• The Wall Street Journal, Monday, November 12, 2007 1:01 PM

By pairing with Valentino and other designer brands such as Hugo Boss, Gucci and Dolce & Gabbana, Procter & Gamble now rivals beauty titans L'Oréal and Chanel in premium-fragrance sales around the globe. Prestige fragrance--or perfume sold in high-end retailers--is one of the fastest-growing segments of P&G's $23 billion beauty division, with annual sales of about $2.5 billion.

Navigating in fickle style circles hasn't been easy for the compulsively methodical and famously process-driven consumer-products giant. The Valentino camp is more quirkier in its creativity. Despite such differences, the two have survived a learning curve that has required cultural adjustments on both sides.

"Luxury is a very finicky world to understand," says Graziano de Boni, Valentino's president of sales, marketing and retail world-wide. "It's a careful balance of image, quality and scarcity."

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