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Industry viewpoint Insight: Fragrance Boosting the business BW Confdential asks four industry executives for their views on how brands and retailers could grow the market by Oonagh Phillips Guerlain ceo Laurent Boillot What does the industry need to do to increase volume sales in fragrance? LB: The trend over the past years of lower volumes and value sales holding up due to a price effect will not be reversed. And given the economy, the market will continue to be soft or slightly down in terms of volume. Outside niche or exclusive fragrances, there is not really an offer that is differentiated in terms of quality or price. Other sectors are doing this; for example, in wines and spirits there is segmentation in terms of quality and price which is clear for the consumer. So for the consumer the fragrance offer is fat. Consumers are faced with too many fragrances—around 400-500 each September and they are Coty president of global lost. The industry should have a more curated approach without being markets Jean Mortier afraid that the volumes will drop even further. Although, there is a lot of pressure from the retailers who say that to have a good position in store they need newness. I would draw a parallel with the cinema industry. A while ago it was said that with TV and the rise of the internet, people would stop going to the cinema. People go to the cinema for two reasons: good flms and movie theaters that are attractive, and so the cinema industry needed to make an effort on the quality of the flms and renovate the big movie theaters to make them more welcoming. Our industry is faced with the same problem. First of all, the industry needs to work Beauté Prestige International on good quality fragrances. It also needs to question itself a bit more, (BPI) coo Eric Henry especially when it comes to the old model, which is about coming up with a story, fnding an available name for the fragrance, fnding a spokesmodel if the company has the means and then doing a photo of the model beside the fragrance bottle—there is not a great deal of creativity in that. The industry is stuck in its own codes, for example, that the formats are 30ml, 50ml and 100ml and that you need a certain price range to succeed. Like cinema, it is also an industry of blockbusters—companies bet on a name of a fragrance, invest a lot and know that in the frst year they will do good sales, but then wait Parlux president Don Loftus to see what happens in the following years. With this scenario, those who win are those that have the most means to do advertising. We are looking to do things a little differently through our network of standalone stores. I am not saying that we will not work with retail chains, but in our boutiques we can try new and different things that put fragrance in the spotlight—these stores are like an idea lab. At the beginning of next year, we will launch a retail initiative based around a new way of experimenting with fragrance that aims to bring back the enchantment, creativity and discovery of perfume. The consumer can come to understand fragrance and purchase it in 42 November-December 2015 - N°24 - BW Confidential