‘Amouage is a roving ambassador for Oman’
One of the most successful Omani brands, Amouage is on the threshold of a major makeover exercise. David Crickmore, CEO, Amouage talks about the new marketing strategy and growth plans in an interview with Akshay Bhatnagar


What was your brief when you joined Amouage as a CEO in July 2006?
The brief was to ensure that the brand reached its full potential, both in the GCC and internationally, through the creation of beautiful, luxurious products and marketing campaigns that enhanced the luxury positioning of the brand and secured it for the future. A secondary brief was to explore how wide the brand could be stretched in terms of new product development into new product categories as the overall intention is to transform the brand into a global, luxury brand.

I am convinced that Amouage has a huge potential to be the first internationally distributed luxury brand originating out of the Gulf region and Oman in particular. This will be a reversal of the existing dynamic that sees European and American brands proliferating in the Gulf markets.

What is your strategy to take the company and the brand forward?
We are currently undertaking a complete re-evaluation of the brand, including the branding and logo as well as all its products. The re-launch will coincide with the commencement of Amouage’s 25th Anniversary and the launch of a wonderful new fragrance. Nothing will remain the same, but we are convinced that our loyal customers will come with us on this voyage as we take the brand to a wider international audience. The old logo and packaging have served us incredibly well over the last 25 years but now it is time to move on.

How do you plan to broad base your product range?
As an extension of the current fragrance portfolio, we will launch new product categories – bath products and a new home fragrance collection – in late 2007. It’ll broaden the brand’s reach and hopefully widen its consumer appeal. All will be unveiled in a wonderfully glamorous re-launch event in Oman in early November, where the world’s really important, opinion-making fashion and lifestyle consumer press will see the new face of Amouage for the first time.

Amouage, as the country’s only luxury brand, is in fact a roving ambassador for Oman. As such, we want to create a brand that is world class and that can compete with international luxury brands in the same way as Oman itself is moving in that direction. This is the reason why we have to change to compete in the wider world. To stand still would result in gradual decline and eventual death of the brand.

How has been growth of Amouage in the last three years?
Amouage has witnessed continued steady growth over the years but has not really grown dramatically. It has ticked along profitably and successfully as an SME and that provides a very firm foundation from which it can now grow and extend. Obviously, with the considerable effort and expenditure going into the re-launch, we truly believe we shall see dramatic increase in our value over the coming years, providing we remain true to our mission and continually re-invest our profits back into the brand.

Which are your major markets?
At present, roughly 65 per cent of our business comes from the GCC and the rest from other markets around the world. I intend to reverse this percentage and the rather over-reliance on the Gulf markets, since it is good business to broaden our market reach. Our strategy is to broaden our base further in our key target markets in Europe first – UK, France, Italy, Germany, Spain – and then to take our message to the wider world such as Japan, Korea and the Far East, where international luxury brands are much sought after. In the medium term, we also intend to open an office in New York to handle our American business as well as to open flagship stores in key cities around the world.

What makes Amouage, an Omani brand, succeed in the international market despite cut-throat competition?
It is not our intention to enter the ‘cut-throat’ competitive arena with our brand, as this is largely price-dominated. Amouage is a luxury brand and therefore does not enter into price wars.

Our product is the finest available and we intend to keep it that way. Of course, if you want the best then there is the requisite price to pay for it. Our price positioning will remain at the high end since this enables us to continue to use only the highest quality of ingredients and products. Our prices, however, are set according to the value inherent within the product and its ingredients, so “you get what you pay for,” as they say. There are of course luxury brands that have far higher budgets for advertising. But we intend to have a focused approach to market our product and brand, primarily through the PR route, as this reaches directly to our core consumer target; advertising is very broad brush in approach since one cannot be sure that the target consumer is seeing the advertising. Of course, I hope one day to have a large advertising budget to add to our current PR strategy but that is some way down the road yet.

The core strategy for the brand is that we never intend to compromise on quality in anything we do merely to sell more. Everything we do in future must be justified according to our luxury positioning. This means that it will not be for everybody. Our mission is that, at its core, Amouage will appeal to a very high net worth, sophisticated, internationally aware consumer who appreciates something really precious and special, but above all different from the normal run-of-the-mill fragrances that abound today.

How are you progressing on the relaunch front?
Amouage is confronting the challenge to mould itself into a 21st century, global luxury brand through a comprehensive re-evaluation of all its products. The new-look, packaging and bottles of Amouage will continue to honour Oman’s rich heritage and culture, but will be more stylised and contemporary with an international appeal. We have assembled a team of design professionals in Europe who are masters in the luxury world and who have been entrusted with the comprehensive transformation of the brand under my direction; each specialising in their core competency thereby complementing one another.

Christopher Chong, Amouage’s Creative Director, is responsible for all new product developments and design conceptions, as well as all new fragrance developments; Bill Radzinowicz handles all product design and creative execution of packaging, print and branding; Bacchus PR manage all international communications (Europe & USA) and Trans-Arabian Creative Communications (TRACCS), the GCC.

Are you considering extending your manufacturing base outside Oman?
No, we do not envision extending our manufacturing base outside Oman. Currently, the fragrances are developed by well-known perfumers under the creative direction of Christopher Chong and my commercial guidance. The concentrate ‘juice’ is then imported for maceration, bottling, packaging and quality control in the Amouage factory in Oman. We are planning to build a new facility to expand our production capacity in 2009, as the current facility simply cannot keep up with the ever-increasing demand. This, of course, means we shall gradually become an even larger employer of local nationals.

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