The Fragrance Industry has recently acknowledged the need to learn to better measure the emotions, insights and expectations of today’s “bionic” consumers. Today, these industry targets are more visually and brand literate than ever before. Their values shift months – and sometimes years – ahead of focus group articulations and “trends” too invasive to ignore. These consumers have more gate keeping power than ever before, and more choices than gate keeping power, all of which makes it more and more difficult for business-as-usual approaches to bring the brand “magic” back to a new generation of fragrance consumers. In fairness, the industry has acknowledged the need to evolve from a functional to emotional paradigm. Most recently, an article in the June/July 2007 issue of International Cosmetic News noted that industry analysts question whether today’s fragrance marketers are really focused on building sustainable brand identities, which can’t be done in the absence of an emotional connection. Don Loftus, president and CEO of Procter and Gamble Prestige Products, noted the need for “understanding the consumer perceptions of a certain brand universe … to develop meaningful propositions.” You can’t do that in an emotional vacuum either. And while these problems are receiving greater notice, it seems that the role that consumers play at the front end of the product and brand development process continues to be somewhat less than “fundamental.”
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