• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, July 30, 2007

Coty Inc., the world's largest fragrance company, plans to launch a new women's fragrance within the Coty Prestige line known as Chloe. The scent will debut in October and hit store shelves by February.

Chloe sells in 57 boutiques throughout the world, with upcoming openings planned for Los Angeles and Las Vegas. Europe accounts for 40% of worldwide sales; the United States accounts for 25%.

Coty spokeswoman Lisa Lupinski on Friday declined to reveal details of the launch--but says the campaign will not include Internet TV or online video ads, and to look for Coty to release information on the campaign at a later date.

That's taking a risk, say analysts, who agree that mass media marketing and ad campaigns that insert scratch-and-sniff pages within publications such as Vogue rarely hook customers, no matter which celebrity flaunts their stuff for the products. Targeted Internet marketing--banner and video ads--work best to identify potential customers, they say.

Understanding consumer buying behavior for a specific market segment has become critical. "Is it the serial dater who buys fragrances for every woman he dates or someone who establishes a loyalty and replenishes it?" says Scott Langdoc, vice president of research for Global Retail Insights at IDC. "Traditional retailers and consumer goods companies have not analyzed and segmented customer demand for specific products to target advertising. For the most part, they haven't made that leap."

Buying trends suggest that since 2004, the number of hours that consumers report spending with TV, radio, and print has steadily decreased, while time spent with the Internet has increased rapidly, and media spend has not shifted accordingly.

A Forrester Research study released in July reveals that North American households spent 7.4 hours per week* using the Internet in 2006--up from 5.4 hours per week in 2004. Compare that with the households that watched TV at 12.6 and 13.1 hours per week, respectively. Forrester Research analyst Peter Kim says advertisers have increased their Internet ad and marketing budgets, but have not changed their level of spend on mass media channels.

Not a stranger to marketing on the Internet, Coty recently pursued an online TV ad for ck IN2U, a new fragrance line from Calvin Klein. The company held the international short film competition "What are you IN2?"

The campaign covered a range of entries, from experimental and cinematic to hilarious and seductive. Earlier this month, the panel of independent film artists Mena Suvari, Jennifer Coolidge, Emilio Estevez and Evan Ferrante selected Kyle Connolly from Ottawa, Canada, as the grand-prize winner for his film, "2@2," a modern, visually poetic narrative of boy meets girl.

With global annual sales of $2.9 billion, Coty sells its branded fragrances in 91 markets. Fragrances contribute 65%, cosmetics 17%, toiletries 14% and skincare and sun products 4%.

The Coty Prestige brand family includes Baby Phat, Calvin Klein, Cerruti, Chloe, Chopard, Davidoff, Jennifer Lopez, Jette Joop, Jil Sander, JOOP!, Karl Lagerfeld, Kenneth Cole, L.A.M.B. fragrance by Gwen Stefani, Lancaster, Marc Jacobs, Nautica, Nikos, Sarah Jessica Parker, Vera Wang and Vivienne Westwood.

* Editor's note: This article has been amended since publication.