The past year has been a challenging one for fragrance products sold through supermarkets, drug stores and mass merchants with sales of both men’s and women’s products down for the year.

Information Resources, based in Chicago, tracks dollar sales and the number of units of men’s and women’s fragrance products through supermarkets, drug stores and mass merchants. For the 52 weeks ended Aug. 12, 2001, sales for women’s products, including perfumes, colognes and body powder, totaled $636.9 million, down 4.2%.

Men’s products dropped even more to $453.8 million in sales, a 5.4% decline from last year’s $479.8 million.
Gift packs were the bright spot for both men’s and women’s fragrance products. Women’s fragrance gift packs sold through these channels tallied $314.8 million, a 5.8% increase from last year’s $297.4 million. Men’s gift packs outpaced women’s, growing 9.6% in sales to $118. million from last year’s $107.6 million.

The Right Looks
Packaging plays as great a part in the mass fragrance market as in the prestige category, serving to attract consumer attention and differentiate products from the competition.

Appealing to a mass market consumer has become more complicated. According to Henry de Monclin, vice president of sales and marketing of Atelier Dinand, a design firm with offices in France and New York, the mass consumer is now more educated, fueling a need for looks that are chic and trendy.

“Consumers want the best for their money,” Mr. de Monclin said. “Even though the designs remain simple, a touch of color dressing and custom designed shapes are more frequent. Mass is less and less about stock and generic shapes, (because) products have to have personality and presence”

There are as many different looks as there are in the prestige market. “It is very difficult to define trends for fragrance packaging in the mass market,” said Laurent Hainaut, president of Raison Pure International, a packaging design company with offices in Paris and New York. “They usually follow the trend of the luxury market using cheaper packaging material.”

Packaging suppliers agreed that mass products are looking more like prestige brands. “Packaging of mass fragrance products is trending to a more upscale look as vendors seek to narrow the separation between mass and class,” said Stephen T. Pearlman, president of Risdon-AMS, Watertown, CT. “Combining materials such as metal and plastic is one way such products achieve added value packaging.”

Augros has created such a materials marriage in a cap for Avon’s beComing line, that is being sold in boutiques located in J.C. Penney stores. The new beComing fragrance package is topped off with a clear plastic component molded by Augros over aluminum to create a unique, highly styled cap.

Fragrance Lover’s Guide Seeks to Promote Gift-Giving The Fragrance Foundation has teamed up with The New York Times to produce and distribute The Fragrance Lover’s Guide, a pocket-sized annual designed as a holiday gift-giving guide for consumers. Full of interesting information on what kinds of fragrances are available, the booklet also gives advice on how to select, wear and keep these olfactory pleasures. A letter from Annette Green, president of the Fragrance Foundation, opens the booklet, introducing the Guide and the Certified Fragrance Sales Specialist (CFSS) program. There are 1,700 CFSS associates nationwide at participating retailers ready to help consumers choose the right fragrance. Distribution of the first edition of The Fragrance Lover’s Guide focused on the New York City area and with a combined circulation of 160,000 including certain New York Times home subscribers of the Sunday, Nov. 18, edition, visitors to upscale hotel rooms, CFSS department stores and the Annette Green Museum at The Fragrance Foundation in New York City. Copies of the Guide will also be available to advertisers in the New York Times. Ads in The New York Times and radio spots on WQXR will promote the guide and participating retailers.

“Designers want clarity, bright color or to blend several materials, said Peter Arentzen, president and chief operating officer of Augros, based in Ronkonkoma, NY. “The challenge is to figure out ways to reduce costs to the client and to your own company. Augros makes the mold. Our designers work with the marketers to find a way to make the package component at a reasonable cost.”

Such hybrid components would have been prohibitively expensive for mass products, before clear plastics such as copolyester resins from Eastman and Surlyn from DuPont became available in the market, according to Mr. Pearlman. “These sorts of exotic materials have become more cost competitive, although they are not as inexpensive as a standard plastic—but are definitely more affordable now,” Mr. Pearlman said.

Other finishes have also become more affordable, according to Mr. Pearlman, because suppliers have become more efficient at the necessary processes, such as electroplating.

One way to lower costs in packaging fragrance may be to create a totally plastic perfume bottle. At this time, copolyester resins are being used to create an outer shell or sheath around a glass container, but, according to Scott Rook, business market manager for Eastman Chemical, research is underway to make an actual plastic fragrance bottle that can withstand the rigors of holding perfume.

Finding ways to create a custom look with stock bottles is another way marketers are attracting attention in the mass market.

“Medium to large size companies are custom designing their own bottles, said Steven J. Nussbaum, director of marketing at O. Berk Company, Union, NJ. “They are frosting stock glass for a more glamorous appeal. Those companies that cannot afford private molds because of the expense or quantity needed to make it cost-effective, are turning to spraying, ceramic decorating or fancy labeling of stock molds to enhance the look and differentiate product on the shelf,” Mr. Nussbaum explained.

Marc Rosen, president of Prêt-a-Porter, Custom Standards, is taking the line global in a partnership with Saint-Gobain Desjonqueres. The new alliance was announced at a cocktail party held during Luxe Pack in October hosted by Mr. Rosen and Ramon marti, managing director of SGD.

Mr. Rosen, who creates prestige packaging through his design firm Marc Rosen Associates, explained that he had estabished Prêt-a-Porter to provide an alternative to custom designs. “The quality is the same as what we create for our custom projects,” he said. Prêt-a-Porter’s Portfolio Collection is now available worldwide through SGD.

What’s That Doing There?
It used to be that mass was mass and prestige was prestige and never the twain shall meet, but in these tough retail times, you never can tell what will show up where.

It’s no wonder that mass lines are trying to look more upscale, when a check of Wal-Mart’s website showed several well-known prestige fragrances available and a follow up at a Wal-Mart bricks and mortar location in Monroe, NY, confirmed that, although present in small numbers, some of the items are also on the store’s shelves.

The upscale brands included Polo for Men, Polo Sport for Women, Romance by Ralph Lauren, CK One and Calvin Klein’s Eternity, as well as various Liz Claiborne products, Nautica, Lagerfeld and others.

Calvin Klein Cosmetics declined to comment on the fact that several of its prestige fragrance products were on sale at Wal-Mart’s Website.
L’Oréal USA stated, “Wal-Mart is not an authorized retailer of Ralph Lauren fragrances.”

The issue of prestige fragrances turning up in unauthorized channels of distribution has been aoround in the U.S. market for years.

Such mysterious distribution isn’t only taking place in the U.S. The issue of a Gray market is also a concern in Europe, according to sources at Luxe Pack, who explained that inventories have been growing recently for both manufacturers and retailers as the effects of a slowdown are felt after five years of robust growth. In order to keep product moving, both suppliers and retailers are selling to other channels, including mass.

Another factor is that there are no longer duty-free shops available for consumers between countries in the European Union. Many consumers that used to buy prestige products in Duty-Free shops are now going to mass and discount stores to find a better price.