NEW YORK—American consumers are spending less on fragrances during the recession, according to a study from independent business analyst Datamonitor. The research revealed consumers in North American, and in particular the U.S., are willing to sacrifice fragrances before other parts of their personal care regime.
Americans don’t find ‘smelling good’ as important as ‘looking good’
When asked how important smelling good was, 56 percent of the Americas said it was important or very important, while 70 percent stated that looking their best was important or very important.
The study reported while the overall personal care market witnessed gains in North America, the fragrances sector declined between the years 2003 to 2008. North American decline in fragrances was driven by U.S. consumer’s lack of spending. This is in contrast to the overall gains seen in the fragrances sector globally.
Since 2003, the market value of fragrances as a percentage of the overall personal care market has increased in the developing markets but lost ground in the more developed European and North American markets. Any loss of market share can be attributed to the high performances in other categories such as make up.
The Fragrance market will continue grow, despite regional declines
Datamonitor believes the fragrance market will continue to grow over the next decade despite declining U.S. sales. Strengths in the fragrances market exist in places like Spain in particular, who has begun to challenge France as the traditional home of European fragrances.
Datamonitor believes given the links between image projection and self-esteem, published in numerous psychology journals, it is no surprise that consumers will make sacrifices when the going gets tough in order to buy themselves a perfume to make them feel good about themselves.