It’s well known that smell is the most powerful of all our senses with strong ties to both emotion and memory. Backed up by big brains - The Proust Effect documents the science behind sense memories exploring how even very small sensory stimulus can evoke intense and emotional memories.

But how can brands leverage fragrance as an emotional proposition? How can brands create implicit associations through visual cues in modern, relevant and engaging ways?

Looking cross-category for insights and inspiration, here are seven opportunity areas to consider.

Read about them below -- and see them here in the Slideshow: Fragrance Insights & Inspiration: 7 Opportunity Areas To Consider

1. Gender-Fluid Solutions

There’s a growing need for brands to acknowledge the cultural shifts in contemporary sexuality. A recent OnBuy survey of 517,780 British fragrance enthusiasts found that “75% of women want to try an un-gendered fragrance” yet the market is flooded with outdated expressions in Barbie pink packaging with sickly sweet scents. This diverging consumer desire is an opportunity for brands to respond with both gender fluid fragrance and design.

While there are indeed a host of fragrance brands that position themselves as gender neutral, their design and packaging often doesn’t quite support this positioning. Brands need to look and behave differently in order to respond to changing consumer desires in this space.

Laboratory Perfumes (shown above) is a relatively new kid on the block but with a contemporary and truly gender-neutral design with a simple yet effective positioning; “Gender is the one thing we really don’t care about.”

Sara Jones, Design Director at Anthem Benelux comments:

“The use of numbers to communicate the fragrance, rather than a copy descriptor, encourages consumers to make their own minds up without influence, unlike many more overtly named fragrances, further supporting the brand’s gender neutral offer.”

On top of this, brands have a duty of care when engaging a younger consumer.

“Fragrance has the highest penetration among younger consumers, with 91%
of 16-24-year-old men and 98% of 16-24-year-old women using a fragranced
product.”

One brand doing a fantastic job of championing gender fluidity and standing strong against the use of sexually suggestive messaging is the personal care brand Sam Farmer. (shown above). The brand also runs an inspirational educational program for teenagers celebrating #RollOnEquality.

2. Evolution in Color Codes

The broader trend toward minimalism, clean living (both in terms of health and sustainability) and clean beauty has been taken up across the personal care category with force. For the most part, the fragrance category has been slow to respond, continuing to follow traditional premium colors, codes and cues.

Le Labo’s simple yet elegant design is a sight for sore eyes and indeed has clear stand out on shelf against the swathe of rose gold and metallic designs of other fragrance super brands. Minimalism is the new luxury and Le Labo is a great benchmark. (See the brand's fragrance above).

Sara Jones comments: “This is a really interesting design! Taking cues from the premium spirits category with the bottles heavy foot, the label design also mimics tasting notes as though from a distillery. A fantastic example of the value in looking cross-category for design inspiration.”

3. Playing On Memories of Places & Seasons

Scents have the magical power to transport us to a time gone by – catapulting us into a past experience. These memories can be specific – perhaps a scent linked to a distinct memory such as your wedding day, or indeed more general such as the smell of sun lotion leading to excitement at the approaching summer.

Carrying us away to less exotic, though no less significant, places is Byredo with their home fragrance collection – bringing a less feminine and more intellectual expression to the mix. (Byredo's Tree House Room Spray is shown above.)

4. Focus on Moods, Not Scents

“Across France, Germany, Italy and Spain 33-57% of fragrance users like fragrances with mood boosting properties (e.g. aromatherapy) and in the UK 65% of fragrance users agree that wearing a fragrance changes their moods.”

It’s impossible not to be moved and inspired by the wordsmithing of Derek Lam’s 10 Crosby fragrance collection. (Derek Lam's Rain Day is shown above). All scents are designed to evoke a particular mood— from the ‘Looking Glass’ scent which celebrates the idea of dancing through life with wild abandon, to ‘Something Wild’ which speaks to the sentiment that any moment can become a surprising adventure.

The physical packaging is also thoughtfully reminiscent of a time capsule which further enforces a sense of being transported to a place of delight beyond measure.

5. Inspired by Nature - The Continued Rise of the Botanical

With consumer demand for ethical brands and natural ingredients consistently growing, trends especially important to Millennial consumers, niche brands have been able to chip away at the market share of established giants across the personal care, home care and fragrance categories.

