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For years, dispensing has been the primary focus of a select number of firms worldwide that have wanted to make the consumer experience the best possible. WestRock, the fusion of MeadWestvaco and RockTenn, has been the leading name in dispensing in one shape or another for some time. We were lucky enough to be able to speak with three professionals at the company and get their impressions on what's been going on in the space.
Open Interview
Open Interview
Open Interview
There have been many changes over the years in the fragrance industry, but one clear thing about the sector is that it has always focused on aesthetics, the look of the brand, conveying its value proposition through visual impact. In 2005, we launched a new generation of pumps. They were low profile items with the functional parts hidden in the neck so that the dispenser didn't have a negative impact on the overall aesthetics. Melodie® was one such pump, and it became an instant star in the fragrance sector, adopted by such major brands as Chanel, Puig, Mont Blanc, and others. We've penetrated into LVMH over the last couple of years, in fact, and have worked on projects for such brands as Dior, Guerlain, Givenchy, and Kenzo. My point is that the market appreciation of Melodie has been just amazing.
We did something that nobody else had done. We shifted away from solely focusing on the aesthetics or on the mechanism. Westrock's innovation strategy was to ask consumers to focus on the experience of using the spray and tell us how they felt about it. The feedback was amazing, the reactions we received from actual consumers was just astounding. We learned answers to questions we hadn't even thought to ask, the sheer amount of data we got was vast.
We learned about genuine, consumer-oriented pain points that nobody had previously known existed. We learned what consumers considered good and bad sprayers, but beyond that, we learned that there were general preferences shared by a number of groups, broken down by sex or by age. We asked them to try different sprays and we could clearly detect that when each consumer found what they considered the right spray for them, an emotional connection was made. That's when we took all of the data we had compiled and based on it, created the Emotions of Spray Collection.
We wanted to provide fragrance companies with dispensing options based not only aesthetic appeal, but direct emotional appeal. Emotions of Spray linked a wide variety of our dispensers to emotional responses and eliminated pain points. We could approach our customers or prospective customers and offer them dispensers that not only looked attractive and could enhance their brand, they would also be able to appeal to their target consumers, based on the needs and desires of those demographic groupings. Melodie Forever™, for example, is one of our long and exuberant sprayers, and we learned it was especially indicated for women, they loved the broad dispensing and the ritual feel to it. Melodie Agile™, on the other hand, is a smaller and more focused sprayer, and we learned it was generally more appealing to men. They appreciated the fact that it was direct, more task-based. The point is that the spray is an intrinsic and important part of the overall packaging. By matching the right spray with the right target, brands can create a more luxurious perception. That drives brand loyalty and creates a more solid link with the brand. With all that in mind, we launched the Emotions of Spray Collection and it created a furor among brands.
Yes, in a sense. Aesthetics are still important, obviously, but we added another dimension to the development process. That allowed WestRock to penetrate new accounts and offer existing customers new concepts. Our initial Emotions of Spray Collection gathered six sprayers, and all of them are currently being used by brand owners. Everyone in the industry agrees, there's no turning back, you're not going to see just one just one spray for all in the luxury/prestige market any more.
We continually strive to offer new products that provide more nuances to match the positioning of fragrances. We'll be launching Melodie Mystery at Luxe Pack Monaco. It's a long, sensual, fine spray. It's magical. Melodie Mystery maintains the magical and sensual aura but it's more focused and targeted. It doesn't dispense all over the place, it's more narrow and more likely to hit your body. It offers a nuance to the Melodie line. You have to understand, the ones that ultimately select the correct dispenser for their product are the brand owners. We show them the samples and offer them our research findings and they can select which dispensers are most relevant. A fragrance is a story - love, romance, success, nostalgia, sex - they're all stories to be told with fragrances, and the sprayer selection must adapt to that story. The overall look of the packaging, point of sale materials, advertising, and other factors are all part of that story. We're saying the sprayer is a part of that. That's why we keep releasing more options, like Melodie Mystery, so that our customers can find the perfect match.
