33 percent Of Men’s Perfumes are worn by Women
“Aramis, one of the best-selling men’s fragrances, was, in its original incarnation, a fragrance for women. Launched in 1965, it was largely inspired by Cabochard, a women’s fragrance created by the same perfumer in 1958. According to fragrance expert Roja Dove, ‘There is nothing inherently masculine or feminine about a fragrance – it’s all marketing.’ More than half of all men’s colognes are bought by women, which is why the best-selling men’s fragrances are those best liked by women (something the industry’s ‘noses’ are very conscious of). An estimated one-third of men’s fragrances sold are bought by women to wear themselves.”
I never thought about it from that angle before — how a bestselling men’s cologne is actually bestselling because it’s being purchased by a lot of women.
It’s a brilliant strategy on the part of the fragrance industry: create an ever so slightly masculinized feminine fragrance and toss it into the market for both genders to buy. While most men won’t purchase a perfume with a feminine label (and most men don’t purchase a whole lot of fragrance to begin with, $6.00 cans of Axe and Tag not included), a lot of females are fine with wearing “masculine” scents.
D&G Light Blue for Men is a good example. It’s fruity and fresh and the only acquaintances I’ve known who buy into its green apple, bluebell and white roses sparkle are female, product labeling be damned.
Besides, if this Romance Novel fantasy cleverly disguised as a men’s fragrance commercial isn’t aimed squarely at a lady’s credit card, then I don’t know what is:
Seriously, if the fragrance industry were genuinely trying to create a male product and market it to actual men, there’d need to be explosions, bone-crushing body slams, major boobage, etc. I’ve linked previously to the video clip below, but I’m doing so again as it’s pretty much the perfect example of what a fragrance commercial aimed exclusively at men would look like:
Brilliant. I’d buy it in a second . . . as long as it didn’t smell like flowers and green apples.
On further reflection, Axe has the marketing for men down pat:
With advertising like that, it’s not hard to figure out why sales for traditional men’s colognes are falling flat while sales of body sprays are sky rocketing: “Teen boys are cutting back on their use of traditional colognes as inexpensive body sprays sold through mass retailers grab hold of their attention . . . the number of teens (13-17) wearing cologne dropped 18 percentage points in just one year. In 2006, 59 percent of teens ages 13-15 told NPD they wear cologne, down from 81 percent in 2005. For older teens, ages 16 and 17, 68 percent said they wear cologne, a drop from 80 percent in 2005.”
