Last Week in Consumer Brands: Fragrance Trends, Protein Innovations, and AI Retail

0:00Welcome back to another episode of The Curious Consumer. I'm Nate. I'm Jenna. And today we're trying something a little bit new. In the past, we've done more just a little bit of the news and the deep dive. We're going to try just sort of going through what we talked about in our most recent newsletter. Think of this as like you're getting coffee with a friend or a drink and you're just catching up on the week. But what you're catching up on is fun brand and retail news. Exactly. Love it. Which I think is really exciting. I love it. Oh, it's so fun. I mean, we could talk about it all day. This is us getting coffee.

0:36This would be us having a conversation over coffee. So the big news that we shared this week, so for context, we always have one bigger deep dive, not to say that it's the most important story from the week. It's just the thread that we wanted to pull, I guess I will say. A theme that we have seen across more than just one story that was maybe like highlighted in one story this week. So that big theme is men wanting to smell good. I love trying to smell good. I think it's fun. I think you're a special consumer in that you have been on top of these like men in skincare, men in fragrance trends for longer than they have been trends.

1:20But something that we noticed more overall is that a lot of fragrance brands, also skincare, but that's almost like a separate point at this point, have been entering into the men's space more and more lately. And Nate, can you tell me about the news that like catalyzed us writing about this? I would love to. So a fragrance brand, a very popular genderless direct-to-consumer first fragrance brand called Sniff, they just launched a sub-brand called Noteworks. And this sub-brand is specifically targeting young men. And it goes live at the end of the year in December. And really, the timing couldn't be better.

2:02Yeah, absolutely. I mean, we have been kind of seeing this as a trend overall, that there are just more brands entering men's fragrance. And we're not just talking about premium men's fragrance, because fancy clone companies have been around forever and ever. What we're more interested in here is this intersection between these more like budget friendly or like accessible price point fragrance brands and this male targeted line. So Sniff is a perfect example of this because as Nate said, Sniff has been positioned as genderless since day one. They're like a buzzy D to C brand. They originally got really popular because they owned the try before you buy model in fragrance.

2:47I don't really think anyone was doing this in fragrance before them. Scentbird a little bit. It was more sample sizes, but yes, Sniff was really the only one to be like, hey, you can try this out because we're direct to consumer first. You can't try it in stores yet. Exactly. And the way that their model works, that's even different than how Scentbird did it historically is that they would send you actually three full-size bottles and then three samples that correspond with each of those bottles. And you can try them for a week. You send back the two that you don't want or all three if you want none of them, I guess.

3:19And you only pay for what you keep. I actually did this myself. You did? I want to say three years ago. The company started in 2020. I don't know when they started Try Before You Buy, but this was such a first of its kind thing really took off for sniff. And part of the reason that this works so well is because they were DTC only at the time and it was a really approachable price point. So I think each bottle was$65, which for a fragrance under a hundred is considered more accessible. Obviously people have different definitions of what that means, but they like really, really owned that space.

3:53They also did exclusive drops. So they really owned like drop culture, basically a perfect target for Gen Z. Like this is a fragrance brand made for Gen Z. I mean, look, there's a fragrance frenzy. We didn't really go into this in the newsletter itself, but there's this whole trend of smell maxing and just trying to like optimize your scent and try all these different things. But I think one of the interesting trends is around just like guys starting to glow up. They're starting to use a lot more skincare and take care of themselves. So that's, I think, one big piece, we're seeing a big increase from the past 10 years.

4:31And then just with fragrance in general, it's really big. Gen Z consumers are spending a year around$200 on colognes and perfumes, which is$38 more on average than like a regular consumer. It's so interesting because we're saying that Gen Z is attracted to more accessible price points, and we're also saying that they're spending more. And the reason that's happening is because Gen Z isn't sticking to like a signature scent the way that other generations have. I always feel the need to say this, but I am Gen Z. I guess I am too. I find myself abiding by this too. I look to scenting for more like, it's more like mood oriented or occasion oriented as opposed to I always smell like one thing.

5:18And because of this, Gen Z is building what people call fragrance wardrobes. So they're spending less on each perfume or cologne or whatever, but owning more and using them for different occasions. Yeah, this sub-hundred-dollar space has, like, really blossomed. And especially fragrances that either explicitly or loosely dupe mainstream, more prestige fragrances, like from, like, Tom Ford and whatnot. So there's brands like Dead Cool. There's brands like Dossier. Even like Target is sort of getting to this with their finery line of fragrances. I love their finery line. I love it. I'm going to try it.

