The latest from mainstream fragrance brand Thierry Mugler is a line of perfume brushes that are used to paint a scented gel on your pulse points. The line includes Mugler\u2019s three bestselling scents \u2013 Alien, Angel and Aura \u2013 and follows the world-first from Jo Malone, named Jo Loves<\/a>. The latter contains a trademarked clear gel that dries on the skin \u201cin seconds\u201d and is marketed as a handy fragrance option for consumers on-the-go. The formula contains alcohol and works in a similar fashion to liquid perfume, by releasing top notes first, followed by middle and base notes.<\/p>\n

In retrospect, the gel perfume brush was developed as an improved version of its fragranced powder-containing predecessor, an example of which is niche brand Byredo Kabuki\u2019s line of brush ons<\/a>. Having been taken on board by a mainstream brand, could the gel formulation provide a better chance for perfume brushes to enter the mass market? We ran a split-by-description steer showing Mugler\u2019s new Angel perfuming brush to two unique subsets of fragrance using women, one described as a gel brush and the other \u2013 as powder brush:<\/p>\n

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The question consumers are presented with is \u201cWould you buy this product?\u201d, which causes a \u201cyes\u201d bias (acquiescence bias), i.e., many more consumers respond positively without necessarily being likely to buy the product, due to a psychological tendency to agree rather than reject. However, in this case we are interested in the difference between the two results, which is 3.2% in favour of the gel formulation. Despite not being statistically significant, this difference might be a signal to do further testing, and at least suggests that gel would not perform worse than powder.<\/p>\n

It remains unclear how much influence this innovation will have on mainstream perfumery. Combined with the novel application method, how likely it is to disrupt the on-the-go\/top-up fragrance market? To provide an answer, we ran a preference steer to female consumers who have confirmed in a Vypr demographic that they use fragrance as part of their personal care routine:<\/p>\n

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Nearly 80% of our community had an exclusive preference, which shows a high level of confidence in consumers\u2019 choices. Overall, there is a strong preference towards the old travel size versions. Angel\u2019s 15ml bottle is a definite leader with over 44% of the exclusive preferences and 47% of all preferences. Being Mugler\u2019s first perfume, launched in 1992, Angel is an established popular fragrance. Its perfume brush version also performed better than its Alien counterpart but only managed to attract 13.5% of exclusive preferences \u2013 more than three times less than the original travel size.<\/p>\n

Alien\u2019s original 15ml travel size attracted a tad over 20% of exclusive preferences, and its perfumed brush version failed to reach 8%. The ratio of preferences towards the bottle and brush, respectively, is similar to Angel\u2019s \u2013 the original travel size product strongly outperforms the new option.<\/p>\n

In an attempt to establish consumers\u2019 motivation for leaving the perfume brushes behind, we launched a single answer steer to the same demographic subset of female fragrance users, asking them to select a most important feature of the Angel perfuming brush. The options in this steer represent the marketed characteristics of the new format, with the aim to establish which of these are most likely to trigger purchase decisions:<\/p>\n

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‘Travel size\u2019 greatly outperformed the rest of the features, having gained more than 37% of responses. \u2018Non-spill format\u2019 was also a top pick, chosen by a fifth of the community as most important. \u2018None of these\u2019 was the choice of another fifth of the community, which highlights the existence of a large group of immediate rejectors. The remaining three features can be viewed as unimportant, having become top choices of relatively small subsets of consumers. \u2018Precise brush application\u2019 and \u2018gel formula\u2019, in particular, were seen as the most important by very small groups \u2013 less than 7% and 5%, respectively. This suggests that the most distinguished and innovative features of Mugler\u2019s new format don\u2019t work for consumers.<\/p>\n

As a final step we ran an overt test showing our fragrance-using female demographic the travel size perfume and perfume brush, both from the Angel line-up, along with size and price:<\/p>\n

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As expected, the majority of female fragrance users opted for the 15ml perfume bottle, sold at \u00a328. Along with being better value-for-money, the bottle is easily recognisable due to its unique shape and the fact that the original perfume has been on the market for 27 years. However, the perfuming brush also had a good level of acceptance \u2013 almost 27%, and slightly higher in the more mature 35-54 age segment (31.5%). Consumers in this age group are likely to have higher disposable incomes than their younger counterparts, and are, therefore, more open to try a pricier novel product.<\/p>\n

Despite this, based on the steers we ran, we think that Mugler\u2019s new line of perfume brushes will struggle to overtake the traditional travel-size formulation. It could enjoy a moderate initial uptake, perhaps in travel retail and as a complimentary add-on to full-size Mugler perfumes. This success would be sourced from wealthier, middle-aged consumers, willing to experience novelty. In the long term Mugler\u2019s perfume brush will have to outperform these expectations to avoid the fate of Mugler\u2019s perfume pens, launched last year but now hard to find.<\/p>\n

According to Nielsen, approximately 80-85% of new consumer goods launches fail<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Vypr\u2019s mission is to help brands prevent possible failures by providing the tool to quickly identify the risks and confront them throughout the stages of the innovation process\u2014from initial concept testing to optimising price and product line assortment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The latest from mainstream fragrance brand Thierry Mugler is a line of perfume brushes that are used to paint a scented gel on your pulse points. The line includes Mugler\u2019s three bestselling scents \u2013 Alien, Angel and Aura \u2013 and follows the world-first from Jo Malone, named Jo Loves. The latter contains a trademarked clear […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n