The inspiration for Burberry's The Beat for Men, according to Burberry creative director Christopher Bailey, was music, specifically the music of the bands Razorlight, the Fratellis, Arctic Monkeys and Kasabian. “I think there is so much crossing over between creative mediums,” said Bailey. “Art, design, fashion, music — they all feed off each other and inspire each other. So I sat with the perfumers and gave them a ton of music. I think it’s a bit lazy to say, ‘The guy is 18 to 25, lives in that type of house…’ I don’t care how old or how young the guy is. It’s the attitude, and what taste the direction goes in. So the perfumers listened to the music as they were creating the fragrance, and they got it instantly.”*

After implying The Beat’s target audience’s age didn’t really matter, Bailey said “being young and effortless” was the attitude he wanted for The Beat; the fragrance should “be about movement, energy — a younger, cooler, more urban Burberry.” According to The Beat marketing materials, the men in The Beat ads ARE dissimilar in occupations and backgrounds but they all look somewhere around age 20…

Read the rest of this article »