forevermore79
02.09.05, 10:05
Ciekawy artykul- nadzieje, plany i komentarze na temat sprzedazy perfum
przedstawicieli najwiekszych domow towarowych i sieci.
W art. pojawiaja sie 2 nowosci, o ktorych jeszcze nie pisalismy- Bulgari Red
Tea i przyszloroczna letnia sezonowka- Escada Pacific Paradise.
Z WWD:
"On the Rise.
By Pete Born and Matthew W. Evans
NEW YORK — Fragrance companies are thanking their lucky stars that "up"
actually means "up" this year in terms of sales growth.
After years of proclaiming that flat sales really meant growth in the
beleaguered sector, fragrance firms might be able to regain some lost ground
this fall, thanks to an onslaught of introductions of celebrity and designer
scents by everyone from Sarah Jessica Parker and Paris Hilton to Ralph Lauren
and Calvin Klein. Even an iconic fashion brand like Guess, which has been
away from the beauty market for a decade, is returning with a new luxurious
women's scent, pictured here.
"It looks like this could be an upswing," noted Karen Grant, industry analyst
for NPD Beauty, a consumer sales tracking firm. According to NPD projections,
the U.S. department store fragrance business will generate a 5 percent
increase in dollars on total volume of $3 billion at retail for the year, the
first time that percentage has been achieved since before 9/11. Last year's
gain was 2 percent.
Grant said that a critical difference this year is the proliferation of
newness borne by a tidal wave of fragrance launches. NPD sees this year as
the high water mark of fragrance launches, with more scents introduced in the
first half of 2005 than in "the entire year of 2000." There were three times
as many in this year's first half as in the spring of 2000. Newness as a
share of total fragrance sales has risen from 9 percent in 2001 to 14 percent
last year.
The predominance of the celebrity-endorsed scent has become one of the major
drivers, along with flankers, of this new vitality. They are coming sooner
and showing less staying power. Grant noted that a celebrity will now issue a
fragrance one year, then follow with another 12 months later.
Long term, the market has not grown. In 1997, retail sales of men's and
women's fragrances in department and specialty stores totaled $2.8 billion,
with unit sales of 71 million pieces. Seven years later, the combined total
stood at the same $2.8 billion for 2004 — but the unit volume had withered to
58 million pieces.
The shriveling of the pie is made all the more painful by the fact that the
slices are smaller, as noted by Jack Wiswall, president of the Designer
Fragrances Division of L'Oréal USA. As manufacturers have ramped up their
launch schedules in order to gain market share and offset dollar erosion of
their portfolios, the number of launches has jumped from 40 in 1997 to 117 in
2004.
Timra Carlson, the former president of NPD Beauty, pointed out earlier this
year that the life span of new fragrances has been dramatically shortened and
the growth potential of each introduction has shrunk as the number of
launches multiplied. There are fewer $100 million brands on the market today,
Carlson said. To rank in the top 10 of women's fragrances in U.S. department
stores today, a brand needs to reach $30 million at retail, she said. Only
six or seven years ago, the gateway was $50 million.
Wiswall sees two routes out of the malaise. One is for fragrance brands to
diversify into cosmetics, thereby gaining permanent counter space complete
with its own beauty advisers. He also maintains the industry needs to grab a
bigger share of the gift-giving business, specifically at Valentine's Day,
Mother's Day and Father's Day. As an example of what can be done, he pointed
to the launch of Ralph Lauren Romance eight years ago. Previously, about 3.7
percent to 3.8 percent of the business was done in February. Romance got the
share up to nearly 7 percent and L'Oréal has kept the momentum going ever
since.
Fabrice Weber, president of Aramis and the Designer Fragrance Division of The
Estée Lauder Cos., sees the industry going in the wrong direction on
investment, with the bulk of the money going into producing newness. The bulk
of volume, however, comes from existing core brands. He noted that only one
women's launch and one men's introduction from last year now rank in this
year's top 20 of men's and women's fragrances. His solution: Generate
excitement at point of sale. "Let's do some theater," he said, adding that
vendors and retailers need to create more enticing destinations.
And the department stores, along with drugstores to a lesser extent, have
lost share to specialty chains, according to a new study by Klein & Co. In
1999, department stores had 54.8 percent of all U.S. fragrances sales and
drugstores claimed 7.2 percent. For 2004, the department store share had
shrunk to 50.9 percent and drugstores had 6.6 percent. Meanwhile, the share
for specialty chains jumped from 11.99 percent in 1999 to 17.7 percent in
2004.
But for now, the consumer is back at the fragrance bar and she is buying. As
one major department store retailer said: "We're not dead yet."
Macy's East had "a very solid spring," and Micheline Jordaan, vice president
and divisional merchandise manager of fragrances, said she is optimistic
about fall and holiday, predicting "a modest increase," following last
year's "decent increase."
Jordaan said a pivotal development was the dramatic improvement in the
existing men's and women's business, which is showing only "a small decrease"
after years of percentage declines in the teens. New flanker introductions
energize the core brands while new celebrity scents inject excitement and
draw new customers to their category. Jordaan pointed to the decisive impact
of Miami Glow on the Jennifer Lopez business and the turnaround effect of the
Calvin Klein flankers. She echoed others in predicting Klein's upcoming
Euphoria women's launch "should be great." "
