I received an email from Neil Morris Fragrances yesterday, announcing that they were launching a new bottle size for their Neil Morris Vault series:
“During the past year, we have discovered that most of the people who purchase a Vault fragrance actually purchase multiple fragrances. And we had many requests to offer the scents in a smaller size in order to allow folks to build a fragrance wardrobe without breaking the bank. So as of today, we will be replacing the current two ounce (60ml) bottle with a one ounce (30 ml) spray bottle . . .”
The smart decision to downsize the Neil Morris Vault bottles in response to consumer demand made me think of an article I recently read regarding effective packaging decisions for small businesses and brands — 9 Packaging Problems That Lose Sales:
“Got any 20lb bags of potatoes lying around? If you are like me, 20 lbs can last a year. Large quantities and amounts do have a special market but generally people are buying in smaller size units. In fact, one of the fasted growing market segments is ready to use and consume. When I was in China, ready to use was the only type packaging available. Single servings were huge there and now they are becoming hot here.”
Sonoma Scent Studio 17ml bottles
I also thought of this in relation to the Beth Terry review yesterday. Beth Terry has been in business since 1995, and she’s been offering her tall 4.3 ounce bottles from the beginning in an effort to set her brand apart from the competition: “It reflects my sensibility. I wanted to create a bottle that would tower above the rest, like a skyscraper. My fragrances are all 4.3 oz; that amount was unheard of when I started Creative Universe.”
But it’s fourteen years later and while the market has changed, Beth’s packaging hasn’t budged (though she recently stated that her bottle supplier no longer carries the bottles she used, so she’ll be forced to change gears; this is a good thing, whether she realizes it or not). Chandler Burr writes in his latest NY Times column that “the (fragrance) industry has gone from 50 launches a year to over 1,000 today, an unsustainable, unregulated flood of novelties, the whole driven . . . by marketing and pure, desperate momentum,” and this flood of launches, this marketing and desperate momentum, has permanently altered consumer habits and expectations.
We can argue until we’re blue in the face about whether this altering is for better or worse, but purchasing habits have changed. Period.
While a 4.3 ounce bottle of perfume was a desirable thing back in the mid-90′s, when there were fewer choices and fragrance consumers were more likely to commit to one bottle at a time and/or remain loyal to one particular brand, the late 20th century consolidation of design houses (LVMH, PPR and Richemont), not to mention the rise of massive beauty conglomerates closely tied to flavor & fragrance corporations (IFF Firmenich, Givaudan and Symrise), blurred the line between brands while whetting consumer appetite for the next glistening prize — “If you liked Gucci Envy, then buy Gucci Envy Me! And don’t forget Envy Me 2!”
After the umpteenth multi-million dollar ad campaign, forgetting is not an option.
As a result, our bathroom counters have grown so crowded that a 2 ounce (60ml) bottle, not at all hefty by traditional standards, is more than the average Neil Morris customer now wants and/or needs. Besides, nabbing a tiny bottle of something new soothes the ache for novelty without eating too drastically into the monthly budget (though it’s kind of like draining the bank account with a thimble — it just takes a little longer to reach the bottom).
Shalini 10ml bottle
In a 2003 article, Packaging is moving fast to keep pace with market drivers, Anders Brolin, then head of research and development for Stora Enso Packaging, stated that, “Changes in the demography, with an aging population and a changing social structure, particularly in the Western Hemisphere, mean that we have far more single households. In practical terms, that means that we need smaller and more functional packages.”
As everyday products like food and household goods land on store shelves in smaller sizes and single portions, consumers are adjusting their purchasing habits to match. In order to stay relevant, independent perfumers will need to adjust, as well — slimming down and shrinking the “portion size” to suit the developing retail landscape.
CB I Hate Perfume 15ml bottles
A number of indie perfumers, such as Neil Morris, have sensed this shift in consumer preference and are on top of the trend: Sonoma Scent Studio‘s largest bottle size is 34ml (about 1 once), while also offering a 17ml (1/2 ounce) size; Soivohle offers a variety of sizes, from as small as 4.5ml to as large as 2 ounces, yet with a full range in-between; the Untitled series that Lucky Scent released in 2006 came in tiny 8ml bottles as a way of enticing consumers to purchase several of the fragrances, if not the entire series; and Christopher Brosius offers his very contemporary CB I Hate Perfume fragrances in 2ml tr
avel sizes, 15ml absolutes and 100ml water formulations.
A recent post at Andy Tauer’s blog (of Tauer Perfumes) sees him considering the necessity of changing his packaging to meet shifting consumer desires: “I start, selling maybe 200 bottles of air du désert, where it makes no sense at all to get a screen printed bottle. Then you sell more, change sales channels, end up with more bottles, but the entire presentation and packaging lags behind. And being in the midst of stock issues and bottles and legal issues etc, you do not see that it is time to adjust.”
Yet adjusting packaging to adapt to consumer trends and shifts is key to a brand’s continued success (see this article where a food company increased its sales by 75% simply through rebranding and repackaging its product). Perhaps one of the most important and timely adjustments an independent perfumer should consider today is the inclusion of a smaller size bottle in his/her lineup to satisfy the increasing demand for less volume, greater diversification and a lower introductory price point.
Tom Ford Private Blend Coffret with 5ml roll-on bottles
So Beth, how about a few townhouses to go with those scyscrapers (small is the new big), and Andy, you’re right, a red helmet doesn’t turn a bicyclist into a Ferrari, but the point of packaging and design isn’t about trying to be something you’re not, it’s about encouraging the consumer to choose your red helmet over all the other helmets on the shelf.
***Note: computer tech gadgets are the biggest retail success story of the last decade — the smaller and lighter they get, the faster they fly off the shelves. Consumers no longer equate “big” and “large” with good quality and/or value. Size small fits the contemporary lifestyle.
