‘The omnipresence of scent’: Coty MD of SEA and India on why lifestyle fragrance is an ‘untapped opportunity’

Over the last three years, the fragrance category has expanded significantly to include more home and lifestyle products, including scent candles, room sprays, and even scented jewellery.

The demand for these products has grown in correlation with the heightened appreciation of scent. This prospect of developing new products to “cocoon ourselves with scent”​ is an exciting prospect for fragrance companies like Coty.

“We’re looking to plain and too linear at a category which can really develop into lifestyle brands. This is really something I would like to champion and talk more about in the future to consumers when we have the right products in place,” ​said Kristina Strunz, managing director of Coty SEA and India.

Speaking on the Beauty 4.0 podcast by CosmeticsDesign-Asia, ​Kristina mentioned a luxury laundry detergent that was launched recently, which sold out, highlighting the demand for more sophisticated scents in more than just perfumes.

“This is a very interesting movement. You don’t want to have a simple laundry detergent anymore; you want your clothes to have a more complex smell.”​

She added: “Consumers do consume fragrance in an omni way, it doesn’t necessarily have to come from an EDP or EDT bottle, it can come from anywhere… This is really something I’m super interested in.”​

Knocking it out of the park

In the past year, Coty has “leapfrogged”​ its way up the ladder in the SEA region with major brand launches on e-commerce, including Chloe, HUGO BOSS, and Marc Jacobs. It also ramped up excitement in the market with Chloe’s niche collection, Atelier des Fleurs, by unveiling its first boutique in Singapore.

“When we started out only one year ago, Coty Luxury were the number eight group, now we’re the number three group – and that's in one year only,”​ said Kristina.

“We made a lot of great learnings, adapted very quickly. And now, the results speak for themselves. We are super happy where we are and now it's about enriching it and trying new things and becoming really the pioneer.”​

To hear more insights from Kristina about the SEA fragrance market, the rise of social commerce, and the evolving role of beauty advisors check out the podcast episode above.