What led you to create Maison 21G and inform us extra in regards to the progressive idea of bespoke perfumes?
Evocative, distinctive, and memorable, I deeply imagine that the fifth sense evokes profound feelings and connections with others. Your signature fragrance is a lot greater than a mere accent; it’s a true extension of your character, a software to imprint reminiscences, and produce confidence all through key moments of your life. As such, I imagine that your scent needs to be as distinctive as you might be!
In 2020, I conceptualised Maison 21G, supported by my ardour and 25 years of expertise in perfumery as a artistic director working alongside famend designers and perfumers. All through this time, I watched this lovely business lose its soul and accept one-size-fits-all scents, creating the identical on a regular basis floral, fruity, and gourmand scents for everyone, whereas pushing large advertising and marketing campaigns on the expense of high quality, distinction, and character of what’s contained in the bottle. I felt that one thing was going incorrect on this lovely business, so I made a decision to interrupt free from the glamorous company world and shake the conventions of this sleeping business.
My imaginative and prescient was to carry again the “energy of creation” into the fingers of customers, providing a novel and interesting scent discovery expertise. Dedicated to a cleaner fragrance business, I used to be pushed by a want to carry transparency, sharing, training, and sustainability to make a greater perfumery world for the following era. My final mission was to recreate an actual “Maison de creation” for all of us, creating a novel expertise with lovely scent encounters.
The idea of “expertise” is vital for opening and working a boutique. What’s a profitable “expertise” in your prospects?
Maison 21G is a luxurious Maison of Creation with trendy iconic flagship shops worldwide, utilizing a poly-sensorial strategy to create a novel retail expertise. We intention to create a luxurious expertise in perfumery like no different for our prospects. We encourage confidence, self-expression, and exploration in perfumery, with a poly-sensorial strategy. With 10 flagship shops internationally, each nook of our boutiques is meticulously curated with a sequence of devoted zones comparable to our well-known progressive scent bar to find and select your elements, the perfumer organ the place customers mix their very own scent, and our non-public atelier’s areas to be taught the artwork of creation.
We additionally frequently search new know-how to reinforce our experiential retail choices. For example consistent with our dedication to innovation, we provide a novel AI character quiz. Our open app gather info comparable to your pores and skin tone, your scent choice, your values in life, and your required advantages to suggest well-matched scents for every particular person. Our RFID Know-how informs and educates customers on the origins, the olfactive profile and properties of our scents.
After creating their customized scent, prospects can add a private contact by utilizing our complimentary UV Printing Machine to customize their fragrance bottle design. As well as, we offer fragrance workshops for {couples}, staff constructing occasions the place our scent consultants information shoppers in making a personalised perfume in a single hour by appointment.
Our experiential retail house encourages cross-cultural exchanges. And prospects come collectively to share concepts and cultures, pushing the envelope of creativity. Maison 21G is dedicated to disrupting the posh business by making a neighborhood of perfume designers, connoisseurs, aficionados, or novices in each main metropolis on the earth, pushed by a novel offline retail expertise, relayed by a powerful digital presence to finish the offline expertise with a devoted loyalty program, and automated reorder providers in your personalised scent from anyplace on the earth.
The personalisation of scent is on the core of Maison 21G’s idea? What are the parameters that go into figuring out a bespoke perfume?
Maison 21G is a model that prides itself on its dedication to craftsmanship, personalisation, training, and expertise. On the coronary heart of our enterprise mannequin is the need to create bespoke fragrances which might be tailor-made to the distinctive character and olfactory preferences of every of our prospects. Our flagship shops function laboratories, the place highly-skilled scent designers information prospects of their scent creation, making certain that their personalities and preferences are thought-about at each step of the method. We imagine {that a} fragrance is far more than simply an adjunct. It’s private, intimate, and turns into your voice to specific your distinctive id. Because of this we provide our prospects direct entry to fragrance concentrates with the very best share of perfume focus to make tailored haute perfumery accessible.
