Before Carlos Timiraos ever worked in beauty, Macy's made him a department manager in women's handbags, and the head of human resources told him the widgets don't matter. He was there to drive sales and drive business. On this episode of The PIMS Influence, Carlos walks Mike and co-host David Silbergleit, CEO of PIMS, through the path from Macy's to nine years at L'Oréal, building celebrity fragrances at Coty, and two of the brands he works on now, Fat Mermaid and Surface Deep. He gets into why every launch starts as a hypothesis, how Coty planned for the second purchase, why the 3PL is the last touch point between a brand and its consumer, and why he tells brands not to rush into brick and mortar. At Coty, every fragrance launch carried a color code: invest, milk, maintain. A launch might not make money in its first year or two. Then the investment pulls back, and a flanker in the same bottle brings the consumer back to try again. A good idea or a good celebrity gets the first purch...