We have all seen marketing strategies for clothes, accessories, shoes, and various other products. From time to time, we see fragrances being advertised. It is difficult to successfully market a fragrance when the buyer at home will not be able to smell it until they find it at a store or pick up a sample. Today I will discuss the possible techniques to fragrance marketing that can make all the difference.
Usually, we find that the place to buy perfume is in a department or specialty store. The past decade has changed the way fragrances sell. With improving technology, there has been a large shift in retail. People are turning away from people shopping in stores and are now making more and more purchases online, which include perfume and cosmetics. In order to market perfume online and build your brand, you need a competitive market advantage.
Why Market Online?
In 2020, Statista reported that the beauty industry generated 49.2 billion dollars in the United States. Throughout the years, one thing has stayed consistent. Individuals still like to look and smell good. Knowing how to market your perfume online increases your chances of successfully reaching shoppers and convincing them to try your product. Building an authentic brand voice and communicating it to customers online is one way to stand out.
Understanding Your Scents
The fragrance a person chooses to wear is a direct reflection of the individual’s style and preference. There are certain scents that are associated with warmth and comfort, such as vanilla or sandalwood. Other fragrances, like grapefruit or sage, are associated with awakening the senses and tend to make a person feel energetic. Some brands even add black pepper oil to cologne for men to give it a richer, muskier scent. An ingredient such as this one is exotic and may draw customers in. By using keywords like musk in your advertising, you are likely to draw attention. When marketing your fragrance, if you can emphasize that the components of the fragrance promote positive feelings in people, or allow you to be bold and beautiful, it strikes interest in the consumers as well.
Correlation Between Scents and Memories
Smells have a stronger link to memory and emotion than any of the other senses, and neuroscience may know the reason why. Think about it, when you see, hear, touch, or taste something, that sensory information first heads to the thalamus, which acts as your brain’s relay station. The thalamus then sends that information to the relevant brain areas, including the hippocampus, which is responsible for memory, and the amygdala, which does the emotional processing. However, when it comes to smells, something different happens. Scents completely bypass the thalamus and go straight to the olfactory bulb which is known as the brain’s smell center. Due to the fact that the olfactory bulb is directly connected to the amygdala and hippocampus, the smell of something can immediately trigger a detailed memory or even intense emotion.
“The act of smelling something, anything, is remarkably like the act of thinking. Immediately at the moment of perception, you can feel the mind going to work, sending the odor around from place to place, setting off complex repertories through the brain, polling one center after another for signs of recognition, for old memories and old connection.” – Lewis Thomas
Develop your website
If you want people to remember your perfume then you need to create a reliable brand identity. When developing a website, there are many factors that come into play. The website design should be linked to how you want to portray your brand. The colors, the fonts, the call to action. To successfully run your website you need to create it with your target customer in mind. Any good website should have a minimum of four pages or tabs if you will. These include: your homepage, your about page (which communicates your story to clients), your products page, and a Contact page. The online shopping option should be located on the products page. You can call it “store,” “products,” or something along those lines. It should be easy to navigate on both desktop and mobile devices. If you make sure that your online store is mobile, most of the customers will buy directly from their phones. Hiring a website designer would be a great thing to do so that you can ensure the site is responsive and ready to take payments.Choose an ecommerce platform that either works with other loyalty programs or offers client relationship management features.
Conduct Surveys
Sometimes conducting surveys, whether online or in-store, can be used to determine which perfume notes and scents customers like best. Surveys also provide useful information about where consumers are most likely to wear your perfume or whether the fragrance evokes any memories for customers. By conducting surveys, the customers are encouraged to think about your fragrance in an analytical way, and participation may subconsciously lead customers to believe that they need your product. When marketing a new fragrance, it is so important to incorporate the wants and needs of the customer. Having this knowledge will allow you to provide a perfume that exceeds their expectations and fragrance preferences.
Give Out Free Samples
Samples might make all the difference. Free gifts? Who doesn’t love them? Providing a free sample of your newest fragrance each time a customer makes a purchase can help build brand identity and hopefully attract repeat buyers. Some brands have had much success by hosting contests online. For example, if you were to promise the first few customers who correctly answer a question about the brand or make an account with your brand, a free bottle of cologne or perfume to then you can in turn help your brand grow by not only getting your product out there, but also if the customer likes the sample, it’s much more likely they will buy your fragrance the next time they’re shopping for perfume.
Limit Your Perfume Releases
As exciting as it is to release a new product, especially a fragrance, it is important to remember that time is patience. I would recommend releasing a new fragrance only once or twice a year. Limited perfume releases give the impression that you’ve created a classic scent that will stand the test of time. Limiting these releases also allows your product to appear refined and sophisticated. If you use ingredients in your fragrance that the public isn’t extremely familiar with, limited releases can give customers time to smell the fragrance and do their research before making a purchase.
Create a customer loyalty program
Starting a customer loyalty program can be a great idea if you plan to offer more than one fragrance or other products. When customers are given an incentive to buy from you, discounts can also be offered to encourage customers to spend more money.
Use a Search Engine for Easier Buying
In a physical shop, clients normally find an assistant to ask for specific information about a product. Usually, perfume buyers are looking for a specific brand or perfume. Search engines like Doofinder only ask clients to type the brand name or the perfume they are looking for and they will automatically be shown:
- Products: with images of all the perfumes from that brand.
- Categories: which they can even filter by price.
- Offers: if they are activated for that product or category.
Use Social Media and Influencers
Social media is a great way to spread the word about your new fragrance. This generation is glued to their phones. By launching your latest perfume on suitable social sites, such as Instagram and Snapchat, and even TikTok, you can get people talking and sharing. Paid ads are also a great way to raise brand awareness. Likewise, you could also find perfume-loving bloggers who are willing to try your product, and then, hopefully, blog about it. Sharing photos of your fragrance and passing along the link to your website can get you in touch with the right communities. A referral program that I would recommend trying is Dropbox. If everything works out, you could also consider hiring established influencers or a marketing company.
These Are the #1 Fragrances Around the World as of July 2020 (Listed with Prices)
The UK
- Chanel Coco Mademoiselle ($82)
- Tom Ford Black Orchid ($92)
The USA
- Chanel Chance, Coco Mademoiselle and Viktor & Rolf Flowerbomb ($85)
- Byredo Mojave Ghost ($190)
- Le Labo Santal 33 ($192)
Australia
- Chanel Coco Mademoiselle ($108-$138)
- Calvin Klein Euphoria ($39)
- Byredo Gypsy Water ($190)
- Frederic Malle Portrait of a Lady ($255)
Italy
Japan
In Japanese culture, it’s actually considered somewhat offensive to wear overly strong aromas, meaning light, fresh and citrusy scents have long been the preference. Therefore the most popular perfumes in Japan are:
