A season of scent: the festive business of niche fragrances
Distinctive segments from limited edition scents to fragranced personal care products and new market niches from subscriptions to social platforms are changing the perfume industry.
An element of surprise
Creativity in formulation and marketing that bring scents to consumers in lively contemporary ways are winning this season. “Taking advantage of opportunities in unexpected spaces is key in today’s shifting prestige beauty market,” Karen Grant, vice president and global industry analyst for The NDP Group said about this year’s holiday trends.
Fragrance is a top category every holiday season; though recent years it hasn’t been fairing so well. “Times are changing as the market is finally growing well. Fragrance has been reported as the fifth most-popular purchase of the season, and with more women’s fragrances available this year, the outlook is expected to remain positive,” wrote Cosmetics Design deputy editor Andrew McDougall regarding the 2014 holiday trends outlook from the NDP Group.
As predicted
The fragrance market is thriving in alternative spaces, Jenny B. Fine, editor in chief of Beauty Inc. affirmed earlier this year at a Cosmetics Executive Women (CEW) event for industry insiders in New York City.
At that event, specialty fragrance brands Rituals and Bath & Body Works were optimistic about holiday sales and underscored the value of innovation, ingredients and inspiration in creating scented body care and lifestyle products.
Niche brands, whether working in fine fragrance or scented personal care, stand apart from the conventional market and by definition approach things differently.
“Niche brands differ from their bigger rivals in that they focus more on the originality of the scent than the packaging and the image projected via a celebrity. They also usually use higher concentrations of perfume extracts and more natural ingredients which tend to last longer,” Astrid Wendlandt wrote in a Reuters piece about the threat niche fragrances pose to legacy brands.
A wealth of niches
Established brands offer specialty fragrances via limited editions and exclusive collections. Brands focused on the mass market often develop a few perfumes and a multiplicity of body care items in scented collections.
And new brands looking for loyal consumers in a crowded market place have gone digital. Some are launching on Kickstarter to amass funding and marketing buzz, while others are going the route of subscription services.
And custom-made fragrance combines digital modern convenience with artisan talent and individual attention. “Long ago, before there were perfume houses and multinational conglomerates that made perfume, there were little perfumeries and apothecaries; now thanks to the Internet, it has become possible to return to those roots in a sense, spawning a surge of artisan and niche perfumers,” Mandy Aftel writes in her new book Fragrant: The Secret Life of Scent.
“The revival has created a parallel revival in connoisseurship, as small batch makers connect directly with increasingly sophisticated customers,” Aftel explains. So this holiday, we can sum up the perfume trend thusly: ‘tis the season for something special!
