In this article, I share my retail favorite of the year. The “Infiniment Coty” store was opened in Paris to launch the eponymous brand. This ultra-innovative outlet will inspire even the most demanding marketers.
During a retail trip to Paris, I stumbled across a store well worth a visit: Infiniment Coty. Located in the Marais district, this perfumer Coty outlet was a treat for the senses and marketing enthusiasts. The customer experience is remarkable, with several innovations I hadn’t seen elsewhere.
If you only have 30 seconds
- Infiniment Coty is a brand created by Sue Nabie, CEO of the Coty Group, and Nicolas Vu.
- The brand’s ambition is to revive the legacy of François Coty, a perfume pioneer whose company gave birth to the global Coty group, but without a dedicated brand.
- A pop-up store has opened in Paris, offering a unique customer experience.
- The universe of the Infiniment Coty brand is expressed in the pop-up store through its immersive layout, innovations, and, of course, products.
- Two innovations are the subject of patent applications: the innovative shape of the packaging and a molecule used in the perfume’s composition that stabilizes it throughout the day.
Coty, the rebirth of an old brand
The chances are you don’t know the Coty brand. At least, I didn’t, despite my interest in the industry.
Coty is an American beauty, and cosmetics group whose origins date back to its founding in 1904 by Frenchman François Coty. He pioneered the modern perfume industry, democratizing perfume through his collaboration with Lalique on the manufacture of bottles.
Today, the Group is structured around two divisions: a consumer division, which accounts for 34% of its sales in France, with brands such as Bourjois and Rimmel, and a prestige division, which makes up 66% of its business, including licensed brands such as Burberry, Hugo Boss, and Gucci, as well as its own Lancaster and Orveda brands.
Since 2020, the Group has quadrupled its market capitalization. Worldwide sales have reached $5.5 billion for the 2022/2023 fiscal year, up 5%. In France, Coty employs 300 people and has 8 factories worldwide, including one in Chartres, in the heart of Cosmetic Valley.
The facade of the Infiniment Coty store at 5 rue des Blancs-Manteaux, 75004 Paris
A bold, eye-catching design
I can’t hide that I would have passed this wonderful store without noticing it if its front hadn’t been so original.
These metallic flowers form the store’s decor and accompany you on your visit. As you’ll see in the rest of this article, these large flowers are not just decorative. They have an extremely useful function that contributes to the customer experience.
Once past the entrance, a niche contains the 14 fragrances of the “Infiniment Coty” collection. A series of upside-down glass funnels enclose each of the 14 fragrances you can smell by lifting the funnel. The fragrances are classified according to the time of day, indicating the main elements involved in their composition.
I found the categorization according to time of day original and undoubtedly more “practical” than what you’d usually see from other brands. This categorization gives non-specialists practical pointers to guide their choice.
Innovations to enhance the customer experience
The point-of-sale is packed with innovations to enhance the customer experience.
Firstly, the large metal flowers conceal a small device at their center, allowing you to smell perfume. Each flower corresponds to one of the 14 fragrances in the range. A presence sensor automatically activates the device as you approach. A small fan starts up, and the corresponding fragrance molecules are gently pushed towards you.
Each flower has a small device at its center, allowing you to smell the corresponding fragrance (see photo above). I found this very original and effective. The device’s small fan makes it easy to smell the fragrance without becoming obsessive.
The other interesting innovation concerns the packaging of Infiniment Coty perfumes. As you can see from the photo above, the packaging follows the shape of the bottle, which is quite innovative. I can’t recall a brand ever bringing something like this to market. The packaging is biodegradable and is the subject of a patent application. As you’ll read below, it’s not the only one.
For it is the fragrance itself that constitutes the greatest innovation. As you may know, perfumes have always been composed according to formulas that allow 3 types of fragrance to express themselves:
- Top notes that evaporate quickly because they are the most volatile.
- Heart notes are the main component of the fragrance.
- Base notes correspond to the olfactory elements released more slowly over the day.
The nature of the “ingredients” used in the composition of a perfume means that it changes as you wear it. So, a fragrance changes throughout the day. That’s where Coty’s innovation comes in since a molecule has been used to stabilize the fragrance: molecular aura. Granted, it’s a marketing name (a molecule derived from sugar), but it seems to work from what I’ve read on the internet. And that’s the other innovation for which a patent has been filed.
The brand universe is completed by upcycling
Finally, a few words about upcycling, another key element of the Infiniment Coty brand identity. Upcycling refers to the valorization of “waste,” i.e., materials that would otherwise have been unused.
In the Infiniment Coty brand universe, upcycling takes place on two levels:
- In the fragrance itself, the famous molecule (“molecular aura”) that stabilizes the fragrance is derived from vegetable sugar.
- The packaging is 100% plant-based and made up of 40% bagasse fibers (a waste product from sugarcane harvesting).
For all these reasons, I think the Infiniment Coty pop-up store is worth visiting.
Posted in Innovation, Marketing.