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Jo Malone London has its sights set on US domination. The fragrance brand is ramping up marketing, product development and distribution efforts in a bid to increase its North American presence and awareness. If it’s successful, it will be tapping into a major growth opportunity.
Jo Malone has a strong gifting and bridal business in its core markets, which include the UK and Asia. However, the fragrance landscape has changed almost beyond recognition since Estée Lauder purchased Jo Malone London in 1999, and new main approaches are needed to Supply chain issues, rising customer acquisition costs and an increasingly inflated environment are causing headaches for many beauty companies, who, for years, have reaped the benefits of rapid digital marketing and cash-rich shoppers.
“We’ve been in North America for just under a decade, but we still have a huge amount of opportunity there,” says Jo Dancey, the brand’s global general manager. “The sheer scale of the US makes it a very different conversation. To look at it just through the terms of distribution, if we wanted pure growth, we could just open a thousand more doors, but we won’t. It’s about finding the right location but building awareness at the same time as that distribution,” she explains. IMarc Group estimates the North American (including the US and Canada) perfume market to be worth $6.2 billion as of 2021, reaching $7.5 billion by 2027. In contrast, the UK market is yet to crack the $2 billion mark as of 2022 , per market intelligence firm Mintel. To expand in the US, the brand is betting on more out-of-home campaigns, such as the winter 2022 Let It Snow campaign, which has seen a Morris Minor car touring across northern American cities.
More doors, more stores
Distribution is the key for the brand. With 28 stores in the US and carried in select branches of Nordstrom, Macy’s and Sephora, Dancey says the brand has “always been a retail one”, with much of its business being direct-to-consumer.
“We’ve always been able to speak very directly to our customers and build those individual relationships. That encourages customers to keep coming back and also gives us space to educate on the depth of our product range and concepts like scent pairing,” says Dancey , referring to customers mixing and matching two or more products to create a bespoke scent. Not only does this speak to a consumer desire for individuality, but it also increases the number of items a consumer will buy in one transaction.
Store closures and the removal of in-person services during the pandemic was a bitter loss for many beauty companies. Jo Malone London makes use of many services such fragrance discovery, hand and arm massages, and how-to sessions scenting your home or wedding. A quick pivot to digital clienteling followed, with services and online experiences across platforms such as WhatsApp and Wechat, says Dancey, adding that the brand also enjoyed an uplift as consumers became more interested in scenting their homes, with candles and reed diffusers performing. “The fear was that we would see this massive spike that would then start to fall away. However, it seems our customers have created new long-term habits around home fragrance,” says Dancey.
Recruiting Gen Z
Consumers want more than just a sweet smell from their fragrances, too. “Customers generally are looking to understand what the added benefits are from a beauty purchase,” says Dancey, adding that it’s the same in skincare and makeup. That’s inspired a new product line: the brand launched The Night Collection in 2022, a selection of perfume and home fragrance items such as a pillow mist designed to help with a peaceful mental transition from day to night. Dancey says the collection was inspired by the neuroscience of sleep and relaxation A number of indie brands, such as The Nue Co and Heretic, have also released functional fragrances designed to reduce stress and boost feelings of well-being.