Sex Sells

Leading up to our new fragrance brief, I wanted to explore the concept of why sex and sexuality sells when it comes to fragrances and other products. There were many different reasons as to why it sex sells but the main one that kept reoccurring was that it sells so well "because it attracts attention and as humans we are naturally hardwired to notice something of a sexual nature" (Business News Daily Editor, 2020) which is why we see so many adverts for products that are quite sexual.

For sexuality on the other hand there has always been a divide when it comes to the fragrance market. Usually when you go into a store to view the fragrances it’ll tend to be split as masculine and feminine, with the feminine products consisting of more fruity, flowery notes and the masculine products being woodier and muskier. You would also see a divide in the packaging, with the products aim towards females, pinks, purples, gold and white would adorn the boxes for perfumes such as Chanel or Gucci whereas the male fragrances would have dark deep colours such as black or blue throughout their packaging. Over the years we have begun to see this divide blend into one as unisex fragrances have hit the market. With CK One hitting the fragrance market in 1994, it was seen as quite revolutionary to have a product that was completely stripped of the stereotypical forms of sexuality and embraced the idea of a scent for everyone.

For years it’s been a useful selling point when to comes to brands marketing new products to us as an audience, but it has been very common within the fragrance industry over the years. The reason for this is that people tend to give in to the concept of "buy this, get this" - for example in an old lynx advert where they are promoting their "axe" spray they give us this concept that you'll get the "lynx effect" by using their product and therefore you'll also attract multiple women.

When it comes to selling fragrances, brands like Tom Ford have used the sexualisation of the female form to sell their products, they’ve been consistent and successful. Tom Ford himself states “that there’s nothing stronger and more powerful than a beautiful woman” his means and motives behind the marketing for his fragrances have been deemed as “vulgar” and “sexist” but still, their products sell, and they sell well.

When it comes to the current fragrance market, sex and sexuality are still being used throughout, it’s a timeless form of marketing and even in its most subtle nature, sex and sexuality will still sell well.