The demand for fragrances are growing every day. There were close to 1500 (almost 5 a day!) new fine fragrance launches last year and this number continues to be growing every year. Millions are spent on these launches and less than 5 % of them succeed. But launches continue unabated.
Fragrances are all about emotions that they evoke. Research shows that is a huge connection between fragrances and memories. Perfumes are magic worked by science. It captures the moment. Fragrances takes us back to good times, mother’s dressing table, past loves etc. People could smell something and immediately be transported into somewhere. The message could be romance and the language is molecules. Fragrances can alter our moods in an instant.
Fragrances from being frivolous have moved on to become very essential owing to personal care becoming a part of pride, self-reliance and confidence. Heightened importance on personal appearance and grooming among men is pushing men’s fragrance sale to newer heights. Applying fragrances is also about projecting attractiveness through olfactory signaling.
But for many centuries, fragrances were gender neutral. There were no fragrances “For her” and “For him”. There were just fragrances and whoever could afford it used the “For everyone”. A few decades ago, science played its part and made people drop perfumes and bring in deodorants that killed germs. Post that, people started becoming more gender specific about perfumes. Perfumes were mainly used by women and men confined themselves to aftershave fragrances.
The fickle world of fashion then started to dictate the world of fragrances. Many apparel designers, actresses, actors and singers have entered this world and the flow has not stopped. Most of these personalities have given their names to big corporations that use their names to push fragrance releases to reach their quarterly targets. The key reasons why prices of many celebrity fragrances fall very steeply within few months of its launch. But one thing the industry will see in the next decade is a lot of buzz.

“We do not touch anything that has a margin less than 65 %”. My jaws dropped when a buyer in a very upcoming retail chain said this in a matter of fact way. Gone are the days you could expect a good product to be present on the shelves by sheer quality, merit or unique benefit.  Any entrepreneur or entity interested in creating a good brand or a product range has to endure many complex hurdles like listing fees ( fee for them to enter the product and bar code in their computer system), significantly higher margin than your street corner grocery store and an annual investment plan that requires the brand owners to spend on all events like the retail store anniversary etc.

Looking at it from the retailers point of view, it is fair that they need this to pay off their ever increasing rents, salaries and the various costs they have to incur to run an establishment like that. Retailers in many developed countries have managed to spread their wings and have a big chunk of retail sales in their respective countries. Also most of them are listed in the stock market making them accountable to the every hungry pack of investors.

While customers are preferring to buy in these large hypermarkets, it does not look like the most efficient model for a country like India.

India is a peculiar country with each geography having their town likes and dislikes. What sells in Calcutta is unknown in Nagpur.  We cannot afford this one size fits all  Indians approach that retail chains tend to take at times.   At the same time, smaller retailers are not the most efficient. Larger retail chains invest in cold chains that our perishable stuff. This enables our farm producers to get a better prices in the long run.

The optimal way forward is to keep a check on margins that hypermarkets keep through legislations. Important would be to also do away with irrational demands by hypermarket chains on investment by brand owners on listing fees and event participations.   Because the net payer for all this would be the lady who walks down the aisle with her trolley.