5:58I've been tempted to. I've been enjoying Ora Bella. I constantly get, which is Bella Hadid's skincare fragrance line. Like there's like a skincare element to it. I don't know really what it means. I get a lot of compliments on it. But I also have like, I have one, I have two from a brand called Huron and I use them in different ways. Like one is more just like I'm going out, going out during the day, just like a normal day vibe. Even I kind of fall into this as well. Now that I'm really thinking about it, because it's like, I don't, I don't need a signature scent, but I want to smell good. Yeah.

6:33And you want to tie your scent to an occasion or a mood. Right. I think this is so Gen Z. Like just that kind of behavior of, first of all, wanting to like maximize options and choices like that, but also associating a sensory experience with like very specific use cases as opposed to like with identity. I feel like Gen Z sees ourselves as more adaptable and malleable in terms of identity. And we like to like try on different vibes and try on different cultures and whatever that might mean. And so it makes sense that that would translate to sense. Yeah, and I think for men too, like as they sort of get more into quote unquote taking care of themselves from a skincare and beauty regimen.

7:20About damn time. One, it's about damn time. But I also think fragrance, shout out Lizzo, I think fragrance is a very easy entrance into that space. Even easier than like washing your face with something other than a bar of soap. I think fragrance makes it really accessible. One, because there's less taboo around wearing a cologne. Just because men have always done that. That's always been a thing. It hasn't really been too taboo. Where I think the rhetoric, especially around younger men, has been, just wash your face, whatever soap you have on hand. That's starting to change, thank God. And I wash my face with good stuff.

8:03We know. But I think fragrance is like a really easy entrance into that beauty and skincare world for men who might have felt that like it's not manly to do these things. Fragrance might be like the gateway into other like more typically feminine leaning routines. Yes. And retailers are starting to take notice. Target, for example, within the past few years has really committed a lot of prime real estate to specifically men's lines and specifically around fragrance. I think in this case, we're also talking about like body care stuff, not just cologne and perfumes. But even these brands like Harry's, they just launched their first fragrance line, which is kind of crazy because I remember in college, I was buying Dollar Shave Club's fragrance that came out, their cologne line, which I really loved.

8:57But Harry's, they just launched three new flavors, three new scents, all priced under$40, which is obviously very accessible. And then brands like Duquesne, Dr. Squatch, Bevel, they all have scents in some capacity. Yeah. But other thing I would add here is, yes, they're so much more excessively priced, but they're also not the like act body sprays of the world or the old spice body sprays of the world. There is a quality signaling to them. So either like the bottle looks really nice, which in the case of Harry's, it actually I'm looking at it. It does. The bottle looks really nice. The staying power is advertised somehow.

9:42The actual like scent is described as more of an experience maybe. than again like old spice so people are seeking out quality even if they're looking for a lower price point yeah we we you know we talked about this here mastige mass plus prestige and it's it's it's so cool to see this middle ground growing because i feel like for a long time it's really just been like, it's cheap, it's Axe, or it's Tom Ford. And that like middle world didn't really exist. And especially for men's products. I remember when I was younger, going to like Blue Mercury and seeing some of the men's products, it was like, sure, there was like some Nivea stuff, maybe Jack Black, but that was still like on the higher end, and you'd get it at like Blue Mercury, Nordstrom, like you wouldn't get it or find it in a very accessible way either direct to consumer or even from like a like a target for example so it's really cool to see that that just that space in general not just for men blossom a bit and i would say sniff like really oh yeah oh 100 i i i remember when i first found sniff i really like their sweet ash one i wore that for a bit i remember i got my friend a bottle that's the one i have yeah it's a It's a little smoky.

11:03Yeah. Yeah. The cool thing about scents as well is it's going to smell different on you versus me, even if it's the same scent because of our body oils and pheromones and other science-y terms I could be using. Other science-y terms, for sure. You're totally right. I think that's also where some of these actually genderless scents kind of play that up and be like, we are a unisex fragrance, but that doesn't just mean like anyone can wear it. It means that this will actually smell different on a male consumer versus a female consumer. And that's kind of interesting. Yeah. But at least currently, I do think there needs to be very explicitly branded and marketed men's lines to get that consumer into the fold.

11:47Because even though Sniff is genderless, I think to a traditional male consumer, it still leans feminine. And for a good amount of consumers, that's not appealing to them. And I think to start to get more male consumers to start actually buying things, because most products I think are in general brought by women, you need to speak to that consumer a little bit more explicitly. I completely agree. Yeah. You got to start coming out with products that say like musk and like woody and whatever adjectives they use on them. And you're totally right that genderless might not work to reach the male consumer.

