McCann Erickson Perfume Market Report
Secondary research
The fragrance market
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In 2010, the women’s fragrance market is valued at £739 million, a 2% rise over the previous
year. Although the global recession has happened, the fragrance market has done
reasonably well.
2009 launched 323 new women’s fragrances, though this wasn’t enough to fit consumer
needs, suddenly the need to have the latest fragrance wasn’t something that appealed to
women; instead consumers revisited classic fragrances, as people now want value and
authenticity with brands they already have familiarity with.
Women buy fragrances as a sense of image and personality, this is one of the main reasons
behind the fragrance purchases. 23% of women use fragrance to express themselves and
their personality.
The biggest time for fragrance sales is the Christmas period, with 75% of the overall sale
taking place in the winter months. This is due to some perfumes being expensive, and
regarded as a luxury or a gift.
High end fragrances continue to dominate the mass market products with 78% of sales in
2009 versus 22% of sales for the mass market.
Fragrance and Gender
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Women who are in full time work, with an annual salary of over 50k, are likely to own four
or more bottles of fragrance as they have more disposable income.
40% of 16-24’s and 25% of 35-44 say fragrance is expensive.
Gender labelling has become less relevant as fragrances are now targeted more at
personality types.
8/10 women use fragrances. 25-34 are more experimental with fragrances; 45% of whom
buy different fragrances so they can have a wardrobe of perfume to choose from.
37% of the 16-24 age bracket don’t always apply fragrance daily.
1 in 5 women are cautious consumers and buy their fragrance carefully.
Fragrance and Age
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Full time working women aged under 25 - 34, are the heaviest users of fragrances.
Age 25-34 represent a growing opportunity for the fragrance market. This group is estimated
to group by 10.6% to 2015
“If someone liked wearing a fragrance in their 20’s they might return to it later on in life
because of the positive associations.”
From 19-22 prefer brands such as Moschino
From 30-40 preferred brands such as Lancôme and Dior and the more famous brand for the
older woman Chanel.
Fragrances and online shopping
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“There are some big discounts to be enjoyed purchasing fragrance online and brand loyalty
is higher in this sector than others, so consumers can easily benefit from cheaper prices
buying brands” said Claire Briney, head of Euromonitor’s global cosmetics and toiletries
research programme
Online shopping is predominately associated with the younger groups.
In the UK one of the highest internet users of the world sales of consumer goods continue to
rise. Euromonitor: online shoppers in 2003 expected to spend €1.1 billion.
With online shopping you can get discounts of up to 40%.
Manufacturers fear that online marketing is not a proper means of selling emotional
products
15% of25-34s buy fragrances over the internet
Product Type
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Changes in purchasing habits means that buyers are more interested in quality, authenticity
and “value” rather than image.
Organic fragrances correspond to consumers’ views on authenticity and value.
The founder of The Organic Pharmacy believes that organic fragrance is now at the same
point as organic skincare was ten years ago.
Quality packaging is crucial to instilling perceived value
Women in their 30s and 40s apply fragrance only a few times a week. By making portable
formats available, they may be persuaded to use it more often.
Due to the smoking ban, consumers now want to get rid of environmental odours so now
there is a big opportunity to aim at this market or implementing refillable bottles.
20-44-year-olds and C2s are most interested in prices and every-day low prices may
persuade them more than sales and special deals.
According to fragrance expert Roja Dove, floral scents make a return in uncertain times, as
they are easy to understand.
Primary Research
Qualitative research
We carried out our primary research in the form of one-on-one open-question interviews, trying to
find out peoples’ views into the perfume market. We wanted to be able to establish what people
experienced when they applied perfume and the use of open-questions allowed for a better insight
into understand the mind-set of our demographic target audience.
We took a method used in focus groups, which is association / completion of psycho-drawings. We
found them to be very useful because they allowed the interviewees to openly express attitudes
towards perfume and we managed to discover what kind of associations they make related to the
idea of wearing fragrance. The majority of drawings represent free-flowing lines, possibly connected
to the idea of femininity and sensuality.
