Changing the global culture of fragrance: Using ethnography for breakthrough innovation

The impact

The ‘Real Women of America’ study enabled IFF and Ipsos to explore how women in the US consider and use fragrances in their lives. The insights generated have transformed IFF’s culture, putting consumer-centricity at the heart of everything they do, and has resulted in the launch of a revolutionary universal fragrance product, providing IFF with an opportunity potentially worth €10 million. 

New consumer insight can be extremely difficult to come by, especially in established markets. Having set out to focus on consumer-centricity, it was especially important for IFF’s research teams to uncover new consumer insight, and encourage their employees to engage and innovate with it. To understand the mainstream American woman in a much, much deeper way, IFF and Ipsos devised an ethnographic research project to go beyond how she reported to use, purchase and experience fragrance, by really getting to know her and explore her unconscious, sometimes contradictory behaviors.

As fragrance research budgets are predominantly spent on product testing, and rarely on cultural, foundational research, the importance of the project was, at first, underestimated. However, a highly collaborative Ipsos-IFF project team was determined to change this perception. Engaging creative teams based in Asia, Europe and the US, and obtaining support from global senior management was crucial. Serious insight had to be balanced with a playful tone. For this reason, the study’s title echoes that of the popular US TV series – the ‘Real Housewives of …’ – showing that research can be entertaining.

The Real Women of America took the following format:

• Day-long filmed ethnographic interviews with women;
• A mobile diary with each participant after their interview.
• A series of insight workshops held in Singapore, the Netherlands, Paris and New York.

Insights that changed the way IFF thinks about consumers

Insights from this project were structured around category and cross-category opportunities, and moments to connect with consumers. The following insights tick all these boxes and have accelerated product innovation at IFF:

1. Consumers in the US rarely open their windows: They are afraid of germs and allergies. To eradicate bad odours in the home, they reach for a spray; 
2. They want their own scent” They desire a unique fragrance from their products. Fragrance can also strengthen their family cohesion and identity;
3. Fragrance means clean: No matter whether something is actually dirty or clean, whether a kitchen or a sweater, a scent tells everyone else it is clean.

All three insights can be observed in a single clip, in which Yasmen decants Victoria’s Secret body mist into her Swiffer mop and starts to clean the floor. Unable to dedicate the time required to thoroughly clean her home, yet wanting others to smell her unique fragrance and know that she has cleaned, this “hack” makes complete sense to Yasmen. The unspoken truth behind why she could use such an expensive product on her floors is that she knows the smell will last, because she does not open the windows.

Such a moment demonstrates that, even in the most researched market in the world, surprises can arise, and surprising insight is the inspiration for IFF’s recent innovation work.

Transforming how IFF innovates

Scent Styler™ is the very first consumer product that is both conceived and developed by IFF, an organisation whose typical remit is the fragrance solution itself. Scent Styler™ is a product that can be applied to many household tasks. Whether mopping the floors, washing clothes, or using an evaporator to fragrance the home, Scent Styler™ is a way for consumers to create a uniquely fragrant home. It is a product that works across categories, and it could even spawn brand new product categories.

Fueling IFF’s innovation process with insight has led to a fundamental change in philosophy and understanding – that people do not buy products, but rather solutions to their problems, whether real or perceived. IFF’s senior management often see this as one of the most powerful messages of the ethnographic study.

Impacting the business

This research allows IFF to take the lead and armed with consumer insight, it can approach clients rather than wait for briefs. Scent Styler™ has piqued the interest of some big players. IFF is ready to launch the product in North America and EMEA in 2020. The ethnographic video itself is a fantastic opener for discussions with prospective partners. IFF is now able to present itself as an organisation that works on full product and marketing solutions, rather than just the fragrance itself.

The research is unanimously seen as a success: Charlie Tremblay, IFF Creative Director comments “In terms of value/benefit, having this type of research that we can share internally with our organisation is a fraction of what it would cost to have people do in home visits. This is value consumer research”.

The research has been lauded by senior members of the organisation. Current forecasts for Scent Styler™ are 20 times larger than those for a typical home care product, with a potential €10m return in the first year. Additionally, part of the uniqueness of this innovation lies in the fact that it spans categories.

In light of the successful application of the US study alone, the research has already been extended to China, with plans to conduct research in Brazil and India later this year.

This article is based on the paper initially presented at ESOMAR Fusion 2019 and the full paper, “Impact Not to be Sniffed at: How One Study Changed the Global Culture of Fragrance. Using ethnography for breakthrough innovation”  is available at https://ana.esomar.org , ESOMAR’s intelligent reference tool for ESOMAR’s resources library.