12:25And that's what Sniff is saying right now. They're like, we're a genderless brand, but we're going to launch a male-oriented sub-brand because we still need help pulling in these consumers that we know are interested, but maybe don't feel like we're marketing to them. So that's on scenting and fun piece. It's interesting. I think we want to do more of this beauty and skincare world as well, because I think you and I both have interesting perspectives. I think myself, just because I use a lot of stuff and I don't think a lot of my young male contemporaries necessarily do. So it's like, I think it's very interesting.

13:03Absolutely. Let's talk about some Food and Bev stuff. I think, because it wouldn't be a Food and Bev conversation if we don't talk about protein. There's been a few protein stories this week. As always. I'm really excited that Pop-Tarts has finally released their own protein Pop-Tart. Branded Pop-Tart from Kellogg's. The whole shebang. Saying finally in front of that implies that this is like a product you have been waiting for and that the people have been waiting for. And I just disagree. I mean, based off discourse online around just like protein pastries and sweet treats. Like Legendary has their protein pastry, toaster treat, not loved.

13:51Generous to call it that because that does not taste anything like a Pop-Tart or a toaster strudel or anywhere close to any of those things. But yes, they have been playing up that messaging. Yes. I mean, there's flings and they are much closer to a Pop-Tart than Legendary's is. also a mix of feedback on that product. But I am very excited to get my hands on this official protein Pop-Tart. I hope it tastes just like a regular Pop-Tart, but with 10 grams of protein. I'm sold. I have a feeling it will. And part of the reason I have a feeling it will is because I don't think they changed anything about the recipe.

14:33I think they just added protein. Great. Which means that this isn't an otherwise better for you product. It's just literally pop tarts with 10 grams of protein again thank god i don't i don't need everything i i love trash but so they just want a normal potter like why do you want the 10 grams of protein then because it's fun and novel and like i'm i'm trying to get big and pop tarts are the mechanism 100 percent no i believe that for sure um yeah my personal take 100 pop tarts a day uh my personal take is that this is exactly the kind of product that will not make it through this protein boom i don't think that protein itself like is a trend but i do think that these brands that are just like adding protein and changing nothing else about the product nothing else is innovative it's still not a better for you product that will not last no i i look ignoring my rant i love your enthusiasm my enthusiasm is just because this seems fun no of course this is this is not going to usurp their their main you know line of of products in in fact this will probably boost sales of regular pop tarts do you think it's the same way that when oreo comes out with new flavors it just boosts their original one like it just gets the conversation going about the core brand and their core products it's just gonna help pop tarts maintain pop tarts being pop tarts yeah it's almost like the consumers who are like screw this i'm just gonna have a normal pop tart are gonna go buy pop tarts now but they wouldn't have like they kind of forgot about pop tarts until this happened i saw that news i want i I want some s'mores Pop-Tarts.

16:26That's all I can think about. Or the sundae one. The ice cream sundae one's really good. Warmed up. I'm a brown sugar girl, but I totally appreciate that. But that is such an interesting point that it shouldn't be seen as a spend on innovation. It should be seen as a marketing spend. It's 100 % a marketing spend. They created a product just so that they can market it, just so that people could buy their normal product. That is such a good point. Yeah. And they're launching this because they can. This didn't cost them really anything. It cost them some marketing dollars and like barely any R &D.

16:57Come on. I don't think this is not a big lift for catalogs. But yeah, I think it's more marketing. But it's working. We're talking about it. We just spent like five minutes talking about Pop-Tarts. You're right. That's on today's gimmicky protein news. and in other today's news maybe less gimmicky so bearbells which is a company most known for their protein bars that are basically they taste like candy bars i love them i think they're a lot of people's favorites so bearbells well-known protein bar brand at this point just came out with a protein soda. And I have some thoughts. I know you do. I wrote like two paragraphs in this newsletter.

17:50I think it was very, I think, I think your thoughts are very accurate with this. So the thing that bothers me most about this product is that it in huge letters says protein soda. That is what the product is just called protein soda. Like that is the name of it. But under that in really small print, it says how much actual protein is in it, which is 10 grams. And then also that it is 200 milligrams of caffeine. That's not a protein soda. That's an energy drink. That's an energy drink with protein in it. But to just call it protein soda and it's just like you kind of have to look to see that it also has not like 100 milligrams of caffeine.