Drawings of flowers also link back to this
idea and offer an insight of preferred
scents.
A conclusion from our first set of questions
was that women use perfume as an answer
to all their insecurities, the most
predominant one being lack of confidence.
These findings confirm the trend of selling
perfume according to personality rather
than just gender. It is beneficial to our
advertising campaign as our product is
targeted at full-time working women who
lay emphasis on their image and want to
boost their confidence at the work-place.
Attitudes towards pricing have shown that
consumers are more interested in quality
and smell rather than worry about the
amount of money they pay, this supports
the shift towards authenticity and value rather than image.
Qualitative research part 2
Second primary research was the investigation into shop pricing and packing, whilst paying attention
to the consumers in each shop. Five shops were chosen as our target so it would help us to gain a
larger understanding of the perfume market in a range of different demographic shops.
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BootsPrice Range £11-£83- Average£30-50
Range of qualities and smells, so can target large
audiences
Feminine bottles, curved shaped and writing, pinks,
reds peaches, and gold’s
Each boxing had particular way of representing
target. Chanel No5, white and black edging, simple
and classic design. Ed Hardy was all eccentric. Ricci
Ricci, young teen and playful.
Audience in Boots; older ladies of different shapes
and sizes of middle to working class.
NextPrice range up to £12
Only have Next own brand, so not a well-known choice
Shop aimed at middle class sophisticated demographics- Our target audience
Simple designs, basic similar smells
Very girly looking, simple appeal for women
Audience inside were middle aged, smart businesswomen.
BodyCare Coventry
Open to large audiences, targeting working class demographics
Cheap affordable options-Celebrity based products, Jordan, Celine Dion, Kylie. Aimed at
audiences who want to follow these trends
Shoppers of lower demographics
Products bright colours, celebrity pictures and
names all over products, buying part of the
celebrity
Perfume Shop
Middle to upper class demographics
Strong focus on designer brands
Stylish customers who want to be associated with
the brand
Product design/ bottle simple but sleek, emphasis
on crystals and objects associated with wealth
Price range up to £70
Debenhams
High end stalls, including Chanel, Clarins and Lancôme
Exclusive fell to the perfumes
Target audiences middle to upper class
Questionnaires- Results for all age groups and demographics
Figure 1 Age Group
19-25
26-32
33-39
40+
Figure 2
Divorced
Married
Engaged
Single
In
Relationship
Figure 3 How often do you buy perfume?
Once a week
Fortnight
Month
6 Month
Year
Figure 4 Most familiar brands
Figure 5 How often do you wear perfume?
Paco
Rabbane
DKNY
Escada
Calvin Klein
Chanel
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
Series1
Figure 6 Which shape?
Figure 7 Price
15
£0-10
10
£11-20
5
£21-30
Series1
0
£31-40
£41-50
£50+
Figure 8 Can’t live without
Figure 9 Can live without
8
6
4
2
Series1
10
8
6
4
2
0
Series1
0
Hypothesis (Not in Word Count)
The questionnaire and the graphs above was our first attempt at finding out new quantitative data
regarding the perfume market. When we undertook our questionnaire we did not get our correct
target audience. However the information above we have still kept because it gives us a larger
knowledge of the whole of the perfume market and demographics. It makes us aware of which
audiences want what, and how much they are willing to pay. This has helped us gain a greater
understanding of our target demographics of 25-34.
The problems we had were;
1. Screening questions in regards to occupation and marital status were not of any relevance to
our demographics. Regarding occupation we couldn’t place them in certain categories
because it was too broad, and needed to have a selected view of who we are actually
targeting.
2. The question in relation to purchasing is unrealistic due to many perfumes being given as
gifts. No one goes through bottles in a weekly basis to go through them often.
3. The bottles shapes are only reference to five brands and don’t take in to account the other
thousands of brands, only take in a select view.