The method of making a bespoke perfume at Maison 21G is interactive, participating and enjoyable: we start by asking prospects to fill out our character quiz, which focuses on their values in life, private DNA (nationality, pores and skin color, age), likes and dislikes associated to their olfactive preferences, and the explanations they need to put on a selected fragrance (to be seductive, elegant, excellent, stress-free, and many others.). This builds a buyer scent profile that’s distinctive to their id. We now have outlined 5 distinctive character profiles, every with its personal distinctive ingredient suggestions. For instance, an “Spectacular character profile” will want a fragrance that tasks strongly, with long-lasting sillage, and options daring woody, oriental, and spicy notes. A “Social Fanatic Profile” then again, can be extra drawn to softer, comforting, and caring notes comparable to musk, vanilla, and light-weight juicy fruits.
With using cutting-edge know-how, leveraging AI alongside extra conventional expertise, we’re revolutionising the fragrance business by understanding the wants and tastes of every nationality, tradition, and era. The extra prospects we get, the extra highly effective our AI turns into, and the extra exact the suggestions reveal themselves to be. As a bottom-to-top strategy, we’re capable of be taught immediately from our buyer base and reply instantly to new customers tendencies in every capital like Seoul, Shanghai, Paris, and elsewhere. It’s a game-changing strategy for the fragrance business, and the extra we develop, the extra educated and concise we’re capable of grow to be in tailoring scents to people.
Workshops are on the very core of the Maison 21G DNA. What’s your favorite reminiscence of a Maison 21G workshop you organised in 2022?
We imagine within the energy of scent to carry individuals collectively, and our workshops are designed to supply an unforgettable and distinctive sensory expertise. It’s a enjoyable and exploratory expertise, the place individuals can reconnect, share, and find out about one another via scent.
One in all my favorite reminiscences is from a Love Atelier that we organised in 2022. Throughout this workshop, the couple had the chance to take their like to the following stage! A younger man stunned his girlfriend with a wedding proposal. He had requested the scent designer to print “Marry Me” on the bottle that he had created for her. As he offered her with the bottle, he obtained down on one knee and revealed a hoop hidden contained in the field. Your complete room was moved to tears by this romantic gesture. In that second, I used to be reminded of the facility of scent to create deep and significant connections, and I used to be grateful to be part of such a particular second of their lives.
Inform us extra in regards to the sustainability efforts behind all of the packaging and glass bottles used at Maison 21G? You appear to be amongst the very first luxurious homes speaking brazenly about recycling and the reuse of fragrance bottles.
At Maison 21G, our sustainable pillar is built-in into every thing we do. Our deal with eco-consciousness, moral and clear manufacturing and distribution, is a part of our dedication to excellence, high quality, and luxurious. In an business the place using buzzwords and advertising and marketing jargon to ‘greenwash’ merchandise is rampant, we try to be clear, trustworthy, and open about our sustainability practices.
To attain our sustainable targets, we have now partnered with IFF-LMR (Laboratoire Monique Rémy) to supply the very best high quality of perfumes. IFF’s vertical integration permits us to manage each step of our elements provide chain, and its adherence to particular sustainable and clear standards, together with environmental duty, truthful working situations, and constructive relations with native communities.
At Maison 21G, we pleasure ourselves on being clear and open about what we embrace in our bottles and what we don’t. Our scents are 100 per cent vegan, cruelty-free, CMR-free, paraben-free, phthalate-free, and preservative-free. We additionally formulate our scents as biodegradable to scale back our environmental affect.
We imagine in creating merchandise which might be recyclable and refillable. We now have banned using plastic in any of our merchandise. We’re the primary firm to have refillable bottles, encouraging customers to reuse their bottles, with reductions and incentives for many who reuse, recycle, and scale back their waste. By committing to eco-consciousness, moral manufacturing, clear sourcing, Maison 21G is taking steps in direction of a greener future for all.
You’ve expanded your product vary and Maison 21G now gives inside its boutiques perfumed candles, the very begin of an elaborate residence scent assortment. How is it performing?
