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Despite essentially flat sales in 2001, fine fragrance marketers and the suppliers that create the packaging for the category are ready for a new season with exciting, innovative developments.
The Year That Was
It’s hardly news that 2001 was not a stellar year for the prestige fragrance business.
“The beauty industry was dealing with recessionary conditions in the first six months of 2001,” said Timra Carlson, vice president, NPD BeautyTrends, Port Washington, NY, a firm that provides marketing information on department stores.
“There was slowing foot traffic in department stores and manufacturers were already struggling with the price/value equation. Toward the middle of the summer, manufacturers were gearing up for a promising holiday shopping season hoping to salvage the year with new products, gift sets and products that would deliver more value to the consumer,” added Carlson.
Sadly, all the preparation in the world could not be expected to counter the effects of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, which continue to reverberate through the national psyche and economy in the U.S.
If consumers weren’t thronging to stores before, traffic was even less after Sept. 11, and competition for the dollars of those that did shop was fiercer than ever.
“2001 was overall a tough year,” said Peter Lichtenthal, senior vice president global marketing for Estée Lauder Inc., referring to fine fragrance sales. “Our biggest success was the launch of Intuition. It has met all our objectives and is a top 10 fragrance in the U.S.”
The top three positions for women’s fragrances for 2001 in NPD’s ranking are filled by Estée Lauder Inc. fragrances: Beautiful, Happy and Pleasures. Five other ELC brand products are among NPD’s Top 20. But despite dominating the prestige fragrance category, ELC’s net fragrance sales for the six months ended Dec. 31, 2001 were down approximately eight percent compared to the period in 2000, according to the company’s 10-Q filed on Jan. 31, 2002.
Lichtenthal added, “The retail scene was especially tough in November and December and travel retail (duty free shops in airports, shops on cruise ships and in-flight shopping) was dramatically affected.”
Because the retail environment was hurt across the board by lighter traffic, competition was extreme between all sorts of merchandise. “There was a tremendous amount of deep discounts and coupons in department stress,” Lichtenthal said.
In any other year, a fragrance gift selling at $40 to $60, which was the most popular price range according to The Fragrance Foundation Post-Holiday Survey, (see page 32) would not be competing with cashmere sweaters and electronics, but this year, many such gift items were discounted by 50 percent or more before Christmas.
The bright spot in prestige fragrance holiday sales, according to NPD, was gift sets, which gained three share points in 2001 to now represent 37 percent of the category.
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| Liz Claiborne’s Curve is strong at retail. |
“Both men’s and women’s fragrance gift sets showed strong growth last year as single bottle sales declined,” said Natalie Granik Seidman, director, NPD BeautyTrends. “For example, in November 2001, fragrance sales broke the record high in gift set share for men and women in NPD BeautyTrends’ tracking history. Also, men and women agreed that their top reason for purchasing a gift set is that it offers the best value for their money. In addition, a higher proportion of men and women will purchase gift sets for personal use rather than as a gift.”
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| Prescriptives recently launched the Kate Spade signature fragrance. |
Merchandising value sets and gifts-with-purchase is working very well for Liz Claiborne Cosmetics, according to Neil Katz, company president. Although also affected by Sept. 11 and the sluggish economy, Katz said, “Sales for our products in department stores were up 11 percent in 2001. We’ve been growing significantly over the last six years by introducing men’s and women’s products simultaneously and spending money to give the consumer added value through value sets and gifts-with-purchase.” About 75 percent of Liz Claiborne Cosmetics’ sales are done through such products, according to Katz, which allow fragrance products to compete with other department store merchandise that “is always on sale,” he said.
So far in 2002, Katz said, “Liz Claiborne is continuing to succeed and grow at an even faster rate than last year. Mambo for men and women is doing very well, Curve is very strong and Lucky You had a good Valentine’s Day.”
Estée Lauder is also optimistic about the future of its fine fragrance business. “As the number one fragrance house in the U.S., the manner in which we sell is key,” said Lichtenthal. “We provide the shopping environment, which creates loyalty. We work with all our retail partners to find ways to reach and serve our consumer.
“Estée Lauder’s environment is one that it aims to control and optimize globally,” Lichtenthal stressed. “Our portfolio of brands hits every age and demographic. We have a fragrance for every consumer, from traditional and classic to modern and hip.”
The recent unveiling of the Kate Spade fragrance is the first product to reach retail from the licensing agreement that Prescriptives, an ELC company, signed in 1999 with the designer. The bottle design, inspired by vintage parfum bottles, was created by Kate Spade.
Packaging Creates Image
The look of a fine fragrance package is extremely important because it must “marry the concept (of the fragrance) to the package or create a link between the package and the emotion of the fragrance,” emphasized Agnes Landru, vice president of fragrance and holiday for Clinique.
