Fragrance Trend: marketing and formulating lifestyle scents
“Fragrance wardrobe” is quickly becoming a term of art in the beauty business and among consumers. It’s no surprise then that millennials own on average five to eight fragrances, as Laren Stover reported in an item on observer.com.
Wendi Berger, president of the 100% natural fine fragrance company Pour Le Monde, anticipates that this trend will become the norm and, in fact, had lifestyle scents “in mind from day one” when she founded the company.
Pick your adventure
This trend seems to have begun in the US, where today identity is ever more flexible, says Diane Cabaillés, marketing coordinator at Pour Le Monde. Day to day, place to place, “you can be whatever you want, especially as a woman,” she adds.
That’s in contrast to a time when signature scents went hand-in-hand with meticulously groomed and fairly rigid identities, e.g. a working woman, a socialite, a housewife. “Millennials don’t want signature anything and there are now more and more choices and options [for everyone],” Berger observes.
Now, women across generations choose fragrances to match the energy and experience of each occasion. “Experience is key. The real life experience you give consumers really matters,” Cabaillés tells Cosmetics Design.
Remember when
The link between fragrance and memory is clear. Berger likes people to make their own memories with Pour le Monde parfums. And “because Pour le Monde parfums are naturals [they easily tie] back to memories” says Cabaillés.
For a fragrance to carry good memories forward and make new ones that fit well with an activity or occasion rather than a personality, perfumers must give the formulations a different sort of attention.
As an example, the scent Empower, makes for a good weekend or sporty occasion fragrance. It “combines fresh top notes of exquisite citruses from all over the world with the subtle addition of spearmint, basil and orange flower….warmed up by a woodsy base.” Berger describes it further as having the quality of “sunshine on a rainy day, and the inviting [luxury] of a warm towel.”
Relationship status
Repositioning existing fragrances and developing new ones to coincide with milestone moments and the nuances of life—business meetings, graduations, brunches, a night out dancing—will help keep brands relevant.
One concern that crops us here is brand loyalty. Consumers building a fragrance wardrobe may be inclined to pick and choose from several brands. Berger has a shortcut: “the natural world is not your traditional makeup and fragrance space,” she affirms.
Consumers shopping for naturals are invested in clean beauty and often in the ethics associated with niche brands. Berger notes that Pour le Monde gives back through charity (the organization that each parfum supports is shown on the bottle) and is transparent about its ingredients.