French women “overwhelmed” by pace of fragrance launches

Many French women believe there are too many perfume launches annually and say they feel overwhelmed by the 1,000+ launches per year.

The findings come from a recent survey,Mon Parfum et Moi, carried out by CCM Benchmark, Fragrance Expérience and JournalDesFemmes.com. The poll questioned 2,000 French women in order to find out what women think about the current perfume market, their relationship with perfume and sales drivers. It found that buying behaviour has altered surprisingly little in the past ten years, with French women retaining a “symbiotic” relationship with fragrance. More than 90% said they thought of their perfume as a second skin and a reflection of their personality, with 90% applying it every day and 34% applying it several times a day.

The overwhelming majority (98%) of those questioned thought there were enough perfumes on the market already, while 41% thought the current number “excessive”. As for outlets, retail is still vastly preferred to online purchasing, with only 5% of respondents buying online and 60% buying from specialist retailers. This finding was particularly surprising, given that all of the survey’s respondents were regular internet users.