Aspiration is a key trigger to fragrance purchase, research suggests

CosmeticsDesign.com USA recently highlighted a survey undertaken by David Prybus, who is an expert in the field of fragrance and owner of the UK-based online portal ScentsOfTime Limited.

The survey results pointed to the fact that women tend to buy fragrance more on the name, package design and the marketing concept behind the product, rather than the actual fragrance itself.

The survey interviewed 150 executive women worldwide, who were questioned on their use of fragrance, while also being asked to determine what type of personality they have.

Certain personalities swayed by specific themes​

Prybus says that although the survey was only small, the underlying results showed that key character groupings were swayed by certain themes.

“No one buys a perfume called ‘ugly’. The top-selling perfumes seem to have names that reflect positive moods, emotions or statements of being,”​ Prybus told CosmeticsDesign.com USA.

More than anything, Prybus believes that this result draws attention to the importance of the name, product association and image of a fragrance as being the key elements to a successful product launch.

Razzle-dazzle more important than the juice​

“It seems that the ‘razzle-dazzle’ is important now and not the juice. The fragrance world has gone celebrity crazy and it appears the thing to do whilst you have your five minutes of fame is to get a biography written and launch a perfume,”​ Prybus said.

Fragrance has long been held as a mixture of fine art and science, but in the highly competitive field of mass market fragrances, detailing the sophisticated scents used to formulate a fragrance does not appear to have much bearing on the consumer.

“I’m not sure the consumer wants that degree of sophistication or explanation about fragrances,”​ Prybus said.

Howver, Prybus also underlined that although the packaging design is very important because it is 'selling a dream', consumers are concurrently becoming increasingly concerned about the use of excess packaging and recycling.