A Fragrant Journey

My struggle this week has been crafting a company image that my clients can relate to even in hardnosed Washington. The bath and body products business is fiercely competitive and consumers, while wanting fresh and new, also want consistency.

When I was in high school, my mother and I were devote Avon users. Inevitably one of her employees at the dry cleaning store would be selling the beauty products as a way to bring in extra household income. My mom and I would pour for hours over the pages of their catalog, carefully picking out the fragrances and soaps that most matched our personalities.

Being a teen, I wanted whatever my friends were wearing at the time. Typically, that meant something like Honeysuckle or Sweet Honesty (which they still sell today, remarkably).

My mother, however, would choose the more elegant scents like Persian Wood or Here’s My Heart. They came in simple textured bottles and delicate sachet jars. They were as mystical as they were fragrant.

I found the body product packaging then to be both imaginative and quietly elegant. The delicate sculptured lid on the Here's My Heart sachet jar pictured here looked almost like the white lace spread on her bed.

My fondest memory is of Mom dabbing the sachet cream on her wrists and rubbing it in. I could smell it for the rest of the day. It was tough to get her to part from her favorites.

Not all of our favorites were Avon. Mom's favorite bath scent was SiBon (pronounced say-bone), an delicious oil that she bought from the local drug store, whose scent lingered in the bathroom long after she’d showered.

But my clients like strong themes and a consistent product. While novelty items hit hard at first, it is the quality products that have the staying power. Look at Chanel No. 5. or scents by Ralph Lauren. Classic. Refreshing. Consistent. The same could be said for Mary Kay Cosmetics, though we never used them.

When I grew into my 20s, I found my perfect scent was Ralph Lauren's Safari. It hit the market when earth tones and safari clothing was popular. But I loved it's earthy scent that was light and airy but not overwhelming, definitively feminine. At the sme time it evoked an air of adventure, not unlike that in the movie "Out of Africa." And today, the company markets the line as a "personal adventure." The bottle is retro, 1920s, which plays right into my sensibilites as a journalist who loves travel and history.

I chose the name ChesapeakeBay Bath and Body because I am a diehard Marylander. The Bay is a lush, green region that rivals Martha’s Vineyard or any of the other coastal communities on the East Coast, and has a very different feel from the West Coast beach environment. I want to introduce people to my Maryland. The marinas. The wild horses of Asseteague Island. The lighthouses. The people. I love traversing the Maryland coastline. I always find something new and exciting.

Now my challenge is to not only translate that feeling to a mostly urban clientele, but those who appreciate handcrafted products but make them fit in as part of their home decor, their lifestyle.


Kathy A. Gambrell

Founder

ChesapeakeBayBathandBody.com