The fragrance brand is launching a new men’s pillar, called Boss The Scent. It will hit stores in the U.S. in mid-August. The global rollout is planned for September. Hugo Boss Parfums, held by Proctor & Gamble Prestige, is one of the 43 brands acquired by a recent $12.5 billion acquisition deal.
This focus on seduction is a new one for the men’s scent range, which launched its first foray into fragrance in 1985. Carla Liuni, vice president of the P&G Prestige unit, calls it “unexplored territory.”
“We have a very strong market share, but we decided for us it was very important to keep the brand growing to the level that the brand deserves, to go into biggest segment of the fragrance category, which is the seduction segment,” she explained.
“On the fashion side, we have been playing with this territory much longer,” said Gerd von Podewils, senior vice president of global communications at Hugo Boss, who joined the fashion house from P&G Prestige at the start of 2013. Boss The Scent, which is priced slightly higher than most of the brand’s offerings, is intended to communicate a sophistication and premium feel in line with the upgrading of the fashion house, according to von Podewils.
Boss The Scent eau de toilette comes in 50-ml., priced at 65 euros ($72); 110-ml, for 89 euros ($98), and 200-ml, for 119 euros ($131). It boasts notes of ginger, lavender and leather, and marks the perfume debut of the Maninka fruit, from an African plant also called the snuff-box tree.
“It’s an aromatic leather-type fragrance that is classically manly with an edible twist,” said Will Andrews, principal scientist in P&G’s Prestige Fragrance Design team.
The Boss fragrances uses one of the 50 new plant accords Andrews’ team scouted in South Africa and developed in tandem with IFF.
The bottle is heavy glass with metal cagelike striping. The brushed metal cap, said Andrews, is three times heavier than normal, and there’s 20 percent more glass. Andrews asserted that the overall design was meant to convey a message of control.
Boss The Scent is the first release fronted by the brand’s newest face, 30-year-old British actor Theo James, who is known for roles in the “Divergent” and “Underworld” film franchises. He is younger than Boss Bottled’s current face, Gerard Butler, and less edgy than Hugo’s Jared Leto. Boss executives hope James can attract a new generation to the fragrance brand.
The fragrance’s print campaign was overseen by Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott, while the TV spot was shot by film director Darren Aronofsky, with the involvement of Boss artistic director Jason Wu.
Liuni and von Podewils declined to comment on the fragrance unit’s change of hands, focusing instead on the launch, which has been in the works for more than two years. Industry sources estimate that Boss The Scent could generate $200 million dollars in retail sales in its first year.