18:26200 milligrams of caffeine, which is on par with like OG energy drinks. Celsius. That's like a Celsius. That's a Celsius. And you're just calling it protein soda. So misleading, first of all. Like the messaging is just misleading. But also, what is the use case for a caffeinated protein soda? It's 3 p.m. You work down in the morning. You need a pick me up. Sure. Okay. That's, I could maybe make that work in my head. But yeah, that was my feedback. Feedback. As if the Bear Bells people are reading this. They might. My thought on this was that an energy drink is for pre-workout. And typically protein, if you want it to be used for muscle protein synthesis, should be consumed post-workout.

19:11So mixing those together, a little confusing, honestly. No, I think you're – I got excited at all the caffeine. I love a good caffeinated drink. But you're right. When is this going to be consumed during somebody's day is like kind of – I'm curious. Because the other protein sodas are protein sodas, not a little bit of protein energy drinks. It's much clearer when and why to use it. So I'm curious to see how this launch goes because this is a U.S. launch. A lot of Bear Bell's innovations have been in the U.K. because it's a U.K. brand. So there's really just been, they have like a protein shake, like a Fairlife competitor that they've launched, but not here.

20:01This is their new US product. And I'm very curious. It looks like it's direct to consumer to start. So we'll see what happens with it. And this isn't to say that caffeine and protein can't go together. I think they should. There are a lot of protein coffees, but I think that that use case even is a little clearer to me. Like that's just like, I want my breakfast to have some protein in it. whereas a soda I'm like not gonna drink first thing in the morning I don't know it's just silly to me but the other thing that's interesting is that it's such a departure from a brand perspective the branding itself is completely different colors than their normal protein bars and going for a soda as opposed to a fair life shake competitor like you said means that they can't do flavors that are recognizable so like I think it would be really smart everyone's in love with their protein bars if they could take their protein bar and turn it into a milkshake that's the same flavor but But to go to like fruity flavors in a soda that your consumers have no understanding of how you deliver a fruit forward flavor is so weird to me.

21:02Yeah. I think bringing their shakes here probably would have been a good move. Bear Life is the winner there. And I feel like Bear Bells could probably take some market share from them, especially if they lean into the flavors that they have across their bars. I think it would have been better to come out with a protein shake rather than a protein energy drink. I'm not even going to call it a soda. We'll see how it performs. And who are we to say? I don't know. I don't know. I feel like we have some weight. Some weight. Somebody. Somewhere. So next up, we have Target continuing to somehow be the wellness destination.

21:36I don't, it's between Target and Walmart. Like every other week, there's some wellness news coming out of one of these retailers as they expand their wellness sections. And wellness is also across many categories. So two pieces of news there. One is that Plant People, which is a zero sugar gummy supplement brand, is available at Target. And the other is that Symbiotica, which is a liquid supplement brand, is also available at Target now. So two supplement brands joining the ranks of so many supplements that are now and so many D2C first supplements that are now at Target. And gummies. So many freaking gummies.

22:17Oh my god, we're going to do a whole episode. I went to Target near me recently in the Upper East Side, and the amount of these new brands that were taking over that space is really impressive. I'm very pleased that Target is taking this stance of, like, let's get some new emerging fresh faces in here. There's Aerie. Oh, Array. Array. Oh, boy. Array launched in Target. It grooms. Bloom is all over the place. Ballywelly. Ballywelly, Supergut, now Symbiotica and Plant People. It's really nice how fresh it all feels, that there's all these new interesting brands in there. I'm very curious to see the uptake of some of these brands, especially as they move from very big direct-to-consumer businesses into more mass as they move into Target and to Walmart, because Symbiotica built like most of their business online.

23:16They're a$200 million business. I'm very curious to see how this all plays out. These retailers are taking big bets. It's going to be really interesting. I think a lot of these D2C for supplement brands have been successful because supplements are habitual and they do really well in subscription. So I'm curious because it'll be good in the sense that consumers can just try these products without having to do a full subscription, without signing up for a subscription as they would on D2C by just walking into a Target, but also they're going to potentially lose recurring revenue by not being on subscription and being IRL.

23:50So it would also be interesting to see if people try it in store and then become such a fan that they convert backwards to D2C and become a subscriber. So I'm just curious what the shopping behavior will look like around some of these supplement brands because it's not the same as a new grocery product being introduced to Target. Yeah, it's a completely different category. but they're pushing it for sure and on people just buying things in totally different ways than they used to we have seen so many headlines in the past few weeks about open ai partnering up with retailers so that users of chat gpt can actually shop within the chat and there's another one added to the list this week walmart welcome to the game the other week we we talked about how etsy and Shopify have partnered with ChatGPT.

