NEW YORK — Heartened by strong initial sales from Europe, Lancôme is eagerly preparing to launch its new women’s scent, Hypnôse, here with hopes of bolstering the brand’s fragrance fortunes.
“It’s very important for Lancôme to refurbish its image with fragrance,” said Eric Lauzat, the recently installed president of the Lancôme division of L’Oréal USA. He, like other L’Oréal executives, acknowledged that Lancôme’s last women’s fragrance, Attraction, “was not a great success.” However, Lancôme has made “great strides in makeup and skin care this year,” according to Nina White, deputy general manager and senior vice president of marketing. What is needed is a hit fragrance because that is the signature of the brand, she asserted.
If the news from Paris is any indication, L’Oréal’s American executives can feel at ease about the coming launch. “We targeted the top 10 and it’s even better than that,” said Marc Dubrule, general manager of Lancôme International. He was referring to the European launch of Hypnôse this fall, from mid-September to late October.
The Lancôme entry ranked number one among new fragrances and remains third overall in France, Dubrule said during a telephone interview this week from L’Oréal’s Paris office. Hypnôse also ranks third in the key German market and first in Poland and Russia. It is selling in the top 10 in Italy and Spain.
Rankings are not yet available from the U.K., Dubrule said, but Hypnôse is now tracking numbers similar to those of Miracle, the 2001 women’s fragrance that L’Oréal says remains in the top 15 worldwide.
“We are very encouraged by the results,” Dubrule said. He pointed out that those impressive launch figures were racked up with only two stockkeeping units — a 30-ml. and a 50-ml. eau de parfum spray. Europe was the beginning of a global rollout. The new fragrance will be launched in the U.S. in February in 2,235 doors, followed by South America in the spring and Asia in the second half.
“We would love to be in the top 10 worldwide with Hypnôse,” Dubrule said. That would give L’Oréal two brands in the top 10, along with the 1991 classic, Trésor, which is now billed as the number-six women’s fragrance worldwide.
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L’Oréal executives do not break out projections, but industry sources estimated prior to the European launch that Hypnôse could do $120 million at retail worldwide in the first 12 months. That assessment could possibly be higher now, considering the fragrance’s early success. The projection for the U.S. stands at more than $50 million in retail sales.
The U.S. will have a fuller line. The 30-ml. eau de parfum, priced $42.50, and the 50-ml., priced $54.50, will be joined by a 6.7-oz. body lotion for $42.50 and a 6.7-oz. body wash gel for $37.50. A 75-ml. eau de parfum will be added in April in time for Mother’s Day, according to Ulli Lindauer, assistant vice president of fragrance marketing. A limited-edition body cream and scented body powder are being planned for September.
While Trésor is a very sophisticated floral built around a rose note, Hypnôse is being billed as a “luminous oriental,” created by Annick Menardo and Thierry Wasser of Firmenich. The main ingredients are passion flower, vanilla and vetiver. The contrasting notes play against one another and comingle through the heart and base of the formula in what is described by the company as a “solar helix” structure.
The Hypnôse target customer is 25 to 45 years old, slightly younger than the Trésor user, Lindauer said.
The twisted shape of the bottle may seem like a reference to the helix structure, but it was based on the brand’s Magie fragrance, launched in 1950 and designed by Lancôme’s original creative director, Georges Delhomme. His original inspiration was the image of a woman wrapping herself in a kimono, said Lindauer.
The marketing attack will be driven by sampling the fragrance. White said plans call for making 100 million scented impressions, the most in the brand’s history. That includes scented strips in magazine ads featuring the face of model Daria Werbowy. The advertising, bearing the tag line “The New Hypnotizing Fragrance,” will appear in about six magazines in February and another seven or eight in March, along with flights of TV advertising at launch and during Mother’s Day.
In Paris, Dubrule noted that the brand’s strategy right now is concentrating on building the women’s fragrance business.