The work revealed that fragrance in India was already being democratised – just not formally. A large portion of demand was being serviced by the grey market, where perfumes had quietly become commodities rather than brands. This explained both the appetite for variety and the resistance to price premiums.

The scent profiler emerged as a response to this reality – not to upsell luxury, but to restore meaning to choice. It helped shift fragrance from a transactional purchase to a considered one, reframing it as a wardrobe rather than a one-time signature. The project surfaced a critical insight: when a market commoditises experience, personalisation becomes the differentiator – not prestige

INDUSTRY Beauty / Fragrances

COMPANY Genre Lifestyle & Solar Group

NEEDS / TAGS Choice overload,

EXPERIENCE Intrapreneur / Operations Manager – ‘Essentia’ – A homegrown fragrance brand

PC: Author’s Own.