savvy when it comes to fragrances themselves. I think we are talking very much the mass market with lots of the 23)unsophisticated buyer.” said Hamish Pringle, the author of Celebrity Sells.
“我想,买名人香水的顾客其实对香水本身并不是十分了解。我看我们讲的是大众市场,许多消费者的想法比较简单。”《名人就是卖点》一书的作者汉密士·普林格说。
It is hard not to be cynical about these perfumes, although in 24)blind testing, some of them perform quite well. However, the market is becoming 25)saturated with these products and the average consumer may have trouble telling them apart. So there are a large group of people who are more interested in quality and being “me”. They would choose “professional” fragrances over the celebrity ones. One buyer commented upon the Christian Dior Dior Addict 2 she was using: “I find myself intrigued by the delicious aroma coming from it. This scent is absolutely heavenly. I simply adore it. It is so crisp, pure and beautiful. And the most intriguing part is that it lets me be me. I think every girl should have it. ”
其实对这些香水持不质疑的态度还是很难的,尽管有部分在不具名产品测试中表现不俗。但是,市场上这些产品已经饱和,普通消费者可能很难识别它们。所以,会有这么一大群体,他们更关注质量和“真我”。他们会选择“专业的”香水而非名人香水。克里斯汀·迪奥的粉红“魅惑”香水的一位使用者评论说:“我发现自己被它甜美的香味深深吸引。这种香味无以伦比。我太喜欢它了。它的香味清新、纯净、柔美。而它最吸引我的地方是它让我展现真我的一面。我想每个女孩子都应该拥有它。”