Different times call for different defining fashions, according to Landru, who explained that the 1980s were about opulence and the 1990s were more pared down and simplified.
For the first decade of the 2000’s, trends can be seen in terms of pre-Sept. 11 and post-Sept. 11. Landru noted, “Prior to the terrorist attacks, opulence seemed to be returning, but since those events, there is a sense of turning to the comforts of home. This change in attitude is reflected in a more simplified approach to packaging.”
Packaging that is convenient and portable is also in demand. Landru said, “Consumers want to be able to tuck a fragrance in their purse and take it with them.”
Liz Claiborne does not look to create a package according to a model set by outside standards. Each fragrance brand is totally individual at Liz Claiborne, Katz said, explaining, “The concept for each brand is unique and the packaging for each is unique as well. Each tries to reach a different segment or ‘psychographic’ audience.”
Liz Claiborne’s marketing groups work with different package designers to create packaging that emulates the marketing concept. “Everything we do, from packaging to marketing to promotions, has a singular message,” Katz stressed.
Liz Claiborne holds special events in malls, such as recent Mambo dances and contests, all year round to draw consumers to its counters and generate excitement. Katz concluded, “Prestige fragrance is a tough business that needs constant innovation and needs to create an atmosphere where the consumer is entertained.”
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| Heinz Glas created this organic star-shaped bottle for Naomi Campbell’s Exult fragrance. |
U.S. Fragrance Brands Seek Value
The changes in today’s market are more influenced by finances than anything else, according to Robert Du Grenier of Robert Du Grenier Associates, a packaging design company based in Townshend, VT. “Totally custom projects seem to be on hold while there are more assignments to take an existing bottle and give it a custom look with decoration or components,” Du Grenier said, adding, “The looks are more pure and simple—less signature.”
When the economy is good and businesses feel secure, projects are done over more time, allowing for a lengthier development process, explained Lynda Bolnick, sales manager for Pochet of America. “Now, because of financial uncertainty, companies want to be quick to market once they make a decision and so are choosing to use stock bottles and custom decoration,” Bolnick said. “The bottles already exist so they save a lot of time and also save the tooling charges incurred with a custom bottle. But it’s the time element that is critical.”
“The question is more about how many companies are working on new lines?” said Patrick Etchaubard, vice president and general manager, the fragrance division of Bormioli Luigi, an Italian glass bottle manufacturer. “Our industry is slow right now in promoting new fragrances that were in the works on or around Sept 11.”
Peter Arentzen, president and chief operating officer of Augros, Inc., (see article on injection molding, page 24) agreed, saying that business from prestige fragrance marketers is essentially flat right now.
Those U.S. fragrance companies that are working on new fragrance packages are asking for unique shapes and/or distinctive functional features, according to Arentzen, but the market in Europe is more willing to spend more to get a more sophisticated look, he said, adding, “It’s a different approach to attracting sales.”
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| Avon’s Little Black Dress has the clean lines of a prestige fragrance. |
Innovation Drives Bottle Design
Fragrance marketers require continual innovation from the leading fragrance bottle manufacturers resulting in a great variety of styles with no one dominant theme, according to Doug Thompson, vice president of sales for Heinz Glas USA, Inc., Linden, NJ. “Manufacturing innovation provides the designer with the freedom and ability to create a design that is unique and supports a strong brand identity for the fragrance company,” Thompson stated.
For Heinz, styling variety ranges from bottles such as Cologne for Thierry Mugler, which features an extremely light weight design, to the new Unilever Vera Wang fragrance bottle, which is very heavy. Shapes have varied from the organic star Heinz created for Naomi Campbell’s Exult to the challenging rectangular shape manufactured for Zanzibar by Van Cleef and Arpels.
Pochet, which has been manufacturing glass in France since 1623, has observed a trend to simple, clean shapes for prestige fragrance bottles and an increase in the use of sprays to color and decorate the containers, according to Bolnick, who noted, “They’re using one or two or more colors or perhaps just a spray on the bottom that radiates up, like Pink by Victoria’s Secret.”
Thompson agreed that there is an increased use of organic spray technology to provide a unique appearance. Heinz decorated Liz Claiborne’s Mambo bottle, which has as many as five sections of color. “We are now producing samples of organic sprayed bottles with a soft touch feel and also a water droplet effect,” said Thompson.
The company is also experimenting in Europe with a colored sand-blasting effect that will “provide a whole new avenue for decoration,” said Thompson. “This sand-blasting is not just on the surface of the bottle but will be able to dig deeply into the bottle, creating effects for cosmetic and fragrance glass that have never been seen before.”