The pandemic introduced unprecedented modifications in our life, with individuals spending extra time at residence than ever earlier than. At Maison 21G, we recognised that customers had been in search of methods to make their residence atmosphere extra snug, inviting, and reflective of their personalities. This impressed us to launch our sustainable, pure, and customisable Dwelling Scents vary, and we’re delighted with the way it has been embraced.
Our Dwelling Scents vary was launched with the identical daring and disruptive strategy that characterises our fragrance vary, and is underpinned by a dedication to wellness, together with all-natural elements that may assist prospects calm down, focus, and sleep extra successfully. We imagine that folks need to unlock the scent of their soul, and our Dwelling Scents vary is designed to make that course of simple, satisfying, and eco-conscious.
The gathering contains our lovely 100 per cent pure wax Twin Candles, Bespoke biodegradable Reed Diffuser, and pure Oil burner which permit prospects to decide on and mix their favorite scents in trendy and splendid ornamental objects, a premiere within the Dwelling Scent world. As with our personalised perfumes, we put the shopper on the coronary heart of the creation course of and set it other than all of our rivals.
We imagine that the data to create a stupendous, wholesome Dwelling Scent for the entire household, needs to be accessible to everybody.
E-commerce is rising quick throughout all continents. We see your staff working arduous on growing the worldwide digital presence of Maison 21G. How are on-line gross sales performing for you?
Maison 21G’s experiential on-line e-commerce completes the offline expertise with a devoted loyalty programme and automated reorder providers for personalised scents from anyplace on the earth. We provide bespoke artistic experiences to anybody, anyplace, with our DIY artistic set, which we are able to ship to any location throughout the globe. Our totally customised web site permits a novel and playful artistic expertise at residence.
Our lead magnet, the AI-Powered Quiz, guides customers in creating the proper scent mixtures on-line based mostly on their character, tradition, age, and completely different needs for a fragrance, comparable to freshness, class, and seduction. The twin-scented crayon permits individuals to strive mini scents earlier than buying a full bottle. At the moment our fragrance followers on-line who can’t entry to our retailers have grown considerably. Lots of people are bored with off-the-shelf scents and have leapt on the probability to craft their very own scents from sustainable and high-quality elements on our bespoke web site. Our model promise of pure, clear, and ethically sourced essences has resonated strongly. Our core buyer base consists of Millennials and Gen Z customers from Asia, US, Canada, Australia, and Europe, in search of personalised merchandise with an experiential edge on-line. By numerous activations with on-line campaigns, direct advertising and marketing, and a devoted, inclusive, engaged, and lively neighborhood of scent designers, we have now constructed a loyal buyer base that shares our ardour for creativity, high quality, and sustainability.
Inform us about your newest enlargement within the Center East with the opening of a boutique in Dubai and a long run partnership with the Chalhoub group. This all sounds very promising!
We’ve been thrilled with the responses from the Center East customers since we launched Maison 21G. Perfume is solely ingrained into their tradition, and it’s superb for me to specific the DNA of my model there. I’m personally passionate in regards to the Center East market, and we have now thrilling plans for the area with the assist of the celebrated {and professional} Chalhoub Group.
In Dubai, I’m at all times impressed by the range of cultures and the pure artistic instincts of the individuals I meet. They’re so fashionable and take superb care of their picture and scent id. Dubai has no boundaries, and I really like the grandiose and multisensory experiences discovered at each nook of this buzzing worldwide capital. We’re seeking to develop our presence in Dubai but in addition Abu Dhabi, with a deal with opening extra shops in key selective prime areas like Bloomingdales, Tyrano, Malls of the Emirates, and past.
In Qatar, we’ve simply opened a stupendous flagship retailer within the model new luxurious mall of Vendome, subsequent to all probably the most luxurious manufacturers. We’re now increasing and have established partnerships with prestigious shops comparable to Printemps, Galerie Lafayette, and Harvey Nichols, with a artistic scent bar idea. We’ve been overwhelmed by the kindness and keenness of the individuals for our lovely elements and experiential ideas.
