05. Market Scan
A competitor analysis is carried out to better understand the market and also what competitors are offering to ease and improve on the process of picking a scent for consumers. This will help me streamline my thought process and give me necessary insights.
1. Algorithmic Perfumery
“One-of-a-kind scents for every human”
Algorithmic Perfumery was conceived as a participatory installation that addresses the relationship between man and machine and thus confronts us with ourselves. Triggered by the question ‘what if every human could create their own scent’.
Algorithmic Perfumery provides three offerings for customers.
Firstly, “create for yourself” is a product that allows customers to answer a few questions before they are gifted 3x5ml perfumes. Secondly, “create for someone else” is a product that allows consumers to create a scent for gifting by answering the same set of questions. Lastly, “discover your scent preferences with our library” provides 9 different fixed scents to allows customers to try a new type of scent. Each scent has a different body to it; which ranges from tea notes like cashmere tea, to fruity scent like bloom rush. Algorithmic Perfumery also provides flexibility to customers by allowing them to tweak the % of a note in the fixed scent.
In the event, if I were to want to purchase a scent, here is the breakdown of the questions that were asked.
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The questionnaire started off with simple demographic questions. I find the idea of asking “in what setting did he grow up?” interesting. Does this mean that the setting in which we grow up with will affect the kind of scent we enjoy?
The questionnaire went on to understand the personality of gift receiver. The questions ranges from just one word personality descriptor like “positive, quiet, bright” etc to scenario based questions like “I see him as someone who is original and comes up with new ideas”. I think the idea of providing more context to customers is genius. It also allows Algorithm Perfumery to get a deeper understanding of their customer.
The questionnaire also pivoted from understanding the personality of the gift receiver to questioning the WHY? Why wear perfume? This provides me with another perspective of how perfume should be treated like the clothing article we put on our body everyday. I think a scent is even more intimate and personal than what we wear, hence why we should and can look into connecting with a personal scent of ours.
Lastly, the questionnaire ended by getting the scent preferences of customers. It started with questions on the profile of scents like “sweet, floral, fruity, woody” which is something that customers are very familiar with when picking a scent at other retail stores. Afterwards, the questions uses antonyms and required customers to pick the word that best depicts what the perfume is.
After the questionnaire is completed, 3 scents are created for customers. With each scent, the full ingredient list is displayed for customers to peruse. Also, customers are able to click on each individual ingredient to get a deeper understanding of the scent profile.
To conclude the analysis on Algorithmic Perfumery, I have done up a SWOT analysis to get a clearer idea of the brand. This allows me to better position my solution in the later part of this project.
In conclusion, Algorithmic Perfumery is successful in easing the process of picking a scent as the questions make picking a scent very systematic and structural. This eliminates the process of picking a scent that is centric on giver’s preferences and instead focuses more on what the receiver wants.
They have also addressed the fear of purchasing a scent that customers might not like by providing 3 different scents for them and also keeping it small and affordable.
However, with the algorithm, it is understood that it gets more accurate with more purchases and feedback made. This meant that if no post-purchase engagement with customers is done and if customers are not satisfied with the product proposed to them, they might distrust the brand.
2. Penhaligon’s
Penhaligon’s is a British perfume house. It was founded in the late 1860s by William Henry Penhaligon, a Cornish barber who moved to London and who became Court Barber and Perfumer to Queen Victoria.
Penhaligon provides customers with the choice to pick between a full-sized perfume and also discovery sets which consists of 5–10 different scents in a box.
However, what stood out to me was the use of gamification and providing free sample kits to customers. With these two features, it eases the process of picking a scent as well.
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One of their key feature “Fragrance Profiling” uses a simple thematic questionnaire to get a better understanding of the customers before sending them 2 free perfume samples. It is also observed that this is a key feature of Penhaligon’s as it is heavily promoted on the footer of the website and also in their Instagram page’s bio.
7 simple questions that range from demographic related questions to more personal questions like “describe yourself and describe your ideal getaway” are asked to get a deeper understanding of the temperament of the customers.
I enjoy the layout and process of answering the questions as they fit the entire look and branding of Penhaligon’s. The way they leverage their strong heritage and branding stood out to me as compared to the rest of the other questionnaires that I have done before.
A persona is created after the questionnaire is completed, and customers are proposed with 3 scents. Upon clicking on each scent, they are able to understand the scent profile of each perfume with the base, heart and head notes provided. They are able to pick 2 out of the 3 proposed or shuffle to get a random perfume as well. The checkout is simple as customers can head to the cart after picking the 2 scents.
The other unique feature that Penhaligon provide is the “Portraits Mansion”. The portraits mansion uses virtual reality and gamification to allow customers to explore different scents freely within the space.
I think this idea of using virtual reality is really cool because it breaks the norm and provides customers with more fun and engaging way to make a purchase. For example, the video below shows how customers will go and explore the space freely and once they pick a scent that they are interested in, they can immediately make a purchase and add the item to their cart.
Also, the usage of soundscape and narratives provides a more immersive experience, and with each scent, they provide a backstory as well.
To conclude the analysis on Penhaligon’s, I have done up a SWOT analysis to get a clearer idea of the brand.
In conclusion, Penhaligon’s is successful in easing the process of picking a scent as they make use of personalisation through the questionnaire to hand out free samples. This is vastly different from drugstores like Sephora giving free perfume samples with every purchase or even get a free sample by purchasing Vogue magazines. The intent of doing so is different, and the usage of personalisation allows customers to relate to the brand more.
Also, the usage of VR to allow customers to explore the scent also eases the process of picking a scent. The whole experience is informative as customers can get to explore different scents and they can also cart out the item immediately without needing to go to the main website to cart out.
