Niche fragrance; tearing down the chateau walls

Has there ever been such a huge disconnect between what a market is and what it could be? How is it that fragrance, such a magical experience, has been “dummed down” to such a degree?

Magical? Yes. If you’ve had any sort of personal fragrance journey, you’ll know what I mean. Raising your “olfactory awareness”, in part by learning about the artistry of fragrance, is a wonderful, life-enhancing experience.

The answer (to the dumming down) is that fragrance has long been a huge money-maker for large cosmetics marketers and retailers. For decades, this cozy alliance (well, with the occasional squabble…) had a lock on distribution, pushing (or spritzing) product on helpless consumers.

Big distribution pipes were filled, money rolled in and creativity began to languish.

The balance of power began to shift as consumers, armed with better information, started to develop higher expectations for beauty and demand more convenience via new channels of distribution…

But the industry has for the most part been slow to respond.

Instead of dialing back the madness to discern the real needs (and desires and dreams) of consumers, it threw more and more stuff on the pile (500+ new launches in 2006 alone) and in the same channels as before, commodifying fragrance further.

Celebrity scents kept the apparatus intact for a while longer (there were some good ones and that’s what the mass market was looking for). Big beauty and Hollywood made fine bed-fellows, with Paris Hilton somewhere in between, and the coffers stayed full.

And so it was easy to miss the shifting tides. But somewhere along the way the soul of fragrance had been broken…

Meanwhile, a relatively small but expanding and increasingly influential group of consumers had started seeking out Special. Perhaps the mainstreaming of indie music and film should have tipped big beauty off to the fact that something important was afoot?

But it seems much of the established beauty industry is still pushing, mired in a marketing mode that fails to understand the importance of discovery, delight and “opt in”. The calcification caused by incumbency is tough to shake.

Most worrisome for big beauty may be: how do you do soul or niche when your business (and stock price) are beholden to filling large channels not frequented by market-moving consumers? Market fragmentation is stressful.

Of course, nimble innovators are never far behind the wanting customer. And the “long tail” effect of the web only catalyzes this dynamic. So the market is responding. And no, Tom Ford is not leading the charge, although he is trying to capitalize.

Instead, a colorful troupe of passionate entrepreneurs, bloggers, critics and influential consumers has started to engage Americans in a new, far more interesting fragrance conversation. (There are too many to single out, although some of these innovators will be explored in subsequent posts.)

One of the louder voices out there belongs to Chandler Burr, the author of “The Emperor of Scent”, who recently became America’s first prominent fragrance critic (for the New York Times). I say loud because I’ve heard people speak of him often, but I admit that I have yet to read one of his columns.

But here’s a telling interview with Mr. Burr on Basenotes.net, an online fragrance community, regarding his new mission at the Times:

“… perfume has always enjoyed this weird immunity from criticism. I believe - we believe - it should have a critical apparatus applied to it…. The uniform, Maoist/conformist wall-to-wall “everything is beautiful, everyone is lovely” is actually strangling consumer interest and hurting the industry… Giving the [Times reader] direction and commentary and order will ultimately bring greater interest in perfume across the board.”

Didn’t Robert Parker say something like that when he started out in the wine business?

It’s hard to discern who’s out-marketing who, but it seems certain that niche is about to outmaneuver big, and that this will be good for consumers.

Photo: Ryan McGinley from the Team Gallery web site.