Coach Goes Wide With Love Launch
Call it a labor of love.
Coach has introduced its latest eau de parfum for women called Love, which hits shelves this month. Prices range from $72 for 1 oz. to $112 for 3 oz., and it is available at Macy’s Inc., Ulta Beauty and Dillard’s.
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The launch, in time for fragrance’s holiday-induced sales swell, comes at a time of growth for licensee Inter Parfums Inc. Philippe Benacin, the company’s cofounder and president of its French subsidiary, said the Coach business has been on a steep incline as it doubles down on key franchises.
It’s also one of Inter Parfums’ largest brands. As reported, four in its portfolio — Monblanc, Jimmy Choo, Coach and Guess — fall within the net sales range of $150 million to $200 million.
“It has developed a lot over the past three, four years and the U.S. is about 40 percent of the Coach business,” Benacin said. “This is the third fragrance in our first franchise, and we wanted something more in the spirit of the market with Coach Love.”
The juice, developed by Givaudan perfumer Antoine Maisondieu, include top notes of wild strawberry, juicy mandarin and pink pepper leaves; heart notes of red velvet rose, Indian sambac jasmine and osmanthus flowers, and base notes of cedarwood, benzoin resinoid and gray amber.
“Love is very elegant and softer than the former one,” Benacin said. “And we wanted to make it more international in terms of audience. In terms of fragrance, and less American in our targeting.”
Though other pillars in Inter Parfums’ portfolio target very specific demographics, Benacin cited Coach’s wide appeal as part of its success. “The Coach consumer is not a typical consumer. We have brands on which the consumers have a very specific profile, but Coach consumers are much larger,” he said. The ages range from 15, 20 to 60, 80. All American women have a Coach bag in their house.”
That was also part of the thinking behind the Juergen Teller-lensed campaign accompanying the launch. “The idea was to have a couple showing their love. It’s very international, it’s very easy to promote it in Europe or in Asia, where Coach is very strong, also,” Benacin said. “The idea was to be very international in the campaign, even if it’s very different from the competition. It’s quite the image of Coach, which is very easy to understand as a brand and the codes are quite clear.”
Added Stuart Vevers, Coach’s creative director, in a statement, “Coach Love celebrates freedom of expression and all the ways we share affection with our loved ones. To evoke this feeling in the campaign, instinctively I knew Juergen Teller [who shot the campaign] would be able to capture candid snapshots of intimacy in a way that also speaks to the charismatic nature of the scent. Together, the fragrance and the imagery play on the tension between individuality and togetherness, and captures my belief that when we authentically express ourselves, we can inspire others to do the same.”
The fragrance launch comes at a busy time for the Coach brand, which saw its parent company Tapestry ink an $8.5 billion deal on Tuesday to buy Capri, the parent company of Jimmy Choo, Michael Kors and Versace.
“It’s a very good move for Tapestry for sure, because Capri has Jimmy Choo, Versace. Jimmy Choo is a brand that we started with the fragrances a long time ago,” Benacin offered. “It will probably help Tapestry to be stronger in Europe as well. They are super strong in America and Asia, and they have a little business in Europe. This will change that position.”
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