Scent It to Sell

We all appreciate a shampoo that makes our hair clean and shiny or a body lotion that makes our skin soft and smooth. But it’s often the aroma of such products that convinces us to actually give them a try in the first place. So it stands to reason that the right fragrance can play a critical role in own-brand product differentiation.

In categories ranging from personal care items to home care products, scent often is “the hook” that will bring shoppers back to a particular store, notes Sarah Jindal, senior innovation and insights analyst for global market research firm Mintel. But retailers often settle for a me-too fragrance or just a “nice” fragrance, missing the opportunity to develop deep loyalty tied to a beloved scent, she says.

“Designing a product with a truly memorable fragrance that connects with the consumer is the difference between creating a must have’ product versus a ‘seems OK’ offering,” says Ann Somma, vice president of innovation for Tru Fragrance, Willowbrook, Ill. “So many retailers underestimate the opportunity to connect with their consumer and extend their brand equity through the power of fragrance and fragranced products.”

Fragrance also can help brick-and-mortar retailers better compete with online competitors on the private brand side.

“From a fragrance perspective, the only way to sample and experience a new fragrance is in the retail setting,” Jindal says. “In the future, we’ll likely have fragrance as part of our online shopping experience, but that technology has yet to be fully realized.”

Pinpoint opportunities

One differentiation opportunity lies in seasonal fragrances.

“The idea of seasonality and changing products based on the time of year definitely gives shoppers a reason to return to retail on a more regular basis,” Jindal says. “Fragrance users have also expressed interest in fragrances with additional benefits to drive differentiation, including skincare benefits such as hydration or seasonal benefits such as warming or cooling.”

And when it comes to categories that are ripe for fragrance innovation, Somma points to personal care and home fragrance as two biggies.

“The model of perfume plus body mist, shower gel and body lotion is staid,” she explains, “and the consumer needs more to prompt her to buy. She shops and browses high/low and wants newness, efficacy and innovation at a price that makes sense for her — not just another nice-scented lotion.”

For its part, Tru Fragrance has been “rethinking formats” to be able to deliver what consumers want, Somma says. It tossed the “old basic body-mist model,” for instance, to come up with a unique hydrating hair and body mist for an apparel retailer. The 3.4-ounce product was positioned as a curated private brand.

“There was a uniqueness to the format, a value in the size and an affordable price point that captured her attention amongst global fragrance brands that were side by side on shelf,” she says.

Jindal agrees that hair perfumes offering styling benefits represent an opportunity, and adds moisturizing body sprays to the list.

“Creating a well-rounded sensory experience is paramount,” she says. “This includes not just the tactile properties of a product, the packaging and application, but also the fragrance experience.”

And that fragrance experience sometimes calls for a less-is-more approach, Jindal adds. For example, many skincare users have said they dislike facial products that have a strong fragrance. And many haircare and body care consumers prefer products with “fragrances that complement their fine fragrances.”

Retailers could also put a unique spin on a store brand product by telling the product and fragrance’s “backstory,” Somma says. They could share details around the creation of the product and scent, the inspiration behind the product and scent, and more.

“A holistic vision should be considered at the front end of any development process to allow for the rich and authentic backstory that consumers are coming to expect, and to offer the content brands need to feed digital and traditional marketing channels,” she adds.

For retailers looking to leverage fragrances as a product differentiation tool, Somma says the starting point should be pinpointing and working with the right private label supplier(s). And the fragrance definitely should not be a secondary part of the new product development process.

“We manage the fragrance design aspect of a project in much the same way that we manage packaging or formulation,” she says of her company, “putting a team of world-class resources to work against the objective. We develop an understanding of the target consumer and engage the preeminent global fragrance houses to develop the right fragrance for the project, working hand-in-hand with their perfumers and resources to ensure we create [a] true point of difference through scent, and that it meets cost, regulatory and stability objectives.”