Now it’s the same phenomenon with the niche business. It’s becoming like a ‘designer world’….If niche is becoming a designer world, I’m out of it. The industry is making the same mistake with niche that the made with designer — meaning too much, too many, no editing and no selecting. It’s not presented the right way.
— Laurice Rahme of Bond no. 9 on why her brand is tightening their distribution (among other things, they will be pulling out of Nordstrom) and opening more dedicated boutiques (20 more are planned over the next 5 years). If you have a subscription, you can read more at Bond No. 9 Plots Retail Expansion, Growth at Women's Wear Daily.
A nice little provocative quote there from the litigious and bullying Ms. Rahme: any niche line with sixty-nine fragrances currently for sale on their website, a majority of which no perfume enthusiast I know has ever worn, is clearly doing a lot of editing and selecting.
Believe it or not, I didn’t really pick it because it was provocative in that way. I think she is talking about how to present and sell your brand in today’s market (I don’t think she meant that single brands made too many fragrances so much as too much and too many in a retail store). I think she is trying to deal with something that is currently facing many niche brands — how to sell to customers in the current market and keep your distinction as a niche brand, and I do think she’s absolutely right that niche is making the same mistake as designer. And, I think she’s absolutely right that trying to control a good portion of your distribution is wise. You can’t count on retail stores to “grow” your brand for you anymore.
I do think she misses the fact that many brands, hers included, are not making distinctive product and/or doing enough self-editing, but even those that are will be challenged by the current environment, and you could argue that having a smaller brand — too small to allow you to have viable standalone boutiques — may become more challenging.
Seems to me that it would be easier than ever right now to be a small, underfunded brand making fantastic fragrances and to find yourself going out of business in a few years. Another way to put it — could Andy Tauer, if he was starting today, accomplish what he has? I’m not at all sure. At the very least, it would be much harder than it already was.
Wow, sorry — did not mean to go on so long!
Agreed, but at the same time I think it’s a little counter-intuitive to pull out from retail shops where the majority of her exposure (and profits) may come from at this point.
Yeah, there’s clearly too much in major retail shops, but at the same time it’s the best bet right now for exposure unless she’s willing to put a HUGE chunk of money into advertising for the boutiques.
I am assuming she is pulling from Nordstrom because she did not move product there, and is staying with Saks because Bond is their single biggest selling fragrance brand. She is currently only doing 20% of her business under her own auspices and wants to move that to 50%. I think that’s smart.
I’m not sure at that exposure alongside a mainstream mix (Nordstrom) is helpful when what you need is for customers to think you are different from “regular” fragrance.
Whatever we think of them, Bond has done extraordinarily well without putting anything like a huge chunk of money into traditional advertising. The single biggest brand at Saks — that is something!
EL seems to do this quite well with Tom Ford, pushing the signature line out everywhere but controlling the distribution of the private blend range more – and has driven sales in his own stores by launching some fragrances as exclusives to his own boutiques for a few months to get footfall and as a gateway to the clothing/accessories.
I was visiting family in northern England last week and walked into a dept store with a smallish fragrance hall and it was overwhelming – serge Lutens had 1/3rd of a shelf, alongside Valentino and Cartier, acqua di Parma one shelf, Hermes had one shelf – this small provincial store must have been carrying several thousand different fragrances. Can understand not wanting to get lost in the forest.
Controlling your distribution by opening twenty dedicated boutiques in five years, though, might also be a great way to find yourself going out of business in a few years. Some Bond No 9 boutiques previously developed a reputation among perfumistas for aloof, non-personalized service, so if she opens four per year, she better focus on the retail experience (which, quite frankly, Nordstrom often does a stellar job with, in my experience).
Exactly. Unless they establish the boutiques properly WHILE remaining in Nordstrom then they have a chance, but otherwise, from a marketing standpoint, this is branding suicide.
It has certainly has not worked for everybody! And it may not work for her. It may be that what she has now is the best she can do.
Generally speaking, as a consumer, I would way rather shop at Nordstrom than anywhere else. BUT, speaking just locally, the salespeople at Nordstrom are not nearly as knowledgeable about their brands as the SAs at Neiman Marcus, and the fragrance department does not have the same high end / luxury feel. If I was trying to sell a luxury niche product, Nordstrom (other than a few of their top tier stores) would not be my choice.