My largest problem now’s to overcome Saudi Arabia, with the opening of our flagship retailer in Nakheel mall. We all know it’s a demanding market when it comes to high quality and repair, with a big base of fragrance connoisseurs and aficionados. Nonetheless, we’re assured that we have now every thing at Maison 21G to make an affect there. I’m personally concerned in each side of the shop opening, and we’re dedicated to offering the very best high quality services to our prospects in Saudi Arabia and throughout the Center East.
Fragrance is an inseparable a part of Center Japanese tradition. What perspective in direction of fragrance have you ever observed amongst Center Japanese customers?
The Center East is revered to a excessive diploma and perfumery rooting in historic practices. For example, the Persians had been the primary to make use of distillation in extracting oils from flowers to create lovely essences that solely Center Japanese individuals have the tradition to understand. Who would’ve recognized that a long time, centuries later, fragrance software nonetheless stays a vital ritual of their each day lives.
Famend for probably the most aromatic of traditions — smouldering incense, burning bakhoor, utilizing ritualistic important oils, and aromatic teas — it’s no marvel why the language of scent creation applies on many ranges of their tradition. From a religious approach to anoint oneself earlier than prayer to epitomising a private fingerprint, deep reminiscences of their life, an announcement of themselves; fragrance is a strong software in characterising one’s individuality right here.
With certainly the strongest olfactive preferences globally, the residents of the Center East search a daring, distinctive scent and positively above-average longevity. Furthermore, their conventional strategy contains layering a number of opposing scents. Most prevalently, they use spices, earthy patchouli, deep resins and amber, sensual oud, floral rose Taif, all to create probably the most elaborate, unique, and astounding compositions distinctive to themselves, which they will discover at Maison 21G. Our idea of making your personal fragrance is completely tailored to Center Japanese customers who’ve been layering and mixing scents for many years. They recognize the artwork of fragrance making and have a deep understanding of the complexities of making a novel scent that displays their character and elegance.
After opening boutiques in Vietnam and South Korea, what’s your subsequent essential tasks and developments throughout 2023 & 2024?
South Korea is a key marketplace for Maison 21G in Asia and success on this nation can have a major affect on our model’s status and enlargement in Asia. As a result of South Korea is thought for being a trending marketplace for luxurious manufacturers, reaching success there can set the tone for the remainder of Asia, together with international locations comparable to China, Thailand, and Vietnam. Shoppers in these international locations could also be extra probably to concentrate to a model that has already confirmed itself within the aggressive South Korean market.
Subsequent for me is to proceed increasing my model selectively in Asia with experiential retail, sustainability, and training. I’m dedicated to opening extra flagship shops, store in store in luxurious malls, counters in obligation free areas, to carry our distinctive expertise to each main capital.
My subsequent largest problem for 2023-24 can be China the place we have now a really bold plan with Everlasting group. We’ve already opened a stupendous retailer in Hainan with Lagardere and can quickly be opening flagship shops in Shanghai and Shenzhen, in addition to partnering with fashionable distributors who perceive and might categorical our model DNA. To succeed in fashionable Gen Z and Millennials, we’ll additionally deal with digital platforms like Tmall, Weibo, Little Pink Ebook, and WeChat, translating our AI quiz and selling our hero merchandise in Chinese language.
In China, customers have a comparatively brief historical past with perfumery and are desperate to be taught in regards to the elements, uncover their preferences, and develop their very own scent fashion. They’re additionally considering studying about perfumery suggestions and methods, together with what scents to put on for various events and the variations between high- and low-quality perfumes. The development in direction of area of interest perfumery in China displays a want amongst customers to specific their id and individuality via perfume, in addition to a rising appreciation for high-quality, artisanal merchandise. This development is partly pushed by a want to face out and be completely different from the group, with distinctive fragrances that can not be present in mass status perfumes. Chinese language customers are additionally more and more considering unconventional scents with characters that enable them to specific their edgy fashion.
