Nigerians are our second largest consumers in the world – Torongo

Tate Torongo is the director, Africa Europe and Middle East for Clive Christian, a self-named, uber luxury perfume brand with headquarters in the United Kingdom, known for creating the most exclusive and most expensive range of perfumes in the world including regularly creating fragrances for the British Royal family.

Clive Christian’s perfumes have been in existence since 1872 and have been at the topmost end of the ladder as regards creating the best perfumes in the world. Recently, the brand had a first of its kind collaboration with niche fragrances brand, Seinde Signature. In this interview with IFEOMA OKEKE-KORIEOCHA, Tate Torongo speaks on this partnership and how important the Nigerian market is to him.

What have you seen in the Nigerian market that’s making you come over here and launch the Absolute Perfume?

So, when I look at our brand globally, our biggest market is America and in America, our biggest consumers in America are the Americans. Our second biggest consumer is Nigerian. If I go to the UK, our biggest consumer is from the Middle East. Our second biggest consumers are Nigerians. If I go to Dubai, our biggest consumer is from the Middle East. There’s a real affinity for our brand as Nigerians. I see that the Nigerians really love what we do, they love our products, and we love them. So, there’s a real good synergy between what we do and Nigerians who appreciate luxury, appreciate quality, and appreciate luxury.

Tell us about the Absolute Collection you’re launching in Nigeria?

Now, the Absolute Collection is something that we do at Clive Christian, which is very rare. It’s actually not something that’s available all of the time. You can only buy it in very few places around the world. There are not more than 10 places in the world where you can buy this. It’s not something that you can walk into a store and leave with today. So, the Absolute Collection is like buying a custom-made dress or a tailor-made suit.

So, you have the opportunity to make some bespoke choices to create a perfume that is just right for you. And then after you’ve made your choices, it takes our craftsmen about four months to make the product for you. So, you make the choices today, and in four months’ time, we’ll deliver a perfume for you. This is because this perfume is not currently sitting in a warehouse somewhere. It hasn’t been made yet. So, after you choose your perfume tonight, on Monday, our team will review your choices and start creating for you.

For the Absolute range, what’s the purchasing power of this particular range? What’s the price?

So, the starting price is $8,000 and then I say starting price because some of the choices you make along the way affect the price of the product. So, for example, if you want to personalise your product with a diamond, the price would change. So, $8,000 dollars is the standard price. So, if you want a diamond, that’s extra. The choices you make change the price on the way but the standard price is $8,000. Also, the size of the diamond affects the price. Whatever choice you want, we can do it.

How confident are you that now that you’re in Nigeria, you’ll be able to get your target market considering you’re only staying here for a week? After a week, what happens next?

So, I’ll start with that one first. So, for the partnership changing the signature has actually been happening for a while.

This is not the first event we’ve done to change the signature. It’s the second. The first one we did was in 2022 when we launched Town & Country, which has grown to be our number one selling perfume in Nigeria and globally our number two best-selling perfume.

So, I’m very confident that we have a consumer in Nigeria because over the years, we’ve seen it and we’ve seen how much they gravitate to our brand in other parts of the world and also here as well. In terms of how confident I am in getting my target consumers; I’m extremely confident. Because it’s not about a target consumer per say. It’s about knowing that our consumers for our product, not just in Nigeria, globally appreciate the craftsmanship of the product. They appreciate what it is.

Also, most of our consumers already know who we are. And they already know our price point. So, it’s not something that’s a brand new thing to them. They’re aware of who we are. They’re aware of what the price is. They’re also aware of why our prices are the way they are.

So, what informed the choice of Seinde Signature as your partner in Nigeria?

For the Seinde Signature, you have to look at it in two parts. First, you’ve got to look at the man. Seinde has done a really amazing job of building his business and building what it is.

He’s done an amazing job of really making perfume, niche perfume, front and center of the luxury conversation in Nigeria. So, he was obviously the right partner for us to work with, because not only does he have a good understanding of luxury, so do his customers and his consumers. Both our brand and his brand also have similar goals. And again, we’ve worked together before very successfully. So, there’s a lot of trust in it as well.

After the launch, what else should people expect tonight?

Tonight will be fun . We’re talking about this beautiful Absolute, but we’re also talking about all our other perfumes. So, the Absolute is the pinnacle of Clive Christian, but we’ve got so many other beautiful perfumes that are equally as rare in terms of the ingredients that you find in our perfumes, the quality that you find in our perfume is unmatched. There are not many other perfumes that are equal. You’ll see a lot of that tonight. There are lots of real fun embellishments we have.

Like, if you go to the bar, you’ll find all these really cool cocktails that are themed around our perfumes and inspired by our perfumes, the ingredients in them, the way they’re made, inspired by the perfume we’re having. You can obviously hear the lovely singers singing in the background, singing some beautiful music. It’s really immersive.

It gives you a chance to experience something luxury, people, community, all of the things that we love.

Would it be right to quote you to say that Nigeria is your second largest market in the whole world?

It would be right to say Nigerians are our second largest market because Nigerians are purchasing the product in other parts of the world. Not necessarily in Nigeria.

You’ve noticed over time that Nigerians have bought your product. Have you observed any trend on Nigerians’ buying habits?

I think that Nigerians are luxury consumers for sure. I also think that Nigerians are very early adopters. They notice things before others and they notice and love things before others do.

I’ll give you an example. If you look at what’s happening in Nigerian culture from a fashion perspective, from an art perspective, from a music perspective, Nigerian artists, Nigerian musicians, Nigerian designers are really taking center stage in the world. If you see the explosion of Afrobeats, and now Afrobeats being something that started as being something that was solely like Nigerian and has become so global, it shows how front-facing and international Nigerians are.