Locally here, as far as I am aware, the only place you can get Bond No 9 is at Winner’s (our designer liquidation store). Saks may do a great job with them in the U.S., but the store doesn’t carry them in Canada and The Bay and Holt’s got out of the line quickly when they stopped selling. Not that Canadians are vital to the brand’s sales — but it might be the first time we’re ahead of the curve, fragrance trend-wise.
We’ll see…
Yay for liquidation! And perhaps Canadians have more good sense
Totally agree that it’s an accurate observation on Bond’s part- it’s just strange to hear from them because in many ways they’ve come to embody exactly what the quote describes! They were one of the first niche brands to go department store, and there hasn’t seemed to be much editing over there for years. It sounds like they know what direction they need to be going in, although I would argue that editing is a much more immediate need for Bond (and quite a few other niche lines) than tightening distribution.
I seriously don’t think she is talking about editing her own line. I think she is talking about the editing done by department store fragrance departments. In other words, too much riff raff.
Right. A broken clock is right twice a day, as they say. I think she might have diagnosed several problems, but her solutions (and the tone they’re couched in) seem strange to me. The fact is, in the current environment, it’s going to be damn hard to sell Chez Bond for 220 USD, in a standalone boutique OR Nordstrom, to a perfumista OR Joe Blow wandering by. (And Joe Blow is often just as put off by aloof service as a perfumista is).
I don’t think she is after perfumistas OR Jo Blows. I think she is after a very certain kind of status-driven high end luxury market, exactly the sort that might appreciate a certain kind of customer service that the rest of (meant to say: us) plebs don’t.
And she is welcome to try for that market, which is also pretty crowded, this late in the day. As you say, we’ll see how it works.
Erin, interesting how differently we see Bond — I would have guessed that was already where she is making most of her money. Her next stores are at The Venetian, South FL and the Middle East.
It might very well be the country difference. They kind of came off as faux-luxury/exclusive here and Canadians (or tourists to Toronto) weren’t willing to pay. That said, The Venetian is *perfect* for Bond.
From what I observe at the Saks flagship and other NYC locations, the target seems to be affluent tourists, and NYC has more of *those* than ever right now. Not sure who the customer would be in other locations, though.
Erin, maybe we see them the exactly the same way then. I just think there’s a big market for that, in fact, there are quite a few brands getting rich off that same market. The Venetian is indeed perfect, as is Saks, and I understand they do well at Harrods.
In the UK I’ve only ever seen Bond in Harrods and Harvey Nichols (and they pulled out of HN a year or 2 ago so i think it’s just Harrods now) so it’s definitely the Knightsbridge international set they’re targeting here.
I had the same sensation as you Erin. It seems a little bit Ironic from her telling that considering that her brand is one of the most prolific ones in termos of launches. Thus, not mentioning that some of the things they sell do smell like designers. She should start thinking to expand the editing process to not only the distribution, but also to her line too
This will be interesting to watch!
The switch from mostly distributing to mostly retailing – that’s a major shift.
These types of corporate decisions fascinate me
Wish i could have been a fly on the wall for these meetings!
They’re not going to mostly, though, they’re trying to go from 20% to 50%.
Ah, i see. Then, i won’t hold my breathe for the action sequence
Yep… I know that in France it was Sephora who broke the “relationship” because the sales were almost zero and the brand had huge pretentions in terms of shops presentation and merchandising. And we struggled to sell them even when the price was 20€…
Nothing like a bit of insider info!
So hypocritical from a business owner that claims her business is still Niche. So many releases from Bond no. 9 like the full Dubai line is so redundant and unoriginal that I really pity those with overflow of cash rather than awe, because of the scam they are buying. Perfumista Avenue smells almost exactly like Roses and Musk by Montale. The last good release from their side was New York Amber. I wish for the days of Bleecker Street and New Harlem to come back. I doubt that most of their best is behind 2008/2009.
If you pull your stuff of Nordtrom and start opening your own boutiques, that means you are established as a brand; don’t make a dramatic exit this as though you are way too original to be lined with designer frags.