By Design : Building On the Sweet Smell of Success
For six months, Peter Klamka has been road-testing LIVE, his new unisex fragrance, a combination of mandarin, lavender, spearmint, jasmine, nutmeg, apple and black pepper that will be sold by a record-store chain.
If you think you smell disaster, think again. Klamka, the 26-year-old president of Ann Arbor-based Wilshire Fragrance, has proven he can take a seemingly ridiculous idea and make it work. His Campus Collection, a line of 48 licensed colognes, hit $5 million in sales last year. The fragrances are purchased primarily by women for men who they hope will get a kick out of smelling like their favorite college.
The roster includes UCLA, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Arizona, Penn State, Georgetown and the University of Michigan, which is Klamka’s alma mater. The universities either assist in selecting the scent or leave it up to Klamka, and they receive from 6% to 10% of sales from Bloomingdale’s, Nordstrom, JCPenney and campus stores.
Klamka, who is involved with every detail of the colognes’ production and marketing, insisted that UCLA’s citrus fragrance, for example, have a “fierce” animal on the package rather than the traditional mascot.
The $24, two-ounce spray bottles of cologne might be much cheaper than other logo-laden, rah-rah gift items, such as “a $300 blazer or an $80 Waterford crystal decanter,” he says. “But it’s not a gimmick. It’s a serious fragrance. We have three of the best domestic houses putting the fragrances together for us.”
Such marketing wisdom is paying off for Klamka, an investment banker when he walked through an Ann Arbor department store, passing first by the fragrance counter, then the collegiate-shirt department. “I wondered why no one had put the Michigan label on a bottle of cologne.” He discussed the idea with an attorney friend during a visit to Los Angeles and named his 3-year-old Wilshire Fragrance company for the boulevard they were walking on. This year, he was nominated by the New York-based Fragrance Foundation for a FiFi award, ultimately losing to Donna Karan. He was told, he says, “the nomination was a reward for my youthfulness and my entrepreneurial nature--and to continue doing what I’m doing.”
He has no intention of dropping the ball--or the bottles. In addition to the October introduction of LIVE by the Camelot Music chain, he has plans for a September launch of NASCAR, a racing scent that will be sold on ESPN and QVC.
Of course, his unusual career takes some explaining. Every one of his friends, most of whom are lawyers, he says, “have called me at one time or another to say they wish they could sell perfume like I do. They think I’m inordinately compensated for a minute amount of work.”
He denies the “minute” part but admits to perks unlike any they know. “My last ad campaign had Chris Webber in it,” he gloats. “So, not only do I get to sell fragrance, I get to hang out with NBA stars.” As well as the woman he initially describes as “a very beautiful, notable model.” When the ink is dry on her contract, he reveals she’s Anna Nicole Smith, the former Guess goddess, whom he’s just hired to make LIVE live on.