Heinz is also working on jars produced on a regular IS (individual section, an automatic glass process) machine without the mold seams that are part of the traditional manufacturing process.
Du Grenier pointed to the Nautica bottle, designed by Du Grenier Associates with a rubberized coating, as a good example of a new look and feel created with texture.
Etchaubard said there is no such thing as a “classic” look in prestige fragrance packaging, but rather trends that come and go. “Right now, we see a trend in clean looks, with heavy glass distribution in prestige fragrance, such as the bottles for Michael Kors and Marc Jacobs.”
More value-oriented lines are also achieving a prestige look in packaging, according to Etchaubard, such as Avon’s Little Black Dress. “The packaging for this line looks like a prestige one. The clean look of the bottle and cap could be associated with any fine fragrance company such as Lancaster, Chanel or Givenchy,” he said.
Bormioli Luigi is always working on new manufacturing techniques, and “new deco techniques have been developed and soon will be visible on the market,” Etchauvard said.
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| ABA Packaging is now exclusively offering Arc Int’l bottles, including these, in North America. Exclusive use of certain Arc molds is also available. |
More Stock Choices
ABA, Holtsville, NY, is now the exclusive North American distributor for Arc International, based in Arques, France, according to Charles Marchese, an owner and the vice president of marketing and sales. Arc is a manufacturer of high end fragrance bottles. Through the new agreement, ABA will not only distribute Arc’s stock line but will be able to offer exclusive use of certain molds with no molds’ costs and a nominal volume commitment.
Marchese noted that most prestige fragrance houses now have their own packaging designers in-house and seem to be creating bottles that are a “bit more glamorous.” He added that there is now a variety of dosages possible from high-end sprays and the use of low profile pumps is increasing.
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| The Pushover from Emsar combines the pump assembly—pump, actuator and collar—into one convenient piece. |
Sophisticated Closures and Pumps
Trends for closures in particular and prestige fragrance packaging in general are toward innovation and complexity, explained Stephen Pearlman, president of Risdon-AMS, Watertown, CT.
Pearlman added that it is the engineering and mechanisms involved that are complex and often the finished product may look very spare and simple. “The glass bottle and cap of the Ocean Pacific package are more integrated,” said Pearlman. “The mechanism becomes more a part of the package. The spray actuator can be different. The OP package sprays out of the top rather than the side.”
Marketers are looking for very different looks as they seek to broaden their appeal to consumers of all ages. Classic looks are the exception now, according to Pearlman, and there is a trend to very low profile spray dispensers like that of Glamorous by Ralph Lauren.
Pearlman added that there is a lot of use of clear materials for caps. For instance, PCTA is a polyester with good clarity and chemical resistance, he said, and decorative accents are being enhanced by electro-plating that now offers a broader palette than just gold and silver.
New textural finishes are also increasing. Lucky You by Liz Claiborne is topped off with a cap that is covered with an elastomer for a soft touch. There are also soft touch lacquers available, according to Pearlman.
Des McEttrick, global marketing director of Emsar, agreed that a trend to simplicity in style for prestige fragrance packaging is being achieved with components that are actually very complex. “Pumps are getting smaller with ‘invisible’ tubes,” she said. The company also has fine-mist sprays and pumps that operate at any angle.
Emsar has developed the Pushover system, which combines the three parts of a pump assembly—pump, actuator and collar—into one, for easier, more efficient assembly and less stock keeping, according to McEttrick. The Pushover range was first introduced several years ago, but McEttrick noted that more fragrance customers are switching to its use now. Emsar is expanding the assortment to met demand.
A new FEA finish Pushover has recently been added to fit a bottle neck standard that is used in Europe.
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| Walsen crafted the metal cap for Eau de Lune fragrance. |
Caps Provide the Finishing Touch
“Marketers want packages with an element of difference to attract consumers’ attention. There seems to be a trend now toward clean, fresh, youthful design,” Augros’ Arentzen said.
Augros has pioneered the process of insert molding of metal as in the cap for beComing Sensational. The cap is an asymmetrical design featuring a frosted white cap over an aluminum insert. “The aluminum component is placed on the core of the mold and then the plastic is injection molded around it,” he explained.
Walsen International, Ronkonkoma, NY, manufactures specialty metal products. For cosmetics, it supplies high-end metal components, mostly die cast in Zamac, a combination of zinc and aluminum, which is then usually metal plated with gold, silver or lacquer, according to Greg Mitchko, company president.
Mitchko said that among Walsen’s projects for prestige fragrance, “each and every one is different.” The company offers solid perfume compacts, custom perfume caps and collars, hang tags, emblems, purse sprays and perfume pendants. “The trend now is to matte and brush finishes, even raw material surfaces for an old world look,” he said.
