Sales in the United States of mass fragrances, those non-designer scents bottled for a middle-class clientele, have dropped by half since 2000. Photo / Thinkstock
Sales in the United States of mass fragrances, those non-designer scents bottled for a middle-class clientele, have dropped by half since 2000. Photo / Thinkstock
The fast growth of specialised scents in fabric softeners, household cleaners and body sprays has helped make America, and the typical American, smell sweeter and cleaner than ever. Even storefronts and airlines are rigging up scent machines to bathe customers in the companies' trademarked aromas.
It's good news for our noses but terrible news for a once-bountiful business: The nation's perfume and cologne industry. Sales in the United States of mass fragrances, those non-designer scents bottled for a middle-class clientele, have dropped by half since 2000, to about $600 million last year, data from market researcher Euromonitor International show.
Pricier perfumes, with their big names and bigger ad budgets, have fared far better, with premium fragrance sales in the United States climbing 16 per cent since 2000 to a record-high $5.2 billion last year. But for mainstream scents, a less-smelly America, and the rival products that have allowed it, has undermined their entire industry.
"The explosion in the use of scents . . . has led fragrances to be more commoditised. As a result, fragrances have lost their mystique and have become less 'special,' " Euromonitor analysts wrote in an industry report last year. "The saturated environment in fragrances has arguably contributed to consumer confusion and apathy, making it very difficult to make a brand stand out."
Big companies have helped deflate the scents industry by piling on with their own special smells. Verizon Wireless last year trademarked a "flowery musk" spritzed in some storefronts that, as Verizon lawyers said in trademark filings, help distinguish the cellphone giant from all the others.
United Airlines wants to trademark the fragrance it pumps into lounges and jet bridges at Chicago's O'Hare Airport, an herbal aroma the airline calls Landing that smells of cedar, sandalwood and orange peel. The smell, the airline has said, was designed to create "positive transition moments" for travelers by keeping them happy - or at least less peeved by potential delays.
This kind of "fragrance commoditisation" has torpedoed firms like Coty, the Paris beauty-products giant, which has lost market share in recent years to competitors like L'Oréal because of the crumbling sales of its mass fragrance division, which includes Adidas, Jovan and Stetson. The firm has instead refocused its efforts toward more prestige and celebrity fragrances, including scents for Beyoncé, David Beckham and Katy Perry.
Premium scents like Chanel No. 5 have years of prestige, marketing and brand loyalty to boost their sales.
For younger customers, celebrities (and their marketing empires) continue to jump onto shelves with branded scents of their own. Boy band One Direction in recent months launched Our Moment, an eau de parfum by Elizabeth Arden. Music mogul Jay Z (Gold Jay Z), pop singer Justin Bieber (The Key) and rapper Nicki Minaj (Minajesty) have followed suit.
But even some celebrity fragrances are slowly losing popularity, as their target market of tweens and teens choose to spend less of their dwindling disposable cash on fragrances (and more on, say, mobile apps). "The mass fragrance part, in particular on the celebrity side in the US, is in decline," Coty chairman Bart Becht said on a February call with analysts.
The big money in perfumes and colognes has always been in the designer labels, which are still growing because of some adept image control. They are often bolder or more pungent, making it harder for rivals to co-opt their special sauce. And many are sold in limited-distribution channels, like luxury makeup counters or boutiques, which analysts said allows "wealthy consumers to feel that they have made a discovery."
Premium scents like Chanel No. 5, Acqua di Giò and Donna Karan Cashmere Mist have years of prestige, marketing and brand loyalty to boost their sales. Others invest heavily in marketing: For its Flowerbomb perfume, lesser-known fashion house Viktor & Rolf dressed sales associates in pink outfits and had them offer free hand massages with its scented body cream. (The $106.99-per-3-ounces is an eye-catcher all on its own: Its glass bottle is shaped like a hand grenade.)
While rich and discerning perfume lovers are happy to spend more to not smell the same as everyone else, analysts said, value shoppers couldn't care less. Most skip the cheap perfume and get the same scent from sweet-smelling deodorants, body lotions, body washes and body mists. If they do splurge, data show, they buy up smaller, cheaper vials of designer perfume for just a whiff of the cachet.
Interactive graphic looks at decline in sales of mass fragrances. Premium fragrances have retained their cachet:
