Becoming a measuring instrument: an ethnography of perfume consumer testing
Résumé
We provide an ethnographic examination of olfactory consumer testing in the perfume industry. What kind of reality is generated within such practices? Our analysis is focused on one particular testing method used in order to assess the hedonic performance of fine fragrances. We observe what happens inside the testing venue. We concentrate on the problem of the simulacrum (how the reality provoked within the test may serve as a proxy for the reality of 'consumer behaviour') and we analyse how participants actively engage into the task of becoming measuring instruments (of fragrances and of themselves).