4. When completing the questionnaire the target market was not achieved
5. The other problem you have when completing the questionnaire is that many people would
often lie regarding many of the questions. People don’t often tell the truth with answers
they just go along with the middle answer something that wouldn’t make a bad image
against them.
6. Another problem we had was with such a wide range of results it made it hard to create
correlations and averages to get an understanding of which items relate together. In the
new questionnaire we have to make sure results are similar.
Correlation of Results
A correlation that we found was between how often someone buys an item compared to the
price they paid. The result of 67.8% shows a high level of correlation so it gives an understanding of
how much people spend compared to their usage.
The other point we found was how often people used perfume. Due to the range of results
we decided to look into the median of this result. The result was a median of five, people
‘sometimes’ wear it. This supports our secondary research because we found out that the majority
of people from all age groups only wear it sometimes.
Results for Final Questionnaire
Ques 1 How old are you?
Ques 2 Your demographic?
12
10
A
8
B
6
C1
C2
4
D
2
E
0
19 - 25
26 - 32
33 - 39
40+
Ques 3 Perfume a gift or a purchase?
Ques 5 How much you pay for bottle of perfume?
12
£0 - 1
10
£11 - 20
8
6
£21 - 30
Series1
4
£31 - 40
2
£41 - 50
0
£50+
Gift
Purchase
Ques 6 Would you be able to live without perfume?
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
Yes
No
Ques 7 If no why?
Ques 8 If yes why?
Happy
Confidence
Signature
Brand
Other
Waste of
Money
Prefer body
spray
No use
Other
Conclusion
From our secondary research we came to the conclusion that the fragrance market is a profitable
industry in which our perfume will be marketed at 25-34 year old women. Through qualitative
research, our audience was defined, again, through secondary sources like the internet and Mintel
reports. We aim to target women from 25-34 due to the conclusions from the fact they like a
wardrobe of perfumes and the idea of career woman. The issue with validity arose from our first set
of questions leading into a use of trial and error when creating questionnaires in order to make a
clearer correlation between social status, age and personal use of perfume.
From our primary research, women are seen as an easy demographic to target with perfumes in
particular, due to their lack of confidence and self-esteem. This conclusion was formed from the
results of all questionnaires where women were asked if they could live without perfume. 55% of
women said they couldn’t result in a market for over half over the women asked due to the perfume
making the wearer more confident. On average many women found the price of £31-£40 as an
acceptable price to pay for perfume, to pay for their ‘Confidence in a Bottle’. This shows that a
fragrance is bought for quality over price.
From our final results 55% of the women were in the demographic of C1 which was lower middle
class.14 out of 20 said that they thought perfume was a waste of money. Many of the women asked
would receive perfume as a gift which means that the perfume should be targeted women around
the Christmas period.
Appendices
Mintel - Women's Fragrances - UK - August 2010
Women's Fragrances, UK Market Intelligence Report, August 2007
UK Fine Fragrance Industry Market Research - Commissioned by The Fragrance Foundation United
Kingdom – May 2005
Euromonitor International's report "The World Market for Cosmetics and Toiletries"
Key Fragrance Findings from The Premium Market Report 2009/10 IM Associates in partnership with
YouGov for The Premium Market Report
Women's Fragrances, UK Market Intelligence Report, August 2007
The Perfume Industry (http://www.worldwideperfume.com/perfume-industry.html)
(http://fashion.telegraph.co.uk/news-features/TMG7945116/Why-the-perfume-industrystinks.html)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfume
http://academic.mintel.com/sinatra/oxygen_academic/search_results/show&/display/id=280578
http://academic.mintel.com/sinatra/oxygen_academic/search_results/show&/display/id=704
http://www.yousaytoo.com/select-perfume-by-age-group/340107
http://academic.mintel.com/sinatra/oxygen_academic/search_results/show&/display/id=479878
http://www.cosmeticsdesign-europe.com/Products-Markets/Fragrance-sales-boosted-by-theInternet
http://oxygen.mintel.com/sinatra/oxygen/display/id=479906