Finding a niche in a saturated perfumery market

In the recently concluded Beautyworld exhibition in Dubai, I had an opportunity to meet my old colleagues, old friends from the industry and also made some new friends during the 3 days long exhibition.

“Ritesh, the perfume market in the region seems to be saturated with so many brands, new concepts, all vying for the same market share. What are your thoughts on the same?” asked a close friend of mine during the catch-up during the exhibition.

“Money lies in the niches”, I replied.

“What do you mean Ritesh?”, my friend quipped.

“Look for the gaps in the market, both in terms of product category and market. Create your own niche and become a leader in that niche.” I replied.

Most of the business owners tend to become a part of the rat-race which leads to price wars, leading to lower margins and constant competition resulting in either no results or very little ROI.

Take an example of Hair mists.

Hair perfumes have long played second fiddle to the main event – the pillar edp or edt and never got its due justice or share of interest.

Now, Hair perfumes is one the trendiest category for 2025.

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At a time when inflation has risen exponentially, making luxury and designer perfumes less affordable than they were just a year ago, hair perfumes/hair mists offer consumers a way to experience the same scent at a fraction of the cost of the regular perfume.

In the middle eastern world , “Mukhmariyah” (oil ointment based product) was a significant category but lost somewhere with the modern times wherein the women preferred “use on the go” solutions.

Hair Mist offers both convenience and price economies and hence it is an emerging category.

Enter hair perfumes.

“But doesn’t it contain alcohol which dries the hair?” asked my friend.

“With the advent of technology, the water-based solvents are trending and are commonly used in the Hair mist.”, I replied.

These scented products are developed with ingredients specifically aimed at improving the health of hair. They act as hair nourisher as well.

Maison Francis Kurkdjian offers a hair-specific mist featuring their popular?Baccarat Rouge 540?fragrance.

The global hair and body mist market size reached?US$ 8.2 Billion?in 2023.(source Imarc group)

Brands who want to become category leaders need to focus on Blue ocean strategy rather than utilising their resources for Red ocean competition.

“Do you know what the ironic Myopia for Gen Z business owners is?” I asked my friend.

There was a pause on my friend’s face.

I continued by stating, “Today we have all the resources, reports, data, technology at our disposal but the irony is that we don’t know how to use it strategically.”

Feel free to reach out to me for a coffee chat in case you want to learn more about Blue ocean strategies.

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