Room sprays and mists have become increasingly popular in the last few years - allowing users to better control scent in the home, as compared to often overpowering plug-in or timed diffusers, they can be used as and when needed.

Dutch brand Zenology (shown above - photo via Instagram/Zenology_official)  have a fantastic selection of active botanical and vitamin enhanced fragranced room sprays. Consumers can choose from a range of ambiance triggers to create an atmosphere in their home to match their mood, all while contributing to good given that the brand give thanks to the wonder that is nature by planting a tree for every online order.

“The combination of apothecary style brown bottles and greenhouse style trigger spray allows the brand to capture a combined sense of creativity with a sense of nurture which is really clever,” according to Sara Jones.

6. Tapping Into Health & Wellness

A growing number of consumers are seeking solutions that complement their personal health and lifestyle choices. Fragrance solutions that support a good night’s sleep are a hot topic – especially given that “82-90% of women agree that getting enough sleep is an important part of looking after the skin.”

Lotion Melt ‘Only By Night’ from Savon Stories (shown above, photo via Savon Stories) melts when massaged onto the skin to deliver a surge of protecting antioxidants and repairing micronutrients, maximizing the power of the skin’s natural nighttime renewal. The lavender fragrance also helps relax the body to support a good night’s rest. It’s a brilliantly combined personal care and fragrance wellness solution.

Neom’s cleverly named ‘Scent to Sleep’ range (shown above) taps into this trend using natural ingredients and essential oils. From perfumes and candles to a ‘wellbeing’ pod scent diffuser - the brand is committed to providing a range of fragrance solutions to de-stress both body and home. 

“The design of the wellbeing pod could have gone further – more towards a home accessory rather than a hybrid between personal care and traditional plug-in diffusers. Imagine the dome would be made from transparent glass and you could watch the scents diffusing up through the dome – elevating the product to a whole new level in the home,” says Sara Jones.

7. Ultimate Personalization

A reported “61% of fragrance users in the UK prefer to use a different fragrance to others and 17-26% of fragrance users in France, Germany, Italy and Spain prefer to change their fragrance throughout the day.”

This story is further complicated by the fact that many consumers find selecting a fragrance extremely daunting especially when faced with such a vast array of choices. Both personalization and variety are clearly of importance to consumers, as is the need for support when navigating fragrance choices - statistics such as these should hopefully encourage brands to respond with innovative solutions.

When in search for a truly unique scent, there’s no better place to visit that Penhaligon's who have been “entertaining English nostrils since 1870.” Although the in-store experience is not to be missed especially when looking to create a unique scent, the brand also offers an online fragrance profiling option to help consumers select a fragrance that represents their individual personalities.

The Experimental Perfume Club appeals to the true explorer - encouraging people to respond to their innate instincts and set up to offer individual scents as unique as the individual. (See photos from one of ots workshops in the slider above -- photo via Experimental Perfume Club)

The brand has recently introduced a ‘Layers’ range allowing consumers to experiment with blending different fragrances together to create an especially personalized scent. Given that selecting a fragrance is such an intimate choice, gifting is somewhat of a, though popular, minefield - such layering solutions and discovery sets increase the chances of a fragrance gift being well received.

Most exciting though are the founder run workshops - creating a fun and safe space to push the boundaries of fragrance perceptions while learning the science behind creating your own bespoke scent. This service provides a whole new level of confidence and empowerment to consumers when selecting a fragrance.

When it comes to layering – even high street budget retailers such as Superdrug are dipping their toes in the water with the launch of their Layering Lab Body Mists with combination tips to help create different moods.

THINKING OUTSIDE OF THE BOX 

With a small, but important, number of brands creating a new wave of fragrance expressions, we hope to see larger more established brands responding to changing consumer desires in such ways. 

More broadly, such trends can be used to inspire innovation in other categories - think Home Care and Laundry in particular. It’s difficult to think of a shelf space with less differentiation between brand, range and variety. We have clean fragrances, we have flower fragrances, we have fragrance enhancers – but what’s next? Imagine a laundry detergent that cares for your clothes using natural fragrances in the same way a personal care brand cares for your skin.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR 

Kirsty Cole is Head of Growth, Anthem Benelux. 

Read More - See the Brands Mentioned Above

Slideshow: Fragrance Insights & Inspiration: 7 Opportunity Areas To Consider