It Is More Than A Scent That Drives Customers To Buy Top Fragrances

InterParfums, a major fragrance company that develops and launches world-recognized brands across 120 countries, has seen tremendous growth in the scents business resulting from a great shift in consumer purchasing behavior and from post-COVID pent-up demand shopping. The company posted the best results in its history-$880 million in revenue for fiscal 2021, an increase of 23% over 2019. In the North American market alone, IntraParfums experienced a 50% sales growth compared to 2019.

Customers are buying more fragrances

Consumer purchasing in health and wellness has increased since the pandemic including the fragrance category. Global fragrance sales were up 6% in 2021 versus 2019, and the U.S. market experienced a 49% increase in prestige fragrance in 2019 versus 2018. Virginia Bonofiglio, chairperson of the cosmetics and fragrance marketing program at Fashion Institute of Technology, discussed how fragrance sales have had an unprecedented spike over the past two years and experts have weighed in on this phenomenon by looking at consumer behavior across all the beauty categories. Color cosmetics experienced a sharp drop in sales while skincare, hair care and fragrances all saw increases. Bonofiglio said, “If we isolate fragrance, the probable reasons consumers purchased more fragrances during this period fall into a couple of buckets. The fragrance is an affordable luxury, a little treat you can give yourself without breaking the bank. You can enjoy this luxury all by yourself while you are isolated from others and are spending most of your time staring at a screen.”

World recognized fragrances developed by InterParfums

While most consumers would not recognize the company InterParfums, they would certainly know many of the 22 exclusive worldwide brands that the company develops scents for including Montblanc, Salvatore Ferragamo, ​​Coach, DKNY, Donna Karan, Guess, Kate Spade, Oscar de la Renta and Jimmy Choo to name a few. The company recently launched MCM in March of 2021 which has been a highly successful campaign. I had the opportunity to sit down and talk with legendary fragrance visionary CEO, chairman and co-founder of the company, Jean Madar, to learn more about the perfumery business and understand what is driving customers to spend more on scents.

Madar founded the business and has been running it since 1983 with his business partner Philippe Benacin. So what has changed over the past 40 years? Well, three major aspects have shifted the business accelerating the purchasing of fragrance in 2021 and continuing into 2022. Three major factors that have positively influenced fragrance buying are the interaction women have with scents, the men’s scent businesses and globalization.

The interaction between women and scents

When Madar founded the business, women would buy one fragrance, a scent that they had an emotional connection to or one that portrayed their persona (or aspirational persona), and they would stick to that scent. Madar said, “Women would use the entire bottle of her signature scent then buy another bottle when it was empty, which usually takes over two years.” A major shift in consumerism has been that women now purchase many different fragrances to fit their various moods and personalities and they desire the novelty of current launches. Many women will opt to buy a new fragrance without finishing their current bottle.

Madar discussed how 80% of the fragrance launches do not run past a couple of years and some end within six months of launch. The market is constantly filled with new choices and scents that appeal across a wide range of customer markets. Bonofiglio believes the fragrance industry has done a great job with storytelling and consumers responded by purchasing fragrances directly without the support of retailers and advertisers. “The direct-to-consumer trend, spurred by the pandemic, was embraced by indie fragrance brands that viewed this as an opportunity to build a community of loyal fragrance aficionados.” The growth of fragrance demand can be attributed to wider access to a variety of products.

Scents for men have spurred fragrance growth

Men’s scents have also grown over the past few decades. Initially, when InterParfums first launched, almost all men wore deodorant and did not use cologne or scents. Today, however, Madar noted that its number one scent in the company in terms of sales revenue is Montblanc, a fragrance brand that does $168 million per year. Montblanc launched its line of men’s fragrances first and then entered the women’s market, whereas most other brands have launched women’s first and followed with men’s.

Men’s launched in 2011 with Montblanc Legend and the first women’s scent then Legend Pour Femme was introduced in 2013. Madar said, “Montblanc fragrances have met with growing success since the signing of our first license agreement, first with the Montblanc Legend line and then the Montblanc Emblem line. The work accomplished by the Maison has contributed considerably to this success, and has allowed us to build a lasting position in the universe of men’s fragrances.”

International markets have a strong appeal

Globalization has added market expansion for the company and the fragrance industry overall. Both North America and Europe were always strong markets but in the past two decades, emerging markets like Asia, and China became growth opportunities.

Madar talked about how these new markets were not similar to the U.S. or Europe and developing scents and campaigns to appeal to the target markets was challenging, even for experts like Madar and Benacin. For example, the China market had the potential to add 15 million consumers but the scents needed to be of softer and subtle notes. It was a challenge to find the right scent that would appeal to a market that was more interested in skincare and makeup.

Bonofiglio shares expertise in this area by discussing how the international fragrance industry tries to create fragrances that have a global appeal, but in reality, scent appeal in different geographies occurs because fragrance likes and dislikes are, at heart, local in nature. “The sense of smell is attached to the limbic region of the brain which controls memories and emotions. The fragrances someone chooses are very personal and depend on everything they have smelled before.” Bonofiglio continues by explaining that the reaction can be both positive or negative. This fragrance reminds me of my mom and therefore I like it or this fragrance reminds me of my mom and therefore I think it’s for an older person and not for me.

Many studies have been undertaken to quantify what types of fragrances appeal to different geographies and it has been said that the Asian market prefers citrusy and green fragrances while the U.S. market prefers sweet and fruity scents. Bonofiglio said, “This information is a combination of both quantitative studies and anecdotal experiences. What we do know is that fragrance brands find success across multiple markets and the decision of which fragrance to wear remains a personal choice.”

However, the game-changer for InterParfums entry into the China market was a newly acquired brand in 2012, Anna Sui, that catapulted the fragrance business in that region. This highly recognized brand in China gave way to instant recognition of the culture of the fragrance. Every Anna Sui fragrance is developed specifically for the Chinese market and it has been very successful.

Fragrance purchasing trending up into mom’s day

As consumers have risen out of COVID lockdown and ventured back into shopping in stores, there has been strong purchasing in the fragrance category. Bonofiglio stated, “As the beauty industry embraced the wellness trend, fragrance took on a new role. Consumers learned that fragrances can do more for you than make you smell good.” Bonofiglio discussed how researchers continue to attempt to better understand the sense of smell. The effect of Covid-19 on one’s sense of smell was well documented in the press. The consumer began to think more about scents and their sense of smell. They wanted scents that could change their mood, or promote a feeling of well-being or help them relax. “The fragrance industry responded with new fragrances, new fragrance brands and a whole new philosophy in and around the use of fragrance, spurring sales.”

The upward trend of fragrance purchasing will flourish as consumers think about shopping early for mother’s day, a key trading holiday day for the beauty industry.