I participated in the L’Oreal Brandstorm Competition 2012 earlier this year. My team had to come up with an iconic product for The Body Shop and we decided on a body gel that gave off a long-lasting fragrance that was customised to the customers’ moods. Read more after the jump!
We wanted to play on The Body Shop’s strength in body care products and promote the fact that The Body Shop does very well in fragrances as well. In fact, they are one of the few retail outlets who brand their stores through smell. Visitors who have patronised any Body Shop would immediately smell a sweet aroma of its body butter.
We also considered the rising trend of consumers wanting to express themselves through the products that they use. You can see that through iPhone cases, different coloured Longchamp bags, etc. We achieved this through “mass-customisation” where different fragrances were developed for a different usage occasion, character and benefit.
The fragrance was also made to last longer and the product was marketed as a confidence booster beyond a normal body gel with fragrance. With the fragrance gel, the working woman is empowered to go through her every day with the knowledge that she will smell good all day long.
We did not manage to go ahead beyond semi-finals in the competition. On hindsight, we could have done better by focusing more time on fully developing our product concept and not spending time on the promotional collaterals. After all, a brand manager is more concerned with how the product would help to push up sales and not the creative execution of the promotional materials. Wish I knew then what I know now, and you might just be reading the post of a competition finalist!
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