Dubai: Brigitte Taittinger has grown up living and breathing luxury. Her grandfather founded the French champagne brand that bears the family's name.
Her resume also reveals a constant presence in France's most famous luxury brands. She has served in the marketing department of Groupe du Louvre, which owns Crillon, Concorde Hotels and Resorts and the Louvre Hotels.
She is the vice-chairman of the board at luxury crystal maker Baccarat and heads the perfume house Annick Goutal, which was acquired by the Taittinger Group in the mid-1980s.
Brigitte works with her daughter Camille Goutal and the perfumer, Isabelle Doyen, to create high-end perfumes that are slowly spreading their reach worldwide.
The perfume house has around 30 fragrances as well as home fragrances, skincare, bath and body products. When Annick Goutal was sold to Starwood Capital Group in 2005, the company looked to boost its position in the Middle East and Asian markets to add to its presence in Europe and North America.
Last year the perfume house changed hands again and was acquired by the South Korean giant Amore Pacific.
Taittinger recognises the potential of the Middle Eastern markets for Annick Goutal and is looking to expand her distribution points.
The brand currently has only four distribution points in the UAE through Harvey Nichols, Bloomingdale's, Galeries Lafayette and Saks Fifth Avenue, plus a presence in Qatar and Bahrain. New distribution points will be added in Abu Dhabi and Saudi Arabia.
"I prefer not to open the distribution points too much; I prefer to increase the turnover for each destination," Taittinger said.
The luxury fragrance market in the UAE is predicted to be worth Dh663.5 million by 2014. In comparison, sales of mass fragrances could be worth Dh247.9 million in the same period.
The average spend on premium perfumes in the GCC is higher than elsewhere and accounts for approximately 20 per cent of the global market.
"In the UAE people like their perfumes and they love their brands," Taittinger said.
Atmosphere
According to her, in the UK they see a lot of sales coming from their Middle Eastern clientele. "We also have two distribution points in the UK — Harrods and Harvey Nichols — where our products are very popular with Middle Eastern customers," she said.
"They like the atmosphere of the brand and the interior design of our store which is a baroque, gold setting."
Expanding a perfume house to distant parts of the world can prove difficult. With fragrances playing such a significant role in traditions, cultures and religion, different parts of the world differ greatly in their tastes and usages.
"Generally in Asia, people don't really use fragrances," Taittinger added. "Because they've only just started wearing fragrances, they start with a very light scent.
"In the Middle East, people have used a lot in their beauty rituals. It's one of the reasons they like strong perfume.
"Even within Europe there is also a difference between north and south. For example, in the south of Europe in places such as Italy, they love fragrances. In northern parts such as Sweden, they don't use fragrances at all."
While Taittinger is looking to bring Annick Goutal's perfumes to the Asian markets, she is aware of the need to do so slowly.
"In Japan we are starting small and using light scents," she said. "You can't change a culture in two days."
According to her, the rose is making a comeback in the scent industry. "It might be because of tradition, the rose is well known everywhere," she said.
"I think that in a modern era like this where people experience a lot of stress, they want to go back to a certain traditional value.
"In the Middle East, the type of scent used is the rose absolute. It's a mixture of six different roses and very strong. When you go to Japan it is the rose splendid, which is a very fresh scent such as the one you'd smell in an English garden in the rains."
Lot of money
Wearing many hats, Taittinger is aware of the growth of what is in vogue in the luxury market. "I spoke with the president of Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent and Louis Vuitton. They all said last year was a fantastic year for luxury brands. We can expect this trend to continue for the next few years."
"You always have a lot of money in the world. The question is where is the money? You have less today in Europe but you have more money in China and Russia. There are always consumers who have money."
