3 Ways Perfume Packaging Is Crucial to a Brand’s Identity

Any perfume brand that is looking to massively grow its revenue and build a strong brand for the long term needs to focus its advertising budget on brand marketing. If a perfume brand has a strong creative direction, it can rely a lot more on its packaging to strengthen the brand and increase brand awareness. Even with perfume brands using stock bottles, it is possible to create unique compositions with standout art direction. The market is changing and brands that can create a unified brand identity that spans their packaging, to merchandising, to online assets, will build a stronger brand identity that can command space in retail and provide memorable brand engagements for consumers.

1. A More Personalized Customer Experience

People are becoming more comfortable with buying fragrances online as evidenced by the rise of DTC cosmetic brands. As a whole, ecommerce adoption is rising YOY. While most sales come from retail stores, Grandview Research found that 26% of perfume sales happen online and this trend is accelerating.

Perfume and Ecommerce are Both Growing Fast

How does this translate to packaging? Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) sales give more control of the buying experience to the brand. Compare a brand making a sale on its website versus someone buying the perfume at a department store. The brand has virtually no control over the transaction that takes place at the department store. Even if the brand outsources fulfillment to a 3PL, it still allows more control and customization of the buyer’s journey than what a retailer or online distributor can offer. By handling everything from front to back, it gives brands the ability to tie in more brand moments, initiate more robust customer retention strategies, and provide a more bespoke experience to the consumer.

Though the DTC channel presents many challenges for brand marketers, it also can give the edge to brands who prioritize creating memorable customer experiences -- with packaging being a large component of that experience. Some examples of brands going the extra mile to delight customers with their packaging include:

• Adding a custom note in the order if the customer requests it when checking out

• Including a printed mood board of the perfume

• Adding the brand origin story on a leaflet

• Adding an extra perfume sample to the order

These are just a few examples of order customization that is easily achievable with DTC orders. Consumers crave experiences. Moreso, people crave personalized experiences. It's the reason why unboxing videos became so popular. Its the reason why premiere mattress companies offer sleep analysis consultations. It's the reason why 5-star hotels have personalized concierge services that can anticipate your needs based on your itinerary. It's also the reason why, of the people who visit stores to buy perfumes, 56% of people go for the experience. According to a recent PwC Report, 73% of consumers cite customer experience as a pivotal factor in their purchasing decisions. Consumers will pay more for experiences.

How does this translate to fragrance packaging? Fragrance houses that are able to make the unboxing experience memorable, personalized, and aligning with customers core values will increase brand loyalty, customer retention, and brand awareness. Experiences are shareable. Imagine how much your business would transform if 20% of the people who buy your fragrance post about their experience online?

Consumers crave personalized experiences. It's the reason why 'unboxing' videos became so popular. Its the reason why premiere mattress companies offer sleep analysis consultations. It's the reason why 5-star hotels have personalized concierge services that can anticipate your needs based on your itinerary. It's also the reason why, of the people who visit stores to buy perfumes, 56% of people go for the experience.

2. Conveying Value to Blind Buyers

Perfume forums and the entire online ecosystem of perfume lovers are growing. Perfume hobbyists are becoming more connected through these forums and social media. Take a peak in the comments of any video from a fragrance influencer and there will be discussions and reviews of perfume happening. The gathering of fragrance lovers through the internet has helped accelerate the growth of new niche fragrance houses. This is really great news if you are opening up a perfume line. The problem for niche perfume brands is that they likely do not have a significant retail presence. Not only is their retail distribution limited, but the bigger online retailers likely do not stock them. So the problem is that perfume enthusiasts are talking about your perfumes online, but they are very limited in where they can buy your perfume. The consumer cannot just walk into a department store and smell a sample of the perfume to assuage their doubts. The chances of the independent perfume boutique that the consumer lives near carrying the specific niche brand are also relatively small.

How does this translate to packaging? A perfume consumer will often be forced to ‘blind buy’ a niche perfume since they will not be able to find a nearby retail store carrying the perfume for them to sample. This means that they are buying the perfume based on the opinions of:

• Review blogs

• Fragrance influencer

• Forum reviews

• Friends recommendation

AND

• The strength of the niche perfume brand

Let’s zoom in on this last bullet point, as that is what is relevant here. Here is a thought experiment. A person is looking to buy a gourmand perfume from a niche fragrance house. They have 2 perfumes in mind. One perfume is from Brand A and one perfume is from Brand B. The online reviews are largely positive for each perfume from these two brands. There are numerous comparison posts on various perfume forums that look favorably on both perfumes. Both perfumes are at a very similar price point.

The deciding factor for which niche brand the consumer chooses might come down to the brand identity. To a perfumer, this might sound like blasphemy, but we know that people are very sensitive to brand identity. In fact, 70% of consumer product purchases are based on emotional factors, and also that consumers are 46% more likely to spend more money on a brand that they trust.

Packaging is a trust signal. To a consumer, it conveys that if a brand spends this much time and money on its packaging, it probably spends even more time perfecting the perfume’s composition. Packaging signals ‘quality’ and ‘trust’

Try and find a single luxury brand in any product category that doesn’t have exceptional product packaging.

Free Directory of Perfume Packaging Companies

3. The Most Important Brand Touchpoint is the Packaging

Consumers have new buying behaviors that perfume brands will have to adapt to. These buying preferences are even more pronounced in Millennials and Gen Z segments. The younger generation has a buyer journey that looks like this:

• Product discovery on TikTok or Instagram

• Go to the brand’s site to read more about the product and company

• Check for product reviews on Youtube

• Look for the product on reliable retailer websites to find the lowest price

This means that the customer may have never directly interacted with the perfume brand before making the purchase. They might not follow the perfume brands’ social media. They probably haven't received any emails from the perfume brand. They have never seen any merchandising. They might not have ever visited the brand’s website. This means the packaging might be the only brand touchpoint with 100% engagement. This necessitates a more memorable engagement that reinforces the brand identity.

Intertwining Brand Identity with Emotion

What needs to be considered when developing the packaging design is how the brand identity intertwines with a particular emotion. People often choose what perfume they will wear that day based on their mood.

How does this translate to fragrance packaging? Bottle design needs to incorporate the brand identity AND personify a mood. Color theory, bottle shape, lettermark, typeface, material, tactile finish, and bottle cap are some of the design elements that need to be refined in the pursuit of aligning brand identity with a feeling.