NAUTICA SHARPEN COMPETITIVE EDGE
Byline: Kim-Van Dang
NEW YORK — David Chu, president, chief executive officer and designer of Nautica International Inc., is about to launch his third scent: a sport fragrance for men called Nautica Competition.
Scheduled for late April delivery to 1,400 department store doors, the fragrance is expected to generate $20 million at retail the first year.
It’s been a busy six months for Chu. Last September, he remerchandised his five-year-old Nautica men’s fragrance, and last month, he introduced Nautica Woman.
Nautica Competition is named after the company’s one-year-old activewear division, which makes men’s cross-training gear in performance fleece, microfiber and waterproof/breathable fabrics.
The label has been an early success, Chu said, and he pegged its annual growth at 30 percent. Nautica Competition athletic footwear for men was introduced in November, to Foot Locker stores. It rolled out to department stores last month.
There are 62 Nautica Competition in-store shops now. By the end of the first quarter, there should be 140, according to Chu. They average about 500 square feet. A 1,200-square-foot Nautica Competition shop is expected to open in May at Macy’s Herald Square. It will feature white stone floors and fixtures made of metal sail-mast extrusions.
The Competition scent, developed by Creations Aromatique with independent consultant Richard Loniewski, features top notes of apple, spearmint and Italian bergamot and middle notes of Egyptian rose geranium, jasmine and tagete, a flower found in India and South Africa. They are rounded out by base notes of amber, musk, oak moss and vetiver, derived from the roots of an East Indian grass.
The line includes a 4.2-oz. cologne spray for $42.50 at retail; a same-size aftershave lotion at $38; a 2.4-oz. cologne spray at $32.50; a 4-oz. aftershave balm at $24; a 3.5-oz. cooling powder at $16; a 4-oz. moisturizer and a 2.5-oz. alcohol-free deodorant stick, each at $14.50, and a 4-oz. shower gel at $12.50.
The cologne spray bottle, designed by Robert DuGrenier and Chu, is silvery blue rubber-coated glass molded to resemble a scuba tank. A black rubber top is reminiscent of a scuba mouthpiece. It comes in a matching triangular box.
With the April launch, Nautica is offering a duffel bag that can be transformed into a hiking pack as a gift-with-purchase.
“We’re pushing the tech image with Competition,” Chu said. “This is young and modern in spirit.”
Like other products under the Competition banner, the scent targets men 18 to 35 years old. The Nautica label has wider appeal: men from their 20s to their 50s.
Alan Greco, president and chief executive officer of fragrance marketer Paul Sebastian, which holds the Nautica fragrance license, said he plans to support all three scents — separately.
He will spend $6 million this year to promote Competition, another $6 million on the original Nautica men’s fragrance and between $4 million and $5 million on Nautica Woman. The latter two scents are expected to do $30 million and $20 million, respectively, at retail this year, Greco said.
“We don’t want to do any cross promotion,” he said. “We want to avoid cannibalization. We’re repositioning the original Nautica scent as a classic, upscale brand through in-store visuals starting in mid to late March. We’re taking the original sailboat image away. We’re getting away from the water in the ads, too. There will just be clean bottle shots.”
The Competition story, on the other hand, is evolving. Launch ads and collaterals will feature decathlete Paul Foxon throwing a javelin. Greco said it is the first of many diverse images.
“Competition means many things to many people,” he said. “You may see bicycling, snowboarding and skiing in the ads to come. And then again, competition goes beyond sports.”
Print ads are slated to run in the May issues of GQ, Men’s Health and Out magazine, and in three women’s publications — Self, Allure and Vogue.
“Women still do a great deal of purchasing for men,” Greco said. “They buy a lot of Competition.”
Outdoor advertising, including billboards and bus boards, will appear in San Francisco, Los Angeles and here.
Paul Sebastian will produce 100,000 0.25-oz. mini spray bottles to hand out at special events and in stores. Fifteen million scented inserts will be mailed out.
“Whenever we can tie in to other Nautica Competition promotions, we will,” Greco added.