President of NPD Beauty Timra Carlson said: "Teens remain a vital demographic of the fragrance industry, as fragrance wearers first begin to experiment with scents in their teenage years."
"With limited dollars to spend, teens will pay close attention to the fragrance brands they choose to buy, making sure the brands fit their exact expectations," said Carlson.
The main criteria for boys in choosing a fragrance is that it is liked by girls, with just over half saying this was the number one factor in their choice, according to the company's FragranceTrack 2004 Men's Study. This factor continues to be the most important as they mature and become adults.
Teen boys place almost identical importance on being able to wear the fragrance every day, for every occasion (44 per cent of respondents) and on fragrances they perceive to be masculine (43 per cent).
Around a third of respondents specified that the fragrance should be clean, and a similar number said it should be fresh.
Although a third said that their interest in the fragrance was due to word of mouth, and a third said they had tried a free sample, perhaps surprisingly, peer pressure seems to have little influence, with less than a tenth of teen boys purchasing a particular fragrance because their friends wear it.
More than half of teen boys are said to shop for fragrances at mass market retailers such as Target or Wal-Mart or a food and drug store, such as CVS or Walgreens. Teen boys most often shopping for fragrances at department stores accounted for 13 per cent of respondents, followed by national chain stores, speciality clothes and fragrances stores, each with less than 10 per cent of sales.
Fragrance purchases were made by 12 per cent of teen boys through other channels, including mall kiosks, over the Internet, telephone/mail orders and/or television shopping channels.
NPD said that advertising did not have as great of an impact on teen boys. Only 13 per cent of teenage boys say they were influenced by a fragrance advertisement in a magazine, while television commercials influenced 8 per cent and only 2 per cent saw a fragrance advertisement in a newspaper.
Once in the store, 63 per cent of teen boys said they purchased the fragrance because they sprayed it and liked the scent. Thirty-five per cent said they purchased the fragrance because the price was right, while 30 per cent said they were influenced by a friend or family member shopping with them.
While advertising seemed to have little impact on choice, packaging and design matters, with 13 per cent of teenage boys buying the fragrance because it came in a cool bottle and 12 per cent said the fragrance came with a gift set. Only 4 per cent of male teens said the sales person influenced their decision.
"It will become increasingly important for both fragrance marketers and retailers alike to understand this young group's shopping behaviours and motivators to attract and maintain their loyalty," noted Carlson. "To win over teens, fragrance brands must first recognise what drives them to the counter."
Estée Lauder is hoping to appeal to this market through its Sean Jean tie-in with Sean 'P Diddy' Combs as reported in a recent CosmeticsDesign.com article.
Also in that article, international fragrance consultant and chairman of the Fragrance Foundation UK John Ayres warned: "When you bring in a celebrity, it is a bit of a risk."
Just as it is difficult to obtain any facts and figures relating to the success or failure of fragrance launches, it is equally difficult to try and quantify the celebrity factor.
In the UK this has been borne out by the reportedly disappointing sales of the 'insania' aftershave launched by Peter Andre. The pop star as attempted to kick-start his flagging career by his recent appearance on a reality television programme and he has also released a new single of the same name.
UK newspaper The Mirror quoted a source as saying: "Insania is not selling well. Some stores have sold just two or three bottles."
However a spokesperson for Woolworth's claimed: "It is outselling all other perfumes we stock," and denied that the aftershave was incurring losses.