Dec 8th, 2015, 05:48 PM

Two New Burberry Fragrances for 2016

By Yana Blumenthal
Mr. Burberry
In 2012 Burberry ended a 20-year-old license with Interparfums by paying €181 million in termination fees. Two years later, the brand has debuted its first in-house fragrance fully under Burberry control.
During the launch of Burberry Body in 2014, the company tested interactive advertising outside of their flagship stores. It was a huge success that made its Body fragrance jump into the top ten, something that Burberry had never achieved. With a positive impact on the entire business, the brand launched Brit Rhythm.
 
The company is now moving on multiple fronts to grow beauty — for example, in June this year, Burberry signed a deal with Shiseido to distribute its fragrance and makeup products in Japan. By bringing its beauty division in-house, Burberry has guaranteed that royalty income to go straight to the bottom line. The strategy is to leverage fashion with beauty. “The development of Burberry’s beauty division is a key driver for the growth of the business as a whole,” Christopher Bailey, Burberry’s chief creative and chief executive officer said last year. “Within our overall beauty plans, the fragrance will play a leading role in driving revenue and raising brand awareness.”
 
Burberry’s beauty division strategy is to be aligned with the prestige image on the fashion side. In its first year (2014), beauty revenues increased 4.5 percent. Following the success of My Burberry, the brand invited the most celebrated perfumer, Francis Kurkdjian, to create Mr. Burberry, whose expected launch date is April 2016, and My Burberry Black, which is expected to be launched in September 2016.
 
 
“Mr. Burberry is the woody herbal eau de toilette, which has top notes of zesty grapefruit, tarragon and cardamom, a heart of birch leaf, nutmeg oil, and cedarwood and a drydown of sandalwood, vetiver, and guaiac wood. The ingredients are inspired by the heritage of British male perfumery,” said Simona Cattaneo, Senior VP of Beauty. “Mr. Burberry is a structure of a classic aromatic fougère that has inspired so many famous fragrances, but this has been totally remodeled and remastered to introduce a radically contemporary creation in its proportions and ingredients.”
 
The print and TV ads for Mr. Burberry were shot by multi-award-winning British director Steve McQueen. The bottle is inspired by the iconic Heritage trench coat. On the neck of the bottle, there is a butterfly tie made from waterproof gabardine material used for trench coats. The top of the fragrance resembles the Bakelite buttons for trench coats. Overall the bottle looks very James Bond, with sober design and possibility to monogram the glass. The picture above illustrates monogrammed Josh Whitehouse as Mr. Burberry fragrance. Burberry plans to have a global rollout of Mr. Burberry grooming line, including beard oil, moisturizer, deodorant, shower gel and aftershave.
 
My Burberry Black is intended to be a sensual fragrance, which has a top note of jasmine flower, a heart of candied rose and peach nectar and a drydown of amber and patchouli. It will launch exclusively at Harrods and on Harrods.com in February before rolling out to the Middle East in May and globally in September 2016.
 
In November, Burberry also announced that by the end of 2016, it will consolidate three labels; Prorsum (ready-to-wear catwalk collection), London (iconic trenches & accessories), and Brit (casual clothing offering).
 
[Photos: Burberry]