Packaging. As Steve jobs once said: “it can be theater, it can create a story”.
I believe in the luxury perfume world, it is still important, despite some industry insiders’ claims that “real perfume lovers don’t care about packaging”. The flip side of that argument being that if you do care about packaging, you don’t care about the “juice”, the perfume itself. I find that statement both wrong and naïve.
But what does “important” mean in terms of packaging? I think anyone going to a high-end department store or niche perfume boutique will be familiar with the sight of the 50 ml perfume bottle made of heavy crystal, weighing as much as a small baby, adorned with fake jewels and gold ribbons, nestled in an expensive faux- lacquered wooden box, with high sounding names in dubious French and retailing anywhere north of 350 eur.. All this screams crassness, high-way robbery really, and not at all luxury to me, but this is still the packaging that a lot of brands that market themselves as upper premium brands choose to justify their prices (hello Roja Dove, Clive Christian, Fragrance Du Bois, etc. the list goes on).
The other end of the spectrum is indeed small indie brands that seem determined to counter this and communicate with their packaging that they are serious, artistic, hip and too cool to care with simple lab-style bottles, black and white labels with a font that looks like what Ernest Hemingway might have produced on his typewriter in Cuba circa 1950.
What is there in between? The world. A world that is fast changing. A world that if you have any interest in perfumery, or the planet for that matter, you should care about.
Because increasingly, packaging is being asked to reduce its impact on the planet. To avoid adding to the already disastrous plastic tsunami that seems to have polluted every corner of the world. To opt for recycled paper. To use no toxic inks. Prefer lighter glass material to limit weight and carbon footprint, etc. In a nutshell, to create a way to “package” a product while reducing or offsetting its impact on the environment.
At the Luxepack event dedicated to environmentally responsible packaging in the luxury sector in Paris in June, some the various philosophies around “green” packaging and luxury were discussed by industry trend setters. At the core, the debate was around a packaging that is either recyclable or reusable. Each pose their own challenges. Stella by Stella McCartney focused on offering refills for their beauty products, while natural beauty brand Amalthea offered consumers the option to refill their products either in store in their boutique in Paris, or online. But then who pays the postage? What about the challenges of cleaning and sterilizing the bottles? How much energy is used doing that? No option is easy and for small brands without their own Point of Sales, it might be impossible. While arguably simpler, the refill is also creating more waste, albeit with a lesser impact than the initial full packaging. But economically for a brand, how can you be sure people won’t just buy the refill? Decisions, decisions…
Some brands focused on next generation materials that will hopefully provide easy, “clean” and viable alternatives to plastic and polluting materials. (hello paper made from the waste from the agro food business. What about algae tuned into resilient bio plastic?). We are back to the Steve Jobs’ quote about packaging being the story but these materials are not yet accessible to most.
But more fundamentally, the real discussion was around the definition of luxury. What is real luxury? Or to put it as the man who knows a thing or two about luxury, Bernard Arnault, CEO of LVMH and currently richest man on the planet, what is “desirability” (a term he prefers to that of luxury).
For instance champagne producers Perrier-Jouët have bet against industry trends with their traditional heavy champagne bottle’s boxes and created an outward packaging for their most prestigious champagne that “dresses” the bottle like a coat, enveloping it like a piece of clothe. Minimal, elegant. The message is clear. Real luxury is minimal packaging but done with an investment in design and new materials, certainly not cheaper than a classical champagne box (they didn’t divulge the price). According to their sales figures, it has paid off handsomely.
For a long time there has been an association between “heavy” packaging (so in terms of the perfume sector, one would think of the weight of the bottle, the sturdiness and thickness of the paper box, the weight of the metal cap of the bottle, etc.) and luxury. A luxurious product is an expensive product. And an expensive product is justified by “expensive looking” and heavy materials. Some, as mentioned in the beginning have taken this concept and corrupted it, to create a packaging that is not only not sustainable (plastic and heavy glass galore) but also not really durable or reusable (not really wood, not really gold, etc…). It just looks expensive.
I believe this conception of luxury is condemned to die. The alternative does not need to be:” let’s not care about packaging” but should definitely be “purposeful packaging”, with manic attention to detail, investment in design and new materials when possible, not the sloppy don’t care attitude that some indie brands have adopted where labels fall off, flimsy boxes collapse, bad quality perfume bottle’s caps leak, etc. (I have to say that I totally understand budget restrictions, and that this also happens with more “luxurious brands” which is much more outrageous, but even constrained by budget and a cheaper packaging, I think attention to detail is important ).
Every element of your packaging must be thought through, must be intentional, in line with your brand. And must take into account the fact that we can no longer produce things without taking into account its environmental impact. This will have consequences on the price of your product but done correctly, and transparently, it can become part of your brand story.
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