NEW YORK — Instead of committing itself to a permanent bath collection, Dana Perfumes is getting into the bath and body category with a summer-only promotion called the Rain Blossom Bath Care line.
“Bath is such an important segment now,” said Liz Cohen, vice president of marketing for Dana. “A lot of people have been buying bath products instead of fragrance. But over the last few years everyone has been running into the bath category, and there isn’t enough room for everyone,” she said.
“We thought that we would test the market with a summertime collection that would give us a chance to try things out without really committing to the category for the long term,” she added. Dana executives expect the new products to be sold out by fall.
The six-item Rain Blossom Bath Care line hit 5,000 mass doors this week.
The line consists of an 8-oz. bath and shower gel, 8-oz. body lotion and a 4-oz. cooling allover body spray.
Each product is $5.59 and will be available in two fragrances: Green Mist, an herbal scent with green notes, and Soft Petals, a light and delicate floral scent with sparkling top notes.
“The idea is to use these products as an alternative to traditional fragrance forms,” Cohen said. “They were created for layering.”
The new bath collection will be merchandised in drugstores in a 24-piece countertop display, with testers for the body spray.
Industry sources estimated that the collection will do slightly less than $1 million at wholesale this year.
“So far, this is only a onetime promotion for us,” Cohen said, declining to comment on sales projections. “A lot of the prestige scents, such as O de LancÖme and Escada, are doing that. We think that kind of idea creates a lot of excitement around a launch and adds to its cachet.
“But of course, if the bath line does fabulously well,” she added,”We won’t hesitate to bring it back.”