Opinions are, thus far, good. Most brand owners do not perform research on sprayers so we share our data with them in order to create lasting partnerships. What we're seeing is that brands and WestRock are developing stronger bonds. We bring a level of expertise to the table they do not have. We give them information that allows them to strengthen customer loyalty and increase repeat purchase. We have experts in market research that are available for meetings with brands to take them through the research results. We're moving in to brand analysis to show our customers what's around them and getting back to them to discuss their consumer profiles. In that sense, we're becoming a consulting firm rather than a simple packaging manufacturer or fulfilment company. We work hard to analyze their products and their customers, so we can create designs that will add value.
Well, let's take Melody Forever, for example. That sprayer is geared toward young females. Melody Forever is about sensuality, about pampering, a moment of abstraction. It's tied to concepts like "fantasy". It sprays a diffuse cloud of product into the air, it creates a fanciful moment and place. Older women tend to be more practical, more reality-based and are more concerned about the product and using it sparingly. Young sporty men also liked Melodie Forever, but again, they preferred more dynamic, sporty sprays. To more mature men, it was more sophisticated, less powerful, so they preferred Melody Agile. Sure, men liked Melody Forever, but not as much as others like Melodie Agile. You have to be careful not to judge with brands.
Yes, but there are others, such as the fact that sprayers have different sounds. Some are sonorous, some are more quiet, like Melodie Delicate. Sound is also a part of the experience. Whether the overcap clacks or snaps when you replace it, whether it's more discrete, the sound of the actuation, the sound of the product evacuating, the response on the actuation stroke - these are all subliminal things that have been researched and done on purpose. Using a fragrance is not about features, it's about dreams. If there's one thing we want to convey it's that perfection is in the details.
In the fragrance market, there's a big race to differentiate. Brands will go to great lengths to get the right mix, including the correct dispenser. Tailored sprays are a new era in luxury fragrance packaging. I believe this will eventually become the standard in any segment of the market as a must-have feature.
I'm the Senior Director of Marketing for Beauty and Personal Care. I'm based out of Richmond, Virginia in the United States and have held this position for nearly three years now.
Well, I oversee the marketing of those segments and make sure things run as smoothly as possible. We have two major areas of concern in our part of the business. First, we deal with matters related to marketing, including positioning, segmentation, and our pipeline. Basically where we're going and how we're going to get there. Second, we deal with product strategy and a lot of day-to- day customer interaction. We support the sales team, deal with product line expansions, and are always careful to measure the results of today in order to steer a successful course for the future.
We do. We are an integral part of our innovation pipeline and help prioritize what the R&D team works on, based on the vast amounts of market research we do. Our marketing team strives to conduct research that informs the creation of new products to delight our customers. This also includes being prepared to offer our customers products that they may not even know they need.
The creation of Aria Luxe is actually a very interesting and exciting story. In the premium beauty space, many brands think of WestRock as a company that solely provides fragrance dispensing products. Because many of our customers shared this belief, they were pleasantly surprised to learn that WestRock happens to also work in the dispensing of creams and other personal care or cosmetic products. Over the past few years, we have spent an immense amount of time observing market trends and customer behaviors and demands, particularly how we could insert ourselves into the luxury skincare market. By actively listening to the consumer base and analyzing market trends, we’ve grown exponentially in the prestige skincare product space.
For instance, we began conducting consumer skincare research in 2015. During this time, we partnered with an ergonomics firm so that we could truly determine the definition, sensations and perception of luxury according to consumers. We directed our enquiries to learning everything we could: Were products already on the shelf meeting consumer expectations? What specific product features made consumers feel luxurious? We did haptic, visual and full immersion research with Parisian consumers, and the results were incredibly useful and eye-opening. The application of these results gave birth to Aria Luxe.
For starters, consumers like a designated and distinct area to place their finger while dispensing a beauty product. This is called a finger groove. Specifically, they like products that have a divot, which gives a smooth, rolled feel to the groove instead of a sharp edge. From an aesthetic perspective, luxury consumers find the concept of metal or metallization appealing and engaging. As evidenced in our research, consumers even have a definite point of view when it comes to a dispensing product’s nozzle length, which is dependent upon the product being dispensed.
Well, liquid make-up tends to smear if wiped. So having too short a nozzle length makes the top of the dispenser messy. Thus, to ensure cleanliness and a pristine appearance for consumers, we need to make sure that liquid make-up packaging products have longer nozzles. But on the other hand, shorter nozzle lengths are ideal for moisturizers and lotions. Aria Luxe is unique in this regard - we offer two nozzle lengths according to the product being dispensed.
Aria Luxe is also unique in comparison to other treatment pumps because it has a full metal overshell with an intuitive finger groove. The product offers new decoration techniques and comes in both metal and plastic versions. Last year, we introduced a Pearl™ Deco Collection that featured a range of decoration techniques specific to our airless products. This year, we are expanding into our atmospheric lines. As you can see, we're always experimenting with new techniques and technologies to please our customers and their consumers.
To a degree. but first and foremost, Aria Luxe was designed based on our research. The Aria line has been on the market for a while, and comprises key performance features that consumers seek in luxury products. these include our patented pure path technology, which keeps metal out of the path of the product. Aria also has a secure locking system, which was an absolute must in the eyes of luxury European consumers. We built upon this proven technology in a more premium way, because we are seeing that luxury items are outpacing mass market products in the beauty sector. Informed by our research, we are extremely confident that Aria luxe will be successful. The Aria line offers the mechanism of our traditional cream pumps, but with a range of output doses in conjunction with our pure path technology. Aria also has a longer stroke length, to provide consumers with dosing variety options. We've carried over all of these benefits to Aria Luxe, while adding new tactile and visual dimensions.
Aria Luxe is perfect for premium products or high level masstige brands. It's great for moisturizers, serums, anti-ageing products and at-home liquid make-ups.
Aria Luxe is all about customization. With the addition of decorative options, brands have a great degree of aesthetic flexibility. For instance, one product might require metallization and a finger pad, while another might be best designed with a soft touch coating on the finger groove. We offer metal overshells, hot stamping, silk screening, spray coatings, and more. We also offer consultation on decoration options, including layering effects. In terms of output, there are two options: 0.15ml and 0.23ml. And as noted earlier in our conversation, we offer two nozzle lengths. With the Aria line, our customers get to make choices and manifest personal taste through customization.
We're producing it in Milan, but it's available all over the world since we can export our products anywhere. Other versions of Aria Luxe are being produced locally in Asia and North America, which makes for excellent lead times.
At WestRock, we know the customer is expecting more. And to drive our business approach, we "Partner for the New Marketplace." This means drawing on our unique, integrated global footprint and focusing on providing the best dispensing possible to consumers worldwide. Brands, on the other hand, focus on their fomulas—they focus on their customers and offer solutions to help people look and feel their best. We would never tell a brand how to do their job, but what we CAN do is offer dispensing knowledge, informed by our exhaustive research. In short, different groups of people prefer different dispensers. And brands appreciate getting this sort of information since it's something they themselves don't usually investigate. Now all that aside, it takes hard work and a lot of commitment to research, develop and launch our products. But with Aria Luxe, I think it was well worth the investment. We look forward to watching the product’s success!
I'm the Global Product Line Manager for the Fragrance market. That means that I'm the bridge between our sales team and our customers, I help guide the sales team's efforts. I'm also in charge of the manufacturing footprint of our fragrance items all over the world, in Mexico, Brazil, Milan, Barcelona, and other places. I get to study our customer requests and run through them with our technical team to develop the project and ensure the client gets our best offering, something tailored to their needs. I collaborate with the sales team to make sure they have the right tools when they're selling, so when the time comes to developing the project, we have everything we need to dive right in.
To a degree. I'm currently working out of Barcelona and that's where we have one of our primary R&D centres, so it makes it easy to pass on learnings to our designers and engineers. That way, I can also pass on important information to our sales team to help with customer visits. I'm usually present as a marketing voice, supporting launches, developing communication strategies, going to shows, that sort of thing.
I interface with many different teams and simply ensure that as a marketing voice, those teams are all moving in convert, heading in the same direction. Each team has a specific role to play, but we are part of the same company.
We have concurrent efforts running in different places, but we have our fragrance centre of expertise in Barcelona. We have a lot of European customers in the fragrance space. The fragrance market is mostly European, actually. It's convenient for us to develop fragrance dispensers and manufacture them in Europe, due to logistics, but we have many centres all over.
We believe in creating dispensing solutions that actually solve something. To that end, we conduct market research projects where we actually speak to people and we find out what they really prefer: what problems they encounter, what affects their experience with a product. Consumers know what a good or bad spray is to them, and repurchase is often based on how they use it. Whether it makes noise, if it sprays too much - WestRock studies how consumers actually interact with the dispenser.
Yes, we took a lot of the data we compiled and we were able to translate that into a collection that genuinely reflected dispensing solutions based on the emotions involved when used. Believe it or not, we learned that connecting with the consumer happened on an emotional level. People feel different things when they use different dispensers. By informing brands of our revelations, we were able to do something nobody had previously, which was to deliver a far more personal experience to the consumer that reflected the personality of the brand and its product. All through a dispenser!
Yes, it was specifically developed for prestige brands. Dispensing with Melodie was very targeted and focused, especially designed for brands that want excellent quality from a small and innocuous dispenser. The dispenser was paired with our patented and highly popular invisible dip tube, called NoC®. Something we learned when we did our market research was that consumers didn't like to see the appearance of their prestige fragrance marred by the appearance of a dip tube in the middle of the bottle, so we invented and marketed one that is invisible.
Like I said, the spray reflects the personality of the brand. The Melodie line has a number of options. If the company wants to resonate with consumers who prefer discrete sprays or the brand needs to communicate its exuberance, you can create a spray to reflect the personality of the brand. A lot of emotions are brought out in the ritual of putting on a fragrance. Melodie Touch is an extension of this, a new possibility for matching a spray with an occasion, a feature rather than a personality. We created Melodie Touch as a part of the Melodie line to serve the growing need for discretion in a small dosage format. It makes the experience more personal. There's a growing trend to apply fragrance on the go, and people prefer to use small sprayers to do it. The size is perfect for use in public and for touch ups. We learned that consumers don't want to be noticed when they use a fragrance outside of the house, so they didn't want a large cloud of perfume around them. Also, they needed something that wouldn't over-apply. Melodie Touch offers very discrete reapplication, it's quite small and controlled, the spray is very directed.
We're also seeing a market trend in fragrances where many firms are offering concentrated scents and very strong formulations. Melodie Touch is perfect for dispensing elixirs, it's a quick and miniature dose that allows the consumer to apply the stronger formula but still keeping control, not over-applying. It's a unique and consistent 30 microlitre dose. A larger sprayer could saturate. Applying a fragrance, as I said, is a ritual, it leads to a transformation. It's an emotional bridge the consumer crosses, changing once the fragrance is applied. Don't you feel different when you apply a favourite scent?
Exactly. The transformation occurs when the product is used. Since Melodie Touch is designed for small format items, the engagement with the dispenser is very close. It's held close to the body and used discretely, it's a private and luxurious moment. As such, the consumer develops an intimate relationship with the fragrance application ritual and by extension the items that are used, in this case the dispenser and product.
Well, it's attractive to the head as well as the heart. Functionality is key. The dispenser, for example, evacuates the product completely. That appeals to consumers, they've paid a fair amount of money for a luxury product and they want to feel they've spent their money wisely. They want to extract all of the product, it's frustrating to people to use something and not be able to get to all of it. Part of our design process involves eliminating as many pain points as possible. Less than complete dispensing is a negative experience. Over-application is negative. Large, profuse doses are negative, well, for this size sprayer, in other cases it might be desirable.
Prestige brands. Prestige brands in the fragrance space that want to provide the sort of experience Melodie Touch offers. WestRock does a lot of work to delve into the needs of the brand to figure out what is required. Ultimately, the brand owners know their customers better than anyone, so its a process. We help brands, but they make the decisions based on the learnings. We offer our own data and all of our experience, and they really appreciate the level of detail we get into. We show the options available, and we can back up our recommendations with vast amounts of data. We provide the ability to offer consumers an excellent experience. Melodie Touch is glamorous and highly customizable with regard to decoration options, and brands are often eager to infuse their personality into the dispensing solution they choose. Melodie Touch is all about the experience which drives repurchase and brand loyalty.
We'll be unveiling it at Luxe Pack Monaco, and it will be available in Q4 of 2016. We've seen the luxury market evolve favourably over the last few years, and Melodie has been a part of that success story. Melodie Touch is another option that brands may select, I'm sure it will lead to new partnerships and contribute to strengthening existing ones!