24:38If you're in a ChatGPT window and you want to find the best lip gloss, Glossier comes up. You can buy it directly within the chat. You don't leave. Crazy. That is crazy. Insane. So now that's happening with Walmart too. It's interesting for so many reasons. One, it's just for brands to figure out how to show up on these platforms will be fascinating. That's a whole other marketing channel to be considering. But I'm really interested just from a retailer perspective, what Walmart is getting out of this? Are they just sort of betting on the future? Are they expecting to get a ton more customers, which is funny because Walmart reaches everybody pretty much.

25:20They're within 90 % of the US. I think it's even higher than that. Everybody lives within, I think that was like 10 miles of a Walmart. Oh, insane. That is insane. But I also competition in Target, in Amazon, if they can pull some market share away from those, even if it's in a channel that they don't fully own, can be a big win for them. And we've seen retailers for the past many years invest more in delivery in an effort to compete with Amazon. But delivery is only one piece of the infrastructure that has made Amazon take off. The other piece is their digital infrastructure, and no one can compete with Amazon.

26:01And so by partnering with something like OpenAI, where the user experience is so seamless, that's kind of their best shot at competing with Amazon and Amazon's one-click purchase. This is their best shot because there's nothing they can do on Walmart.com or whatever, Retailer.com, to compete with Amazon in this digital infrastructure. And so it's really smart for them to use OpenAI. So we're going to see a lot of changes, I think, around how people are online shopping and that's just something we're keeping tabs on yeah i mean another thing we've been keeping tabs on in in terms of how people shop online live shopping and elf cosmetics who now owns road and they're freaking huge they're partnering with twitch to do first ever in-stream shopping feature um which is really cool i like it's so because if people are spending all this time watching these people play games, do their makeup, whatever it is, like you have this captive audience and you don't want them to leave.

27:07Both parties are incentivized to not have that person leave the stream. Amazon, who owns Twitch, is not incentivized for you to leave the stream. The Twitch streamer does not want you to leave the stream. And if you're trying to hock a product, why not do it in stream? I'm surprised it didn't exist before. We've seen live shopping take off in other countries so much more than it has in the US. And I feel like this is just like a very latent response to that global demand for live stream shopping. And they're like, okay, consumers at this point probably aren't going to go to a new platform to live stream shop, but they might just buy things once they're already on Twitch.

27:45Oh, 100%. And we've seen live stream shopping get significantly more popular over the past few years in the US. So especially thanks to TikTok, TikTok's live stream shopping is booming. So people are getting into this habit, but I do agree. Like they're not necessarily going to go to a net new platform to be live shop. Like I think there's a reason there's no other QVCs. Yeah, exactly. And that's such a good point. There would be more. And Elf makes sense to be the brand that's doing this because they have a really young audience. It's like a pretty accessibly priced beauty brand. Exactly. If a higher-end brand tried to do the same thing, I don't think it would work so well.

28:27So this will be fun to watch how it plays out. Twitch is wild. We got to start live streaming. I think that's a pass for me, but we can do it. Let's live stream while we're walking to the grocery store. Okay, we can do that. That's fine. That feels more advisable for me. I'm like, I don't think there's anything I would be skilled enough in. There's probably something. I'm sure a hidden talent will come out one day. But do you know what people like? Chobani. Chobani, as we've been saying, is the next 100-year brand in line with Coke and all of these other big brands. They just raised$650 million, reaching a whopping$20 billion valuation, all within the lens of supporting their continued expansion.

29:10They have a$1.2 billion dairy processing plant in Rome, New York, which will create a bunch of jobs and increase their volume of dairy production so much. What we said months ago is it's very rare to see a brand sort of do what Trobani's doing. It's very hard in this landscape. You either get acquired, the capital needed to break out of like being around for like 10 years even is a lot. And it's why we see these big acquisitions happening, because it's hard. And I could see Chobani really getting up there in age. Absolutely. And it's worth mentioning that Chobani owns La Cologne and Daily Harvest.

29:53And both of those brands seem to be trendy enough in their own ways that they can kind of continue carrying the ship too. But I would say that on its own, without its acquisitions, Chobani would still be in a really similar place, actually. Yeah. And they started the Greek yogurt category. It was almost non-existent before then. And we don't need to be the ones to like walk through their history. There's a fantastic How I Built This episode on that that you should absolutely listen to. But point being, they really created a category. They have amazing leadership. They have these strategic acquisitions.