When brand incubator Maesa launched the perfume brand Fine’ry in January 2023, it brought fine fragrance to an unusual shopping destination: the affordable beauty aisles of Target. Available exclusively at Target, Fine’ry offers eau de parfums with trendy notes like cherry and sandalwood for under $40 a bottle.
Although the brand was not initially marketed as male or female, Fine’ry says it overindexes with female consumers. But close to two years after its launch, the brand is looking to broaden its consumer base. On Sunday, Fine’ry launched nine male-targeted scents like Not Another Blue and Smoke & Leather in an attempt to connect more directly with male consumers.
“With this brand, we want to maintain the sense of inclusivity. The brand is a unisex brand — that’s the heritage of how we developed it, and that’s where it lives today,” said Nadia Khan, svp of brand marketing at Maesa. “However, we see opportunities to expand the reach into a more commercially-driven, masculine olfactive territory.”
Following the Fine’ry For Him line’s initial launch online and at endcaps in select Targets, the men’s scents will receive a larger roll out in the men’s grooming aisles in select stores on February 23. Khan said the brand will not overcommunicate the masculine-leaning scents, however, with the bottle design retaining the same minimalist look as the original launch.
The men’s fragrance market has been booming in 2024, with teen boys, in particular, taking off as a valuable demographic. Piper Sandler’s 2024 Taking Stock With Teens Survey found that teen boys outspent teen girls on fragrance for the first time in fall 2024.
But that report also showed those young men were more interested in higher-end fragrances than their female counterparts. The top fragrance brands for teen boys were all dominated by designer names like Jean Paul Gaultier and Dior, while teen girls’ top brands were affordable, body splash-centric brands like Bath and Body Works and Sol de Janeiro.
Fine’ry is confident that young men will find the fragrance performance they are looking for in its more affordable options.
“The absolute No. 1 thing that all consumers, but specifically the [young male] consumers, want is that really long-lasting, strong fragrance experience, and we are absolutely delivering on that,” said Dana Steinfeld, svp of brand incubation and product innovation at Maesa.
Khan said Fine’ry is able to cut costs and maintain its affordability, in part, by relying on artificial intelligence to build out its marketing.
“The creative worlds that you’ve seen [in our launch marketing] were primarily done utilizing AI technology,” said Khan. “That has allowed us to be leaner in our budget, be quicker to market and have an intense bank of assets that were comparable, if not better, than some of the leaders in fragrance today.”
Fine’ry declined to share which companies it partners with to develop its fragrances. Each men’s scent will retail for $29.99, with a travel-sized trio containing Ultra, Not Another Blue and Two Billion available for $19.99.
With consumers increasingly knowledgeable in their fragrance connoisseurship, much of the buzz around Fine’ry has been based on whether or not its scents are worthwhile dupes for highly coveted — and highly expensive — designer and luxury scents. Think: Le Labo Santal 33 and Tom Ford Lost Cherry. While more brands, like Dossier and Oakcha, have made explicit dupes an integral part of their branding in recent years, Steinfeld said the dupe model is not a part of Fine’ry’s strategy.
“You can’t control what people say, but it certainly is interesting to read,” said Steinfeld. “At the end of the day, that is not our strategy, and that is not how we create.”
Going into its third year on the market, Finer’y isn’t only expanding its reach across genders, but it’s also aiming to reach new generations.
With a growing desire for a “fragrance wardrobe” rather than a single signature scent, Gen Z has driven much of the demand for emerging fragrance trends like wellness-enhancing perfumes. A representative for Fine’ry said the majority of its consumers are millennials. However, the brand is trying to reach more Gen Z and Gen Alpha consumers through platforms like Roblox, which it joined in October. Fine’ry has also staged immersive in-person events, which often draw Gen-Z consumers, like its Fineryverse pop-up in New York City in April.
“We want to show up where people are having conversations [about fragrance],” said Khan. “Next year, I will potentially be speaking a different language about who’s buying the brand.”
