NEW YORK — Carolina Herrera is building her fragrance business in three-year intervals.
After the launches of her signature women’s scent in 1988 and Herrera for Men in 1991, the designer is now set to introduce Flore, her second women’s fragrance.
Flore — French for “flora” — will be launched in early September at Saks Fifth Avenue, where it will be sold exclusively until the beginning of January. At that point it will be rolled out to Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus and I. Magnin, according to executives at Compar, Herrera’s fragrance licensee and U.S. distributor.
The product will be introduced at the same time throughout Europe.
“It’s eventually going to reach 1,500 points of sale [in the U.S.], and that will be the maximum,” said Craig Morton, director of marketing at Compar.
He declined to discuss sales projections, but industry estimates say Flore could top $1 million at retail in its first four months at Saks.
“We’ve done very well with the first fragrance,” said Herrera. “It’s number one in Spain and Argentina, and it’s doing well all though South America. Of course, we hope we can do the same with this one.”
Flore will be priced in the upper end of the market, but will be cheaper than the Carolina Herrera scent, according to Morton.
The Flore fragrance line, which includes seven items, will range in price from $45 for a 1.7-oz. eau de parfum pour to $165 for a 0.5-oz. perfume.
“Many of the new lines that have been coming out have lower prices,” he said. “There’s a perceived customer resistance to higher prices, and based on this and our market research, we’re going along with the trend.”
A 3.4-oz. eau de parfum spray, which Morton said should be the most popular size, will retail for $69, as opposed to $72 for the same size in Herrera’s signature fragrance line.
Fernando Aleu, Compar’s president, described Flore as “a very classically feminine fragrance. It’s not a mating call.”
“I wanted it to be fresh and modern, but sexy,” said Herrera, noting that lily of the valley, which is the main note of the fragrance, is her favorite flower. While the new item will be supported by television advertising in Europe in the fall, Compar will rely on print advertising and in-store sampling for the launch period here, Morton said.
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“It’s expensive to do TV here. We’ve actually found print to be more efficient,” he said, adding that the TV commercial could air in regional U.S. markets next spring.
The print campaign will first appear in September editions of fashion magazines. A version of the ad with an attached scented insert will be in Vogue, Vanity Fair and Gourmet. The campaign will continue through the fall, with scented inserts slated for the November editions of Elle and Marie Claire.
The packaging is similar to Herrera’s previous efforts, carrying her standard polka dot motif over what the designer said is an undefinable shade of red.
“I don’t know what it is,” she said. “We can call it Herrera Red.”