São Paulo – The Middle East perfumery will be the topic of two lectures this month in the city of São Paulo. The first’s focused on women entrepreneurs and takes place this Tuesday (8) at the perfume store Al Zahra. The second one is scheduled to August 23 at bookstore Martins Fontes Paulista for a more broad and general audience. The speaker on both is the business women Julia de Biase, owner of Al Zahra stores, which are specialized in Arab perfumes.
On Tuesday, the talk will focus on the luxury perfumery of the Middle East. Based on her experience in the region, Biase will talk about this sector, since the presentation of the perfumes in crystal bottles to limited editions, the use of natural products, the quasi-craft making of the perfumes and the customized service to the clients. “It’s like a jewelry store,” says Biase.
The goal is to reveal the sector to the entrepreneurs and show them that differentiation can lead to success. Julia De Biase, an architect, will tell about her experience of bringing the essences from the Middle East to Latin America, in a market in which these were unknown. “We don’t have to be stuck on what’s normal, obvious, we can be daring, there’s a market for daring,” she says.
The lecture is an initiative of the Women group of the Brazilian Sales and Marketing Directors Association (ADVB) and is named “Market niche: from the East to the West.” It’s part of a series of lectures in companies organized by the women’s group. Biase’s lecture is for members of ADVB (contact for registration below).
At bookstore Martins Fontes, the entrepreneur will focus on the history of the Easter perfumery and the market niche that she currently holds. Biase will talk about the use of perfumes since the Ancient Egypt to our time. She says that in Ancient times, perfumes were used as class distinctions and only people such as the pharaohs would use. “Today is spread out among the classes,” she says.
The entrepreneur will also talk about the differentiation factors of the Easter perfume, since the care in the making, craftier, to the packaging. The lecture “Al Zahra: A Scented History – the Saga of a Brazilian through the Middle East discovering perfumes that became the business of her dreams.” Lente Cultural is organizing the event, within a project that organizes cultural events and is made in a partnership with bookstore Martins Fontes Paulista.
Perfumes Julia
Julia De Biase started her path through the Arab perfumery when she travelled the region for the first time in 2008 and visited Jordan, Syria and Dubai. “It was the first contact with Eastern scents, I was abducted,” she jokes. Initially, she brought to Brazil perfumes for her personal use and some friends. Later, she thought of establishing a small business, a simple stand, to sell the products. But she soon realized that her clients were opinion-forming and that Brazil offered a market to be developed for Easter perfumery.
The Arab perfumes brought by Biase began to be sold in several stores throughout Brazil and in 2015 she opened Al Zahra, her perfume store at Jardins district, in the city of São Paulo. Currently, she has another store inside the Holiday Inn hotel, also in São Paulo. The perfumes come from Bahrain, Dubai and Saudi Arabia. At the end of last year, the entrepreneur launched the 4 perfumes that she created, all of them produced in Dubai, UAE. Now she’s working on developing creams, sprays and soaps, a body line.
Quick info
Lecture “Market niche: from the East to the West”
Speaker: Julia De Biase
August 8 (Tuesday), 2017, at 2 pm
At Al Zahra store
Rua Melo Alves, 490 – Jardins – São Paulo – SP
For ADVB members (free admission)
Registration: advbmulher@advb.org or (11) 3287-0000
Lecture “Al Zahra: A Scented History”
Speaker: Julia De Biase
August 23 (Wednesday), 2017, from 7 pm to 9:30 pm
Auditorium of bookstore Martins Fontes
Avenida Paulista, 509 – 2º andar – Bela Vista – São Paulo – SP
Tickets: BRL 45 (USD 14.54)
Registration: http://www.lentecultural.com.br/palestras/palestra-al-zahra-uma-historia-perfumada/
*Translated by Sérgio Kakitani