Missing Opportunities in Marketing Men's Sports Fragrances?

In discussing her love for football season in a blog post titled "Fragrance Fumble?" on The NPD Group Blog, Brenna Phelan, manager and fragrance industry analyst at The NPD Group, comes to the topic of the marketing of sports fragrances.

She notes, "As fans go, I’m certainly not the most fanatical even though I do love the sport. There are plenty of people who are more passionate than I about their teams and football in general. In fact, one might argue that football fans are among the most passionate of any sports fans. That said, why is it that sport fragrances are almost never launched during football season?"

Phelan goes on to note some of the success of "sport"-dubbed scents, writing, "Sports fragrances for men (brands with 'sport' in the name) have been doing quite well in the prestige channel. Collectively, these brands grew +16% versus a year ago (12 months ending June) and +55% versus two years ago*. With all the success in the sport fragrance business why not capitalize on a fall sport, like say football? Over the past three years, all of the sport fragrances for men have launched during the spring season."

Is this strategy a ramp up to the football season? Something to tide men over until the fall? What is your fragrance brand's strategy when launching products targeted at men?

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