To adapt to those completely different expectations, Maison 21G will tailor our advertising and marketing strategy and providers to Chinese language customers. That is the power of our personalised strategy, which isn’t solely tailor-made to the person but in addition to the tradition and context. We put excessive effort into localising our strategy, contemplating the cultural and historic context of perfumery in every market and the way this influences client preferences and behavior to succeed worldwide. The period of “one-size-fits-all” fragrance and super-centralised advertising and marketing is certainly over, and I’m excited to be on the forefront of this new strategy to the business.
The place do you see Maison 21G in 5 years down the highway? Any IPO deliberate forward?
Develop into the primary tailor-made perfumery model globally.
The model goals to problem ready-made merchandise and set up a brand new phase within the perfume business: the Tailor-made Perfumery phase — after the shock of Area of interest Perfumery. We intend to have iconic Homes of Creation in key perfume capitals worldwide to put in this new phase by way of the model’s sturdy credentials in design, innovation, and sourcing new pure elements for our scent designer neighborhood.
We repeatedly enhance our service and coaching of Maison 21G scent designers, presumably constructing an academy of perfumery to share data and experience. We now have tasks in Web3 to tokenise our distinctive fragrance creation recipes, which can stop copying and grant possession to our loyal prospects, preserving their creativity at Maison 21G.
We additionally plan to accomplice with different industries comparable to artwork, culinary, music, resorts, and mixology to create polysensorial occasions.
To assist the imaginative and prescient and mission, Maison 21G will proceed to boost good cash with larger buyers to problem the standard fragrance business, achieve sustainable market share and grow to be probably the most fascinating fragrance model.
We need to maintain the authenticity of what they do so long as doable, supported by lively funds and monetary companions who perceive the significance of disruption, branding development and innovation to satisfy the brand new customers’ wants in perfumery.
How did you react to the acquisition of Tom Ford by the Estee Lauder Group in November 2022 for a hefty US$2.8 Billion price ticket (together with debt)?
This acquisition of Tom Ford is a strategic transfer that strengthens Estee Lauder’s high-end luxurious magnificence portfolio. Tom Ford has established itself as a number one model within the perfume and cosmetics market over the course of a number of a long time and has a major presence in essential development markets such because the Asia-Pacific area and journey retail. Their success in disrupting the fragrance business years in the past is noteworthy. This acquisition is a testomony to the worth of constructing a powerful model picture with progressive merchandise, reaching untapped customers, and being led by a daring, sturdy founder.
Maison 21G goals to comply with in Tom Ford’s footsteps by making a luxurious artistic model picture with progressive services that may attain untapped customers. We try to be a challenger within the high-end luxurious phase of the perfumery business, specializing in personalisation, sustainability, and an experiential strategy to create your personal scents. Our dedication to creativity units us other than rivals, and we’re always pushing the boundaries with new know-how and machine studying to raised perceive the wants and tastes of our prospects. We’re daring and unafraid to disrupt the fragrance business, bringing transparency and openness into an business sorely missing in disruption.
What are the commanding valuation ratios within the magnificence and fragrance business?
Valuation ratios within the magnificence and fragrance business are decided by a lot of elements, together with an organization’s measurement, development potential, profitability, barrier of entry, know-how, sturdy USP and model picture. When an organization has a powerful model picture and a disruptive strategy, it tends to have larger valuation ratios. Within the magnificence business, it isn’t unusual for bigger corporations to pay as much as 10-12 occasions an organization’s income in the event that they see potential for development and enlargement.
So for small magnificence corporations, the important thing to reaching excessive valuation ratios is to problem the standard enterprise mannequin and create a powerful, disruptive worth proposal with excessive barrier of entry and agility, that bigger corporations can’t simply replicate with their established constructions. It’s certainly tough for bigger corporations to innovate as they should steadiness danger and sometimes have heavy constructions to navigate.
This creates important potential for acquisition and improvement with large teams, as they search out progressive and disruptive corporations to reinforce their portfolios and achieve market share.
Within the fragrance business, by disrupting the business with new and progressive concepts, small corporations have an enormous potential for acquisition and improvement with large teams and probably command excessive valuation ratios within the course of.
To search out out extra about Maison 21G, go to https://www.maison21g.com/residence or contact them at create@maison21g.com
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