MAISON 21G UNIQUE O2O REVOLUTIONARY MODEL IN PERFUMERY: Experiential Retail, digital data driven, product innovation and sustainability at its core

Maison 21G successfully closes its series A two years after its initial launch. Creating a strong proof of concept in Asia with a unique O2O bespoke business model, founder Johanna Monange is on a mission to disrupt the traditional perfume industry, bringing innovation back to the heart of product usage, renewed creativity to scents and experiential expertise to both retail and digital spaces.

 With 3M of revenue in 2021, Maison 21G has become the number 4 brand in perfumery in Singapore; a remarkable achievement undertaken in less than 2 years, placing the brand just after Chanel, CD and Joe Malone. That the Maison has achieved this with only 3 outlets and a unique retail experience with Ateliers (private perfumery workshops) at its core, makes it all the more remarkable and noteworthy.

 1-    A unique bespoke website to allow personalisation to all and a strong data architecture to put machine learning in place

 We are also the first perfumery brand to successfully sell bespoke scents online - nobody believed me when I presented my digital plan to our initial investors. They told me I was crazy, and I responded that 10 years ago, I was telling my friend I will never buy my shoes online… and yet now I order my Jimmy Choo online to get the latest models straight from London without even trying them!

  We are focusing on putting solid growth model in place in digital, re-organising completely the architecture of our data architecture with the implementation of a CDP and powerful analytical tools, such as Amplitude.

Data, alongside our smart O2O CRM model, will bring success to our B2C model and will help us to build a huge barrier of entry for our business. Our bespoke model is complex, and needs specific coding for our customers to be able to choose their own ingredients in total freedom and design their scent according to their unique personality. “We rely upon years of research in psychology and in perfume development I could reach, because I was born into this industry from the inside!”

Our model is not a simple Shopify, and as such required significant investment in coding and UX/UI . We have managed to create something unique with a huge barrier of entry, and the more data we will collect, the more invincible we will become! This is a pure machine learning model, trailblazing the future of experiential retail experiences.

 The North Star of my company has been the increase in our number of scent designers - it’s as simple as that! We are on a mission to transform consumer habits, and convince them they can create their own scents with the right guidance and high qualitative ingredients of their own choice. My model takes time and education, but when consumers are brought into our cause - our very own scent revolution - they become very loyal and they make my model stronger, contributing with data, profile, and their preferences.

 The more scent designers we have, the more we learn about consumer habits and preferences. I am able to access a unique well of knowledge in the scent trends and preferences of consumers per market, accessing demographic data including their age, nationality, skin tones, values in life, and more. This kind of data is as unique as it is precise, and I am able to leverage this data for sale in the future, providing insight to big groups spending millions in consumer market research, on the hunt for the next olfactive trends in China or Korea for perfume, shampoo or even fabric conditioner. My shops are also my laboratories in which to innovate, iterate, and make rapid improvements. The two business models I have built with hard sweat - retail and digital - require my direct involvement and a hand-made approach. It’s a significant aspect of what sets Maison 21G apart.

 Further down the road this year, we aim to simplify our bespoke offer beyond the walls of Maison where the experience will remain fully immersive and unique, to be able to work with e-com partners like Amazon, Lazada, and other distributors to increase our reach. We cannot merely stick to our shops in big capitals if we want to successfully develop our unique business model. Our bespoke dream needs to reach everyone with a high level of service and with the same consistent level of high quality ingredients. For example, we will offer our best-selling creation - a DIY set where people can discover the beauty of craftsmanship at home - when they cannot reach our boutique. We will refine our recommendations online as the year progresses, with data collection that allows us to increase our relevance.

   We also have unique product offers online to educate our audience, allowing them to discover our large range of essences from distance, such as our Scent Discovery Kit or Scent Wardrobe that allow people to discover high quality scents. These tools educate and help our potential scent designers to understand what they like and what they don’t, before they mix their own perfume creation.

Our scent discovery set has become something of a collector’s object - nobody else has proposed a scent bar of 34 scents! So unique and precious, it takes us hours of manual work to prepare each scent discovery box in Singapore. It is a real luxury, and an item of which we are immensely proud.

 The Dual Crayon is also an example of our innovations, connecting 2 scents you can carry anywhere and everywhere. One fresh Bergamot for the morning and one sensual Amber fto touch up your sexy mood, for example - it’s a solution which the world of perfumery has been calling for!

2-    Product innovation, iteration, sustainable quality, open mindset within your team

We have also developed bespoke home scents during the covid-19 pandemic. With people spending more time at home, they have been seeking “little Plaisir” and more “ wellness” to spoil themselves and find comfort during the various lockdowns and restrictions. It was very easy to be innovative in this area, as not that much has been happening and demand has been considerable.

My Dual Candles sold like crazy at Christmas. The Laduree model also applied to our Mini Candles, which allowed you to choose your selection of scents online, and packaging them in a luxury gifting box in retail was a brilliant idea, proving that you can bring personalisation in many ways!

The same can be said of our Reed Diffuser, which allows people to craft the scent of their home in any way they want. At any of my competitors’ stores, you only find ready-made products. At Maison, you are empowered from start to finish to design the scent of your own ambiance.

If you are a big fan of Fig and Vetiver, for example, you can have both together at Maison mixed as your own unique recipe. It was a no-brainer to give people access to a large palette of essences they infuse themselves, providing the freedom to become scent designers in a bold new way.

  The importance of the quality of your raw materials is key if you want to maintain customer loyalty. The savings we have made by cutting manufacture from the equation and enabling people to do the work of dilution into the solvent, has allowed me to bring back quality to the product in a substantial way.

 We can re-invest in beautiful natural ingredients; we work at more than 200 US dollars a kilo for home scent perfume oils - which is huge for the industry. Usually, home scent fragrances are around 30-80 dollars max per kilo, and the difference in quality cannot be denied.

At Maison, you have 3 to 4 times more quality of ingredients in your home scent. We bring haute couture in your home!We are also focusing on selecting clean raw materials with the perfumers of IFF, but also with the choice of ingredients for our base formulation for home scents.

 For instance, our candles are 100% natural, and made with a soy and coco base and no mineral (petrochemical) synthetic wax. There are a lot of constraints, especially for the visualisation of the product; natural wax is less aesthetic and less firm, but we stick to our green values. The same goes for our Reed diffuser. We switched all our DPG to Augeol which features 100% natural and biodegradable ingredients, and I have developed a specific line of reed oils which are highly performative in this natural base. There’s no escaping the fact that this approach means more work, but in the long term, I know it will pay off. Consumers will be thankful and more loyal, and they will know there is no green bashing at Maison. We stand by our values.

 We also try to reduce plastic to its minimum with my sourcing team, and to work exclusively with recyclable paper packaging. We try to avoid EVA as much as possible, and I place high attention on packaging development and details, as it is part of the luxury experience. Unboxing is key; it is part of the luxury ritual, yet we need to reduce our packaging footprint and find a way to re-use our objects.

In my 100ml, I wanted to innovate, and I have borrowed some packaging technology from the spirit industry, seen in products like Cognac and