From wwd.com
Prada’s Newest Design: Fragrance
By Julie Naughton
NEW YORK — Prada has designs on the women’s fragrance market — with plans this fall to launch a scent that has been hotly anticipated for more than four years.
While most apparel houses enter the beauty business with fragrances, Prada turned that notion on its ear with the launch of Prada Skin Care, which hit the market in fall 2000. That wasn’t the only rule the company broke, choosing to do individually packaged, “mono-dose” treatment products rather than the multi-use jars and tubes employed by most other high-end brands. It tiptoed into the color business with colored lip balms in spring 2002.
Now, Prada and its beauty partner, the Puig Beauty & Fashion Group, are hoping to break a few more rules with the launch of Prada fragrance, the culmination of years of development by Miuccia Prada and her team — starting with the outer packaging, with boxes featuring the same woven-fabric Prada labels that are sewn into the designer’s ready-to-wear collections. Inside the boxes, other high-end details are apparent: There’s the engraved metal plates listing the key ingredients of the scent that top the rectangular glass fragrance bottles, and in a nod to classic perfumery, the scents are packaged with atomizer pumps. In certain doors, noted Martha Brady, general manager for Puig North America and president of Puig USA, the bottles will be further personalized with custom engraving requested by consumers.
“Miuccia Prada wants to build a beauty house, and is building all of the launches on two pillars: innovation and tradition,” said Victor Patino, group licensing director for Prada. “She did this first with Prada’s skin care line, and is now doing it with fragrance. It is [designed to be] a classic of tomorrow.”
While Miuccia Prada and her chief executive husband, Patrizio Bertelli, have been involved with every step in the development of the Prada beauty collection, the duo signed a joint venture agreement with Puig in May 2003, to manage the beauty business in a 50-50 deal that is applicable worldwide. Prada and Puig had signed a letter of intent in June 2002. When the pact was consummated in 2003, industry sources estimated that the Prada beauty brand could generate $228 million to $342 million in wholesale sales in three to five years, compared with an estimated $10 million at wholesale worldwide that the brand was said to do at the time. Industry sources estimate that the Prada scent could do $25 million at retail in the U.S. in its first year, and as much as $100 million at retail globally when the rollout is complete.
Of the deal, Patino noted that while the consummation took some time, it will lead to a stronger union. “Sometimes you find a fiancée and you find she’s not the right woman to marry. We spent two years talking and one year negotiating. While we took awhile, our marriage with Puig is forever. Prada and Puig share many values, and that’s important because with the fragrance, Puig will be representing Prada’s values.”
Manuel Puig, ceo of Puig Beauty & Fashion Group and president of the Puig Prestige Beauty Brands division of the Barcelona-based family-held company, said the project was “a terrific opportunity for both [houses].” For the venture, Puig said, the companies came together under their “common values of being two family businesses with personal relationships and shared appreciation of the importance of luxury products. Also there was a shared attention to detail. Most importantly, they went back to the shared tradition of high quality, with natural oils.” Puig said there were synergies with the skin care. “The fragrance will help us increase some traffic.”
“I’ve never seen a designer so involved and passionate about a [beauty] brand,” added Jose Manuel Albesa, general manager of Prada fragrance and skin care. “It is great to have that type of a partnership and it has resulted in a wonderful creation.”
In fact, Miuccia Prada’s famous attention to detail will be carried through every aspect of the fragrance. The scent, developed by Carlos Benaim and Max Gavarry of International Flavors and Fragrances, and described by Albesa as a “very addictive, sensual, ambery scent,” has topnotes of Italian bergamot, bitter orange, Sicilian mandarin and mimosa absolute; middle notes of rose absolute, schimus molle absolute, Indonesian patchouli and patchouli absolute, and a drydown of labdanum resinoide, tonka bean absolute, vanilla absolute, Indian sandalwood and Siamese benzoin resinoide.
The collection includes eaux de parfum in two sizes, 1.7 oz. for $65 and 2.7 oz. for $85, as well as an eau de parfum deluxe refillable spray, 2.7 oz. for $95, and a refillable eau de parfum intense spray — a slightly different version with a higher concentration of fragrance oils, $125 for 1.7 oz. Two ancillaries will be released at launch: a 6.7-oz. body lotion for $40 and a perfumed bath and shower gel, 6.7 oz. for $35.
The standard packaging for the eaux de parfum is a powder pink box with a prune logo on a champagne-colored Prada label. The deluxe additions differ slightly. The refillable edition has a pink outer box with a champagne logo on a prune fabric label, along with a pink inner box with a printed label. The refillable intense version has a prune outer box with a prune logo on a champagne-hued label, with a prune inner box with a printed logo. The ancillary packaging is of pink and white with a prune printed logo.
“You can striptease your bottle and have it naked,” joked Patino of the inner and outer boxes of the deluxe versions, “or you can keep it completely wrapped up.”
In the U.S., Neiman Marcus, Bergdorf Goodman, Saks Fifth Avenue’s New York City flagship and the 12 Prada boutiques — for a total of about 50 doors — will get the fragrance first, with an exclusive deal that runs from August to the beginning of October. In mid-October, all remaining Saks Fifth Avenue doors, as well as Barneys New York, Nordstrom, Bloomingdale’s, select Marshall Field’s and Sephora doors and select specialty store doors will get the products. By December 2004 the scent is expected to be in about 350 doors in the U.S.
Brady noted that there will be uniformed, dedicated salespeople — and counters — present in all doors where the Prada fragrance will be sold. Puig added that the company will “hire people to do a lot of training and devote a lot of time on training to instill a sense of the product. This is like waking up the market. We are not just doing another fragrance line — everyone is expecting a lot.”
In November, stores in Italy, Spain, the U.K. and Germany will get the scent, with the remainder of the globe getting the scent throughout 2005 and 2006. U.S. distribution is also expected to expand slightly in 2005, with top department stores joining the fray next spring. Still, the fragrance won’t be everywhere: “Our intention is to keep this as a very special launch,” said Albesa. That’s not to say he doesn’t have big plans: “We aim to get in the top five [fragrance rankings] in every single country,” he emphasized.
The advertising campaign, shot by Mario Sorrenti, includes single-page and double-page spread versions. The first ads will break in Allure, Vogue, Town and Country and Vanity Fair in August magazines, and heavy support is planned for the holiday season. Upward of $12 million is expected to be spent on advertising and promotion.
Sampling will also be a key part of the campaign, with more than one million samples in the U.S. planned, said Brady. Among the vehicles on tap: scented ribbons, vials on cards and deluxe miniatures. The brand will be pre-sampled before its launch, with consumers registering in Neiman Marcus and on Neiman Marcus’ Web site to receive deluxe samples.
