Grey zählt zu den größten Kommunikationsdienstleistern international wie national und ist in Deutschland mit der GREY Group Germany in zwei Städten vertreten. Hauptstandort ist Düsseldorf. International ist die Gruppe Mitglied des GREY Group Networks; dieses Netzwerk bietet globale Marketing Services in allen Disziplinen der integrierten Kommunikation an.  Seit 2005 gehört Grey zur WPP Group.

One basic component is the facet of authenticity. Authenticity is extremely relevant in the case of multiple other products and groups of products that demand well-trained capacities in explaining and presenting those goods. Authenticity is a multidimensional term: it is input, output and – as a throughput – continuous fuel in the social realm between production, distribution, and consumption. It is a code of qualities like loyalty, constancy, and trust/familiarity: consumers document their connection to a brand and its products through it. In addition, direct financial developments can be related to authentic brands.

Thus, authenticity still gains importance in markets where consumers are more and more critical about over-marketed and worshiped brands. US-psychologist Michael Kernis (passed away in 2009) mentioned the following aspects of authenticity that is related to individuals:

• Awareness of own strengths and weaknesses
• Openness in relation to incoming positive and negative information
• Action according to specific values and ideas
• Honesty and sincerity

These aspects are also relevant in terms of brands and branded products more generally. Beyond the traditional argumentation that authenticity is, basically, created through real and true being that is continuously compared, changed, and recreated by its consuming audience, the above four aspects can also be addressed through intentional doing in the ongoings course of becoming a brand.

Awareness of own strengths and weaknesses

• Certainty of the brand and its products in regard to its overall appearance, its pricing and availability
• Individuality with a focus on the uniqueness and specificity of the brand
• Emphasis of the unique strengths through communication, marketing, and PR

Openness in relation to incoming positive and negative information

• Continuity and flexible, but also robust, goal-oriented action
• Flexibility through a continuing overview of the market and consumer development
• Sensibility for potentially important weak signals

Action according to specific values and ideas

• Internal consistency in its decisions and actions on the basis of individual standards and goals
• Patient communication of the relevant values and ideas
• Achievement of objectives through commercially obtainable genuine means (which will become brand-characteristic in the medium and long run)

Honesty and sincerity

• Stringent and economically- as well as ethically-correct actions
• Establishment of Codes of Conduct
• Handy, provable and recognizable signs of honest behavior

Thus, authenticity is an everyday warrantor of intentional and true action that helps to realize economic goals. Authentic brands and their products reach out and capture well-informed and knowledgeable consumers that are increasingly critical about traditional marketing.

The book is in four parts: an introduction and presentation of the setup of the book; goods, services, and knowledge; spaces and places; and a summary. It consists of 19 chapters and covers different economic sectors. It also deals with the state and its role for brands and branding and develops significant theoretical input for economic geography.

In Chapter 8 on „Sensing brands, branding scents: On perfume creation in the fragrance industry“, I connect the literature on knowledge and practices of knowing with the literature on brands and branding. I use the example of the perfume and fragrance industry wherein branding plays a focal role. In the Chapter, I cover relevant activities and knowing practices that become prominent during the development of a branded perfume; I describe, develop, and analyze emerging geographies of knowledge. The Chapter draws from my empirical research and presents food for thought for the current discussion in the discipline. Furthermore, it elaborates on creative processes in the perfume and fragrance industry.

Please stay tuned!

First, branding – centralized in the marketing departments at the multiple brand-licensees – is typically less intensive and works with significantly smaller budgets. It moves increasingly from the niche brand owner to the consumer, in particular the fragrance aficionado. Branding implies the understanding of and trust in a brand concept, the relevance of individual and collective discussions of perfumes,  and the relation to other brands and their perfumes. The value of and as a niche brand develops out of the support of its fragrance fans. Brand knowledge is held by a group of consumers that function as a collective of evaluators. Thus, niche-brands particularly of the new niche are well-advised and interested to let the brand marketing go to the consumer through interaction in online communities, for example. Blogs are unique spatial solutions within a distributed knowledge network that enable the interaction of multiple ‘consumer evaluators.’ Thus, in a sort of open crowd-sourcing based on the free will and keen interest to participate, the consumer has at least the potential to play a more integral, though not instrumental or instrumentalized, part during the creation of a perfume. These characterizations have geographical implications: branding spreads out instead of being located within the offices of the marketers and related personnel. Co-creation is enabled in the branding process, it is about ‘letting go’.

Second, consumers become crucial denominators of what is niche and what is not. In an ‘economy of excess,’ the characterization as niche locates a brand away from the orthodoxy of the mass market. The discussion of what is ‘too mass’ and ‘on the edge’ is left up to the consumer in terms of bespeaking and trading particular perfumes.

Third, with the development of key niche consumers, the manufacturers of niche perfumes actually find personnel that can actively co-decide in the process of composing a new fragrance. Thus, over time, consumers receive the potential of certain degrees of credibility in terms of their suggestions and feedback during a creative process.

Fourth, the smells of perfumes that consider themselves as niche and are considered as such by the consumer community, indeed, smell differently: the targeted audience of enthusiasts is more critical and knowledgeable about what is on the market and the valuation of a brand can document the longevity of it for the future. Often, the higher prices for niche brand perfumes are intricate calculations of ingredients, costs, and revenues. However, niche does not automatically has to mean ‘good’ or ‘better’ in terms of scent: even though the price might signify quality and difference, the adequacy of smell is, once again, appreciated (or not) by the knowledgeable customer.