The German firm invited its most important strategic partners in the scent arena to the event, with Givaudan presenting societal trends, fragrance innovations and specific concepts for new Nivea products.
"Fragrance is the soul of a product and especially in cosmetics and skin care, one of the most important factors in consumers’ decision to buy,” says Givaudan representative Angello Kostandas.
“Fragrance is like a powerful magician: it connects us to our feelings and our memories. Studies show that after six months only about 25% of people can remember a picture, but 82% can remember a specific fragrance. Even ‘lost’ memories can be activated with fragrance.”
Fragrance trends
In the presentation that followed, the Givaudan team introduced global megatrends in societal developments that can be translated into current and future fragrance and cosmetics trends.
Given the host of the session, perfume experts presented specific innovation ideas for Nivea corresponding to each of the trends discussed, and these were then immediately tested by the participants in product samples.
“I’m happy with the first-class presentation by Givaudan. Our partner provided us with great, thought provoking ideas and I’m sure that we will be able to realize other projects together out of this first-class pool of ideas,” says Anja Göppel, Head of Beiersdorf Fragrance Management.
Verena Nikoleyczik, Key International Account Manager of Givaudan, who set up the event with Göppel adds: “For both sides, this event was really worth it. It was impressive how actively the Beiersdorf employees participated in the discussions with our team at the following in-house convention about the trends and fragrance innovations that we presented.”
Open Innovation
The Open Innovation event continues a trend for Beiersdorf having launched its international open innovation initiative Pearlfinder five years ago, in order to further increase its ability to innovate and to confidentially integrate external partners.
Since then, Pearlfinder has developed into a global network with 270 registered international partners from diverse industries and since the re-launch of the platform in December 2014 has made it even easier to submit innovation ideas and to get in touch with Beiersdorf researchers.
In order for the initiative to continue to develop positively, Beiersdorf says it will continue open innovation activities such as the ‘Care for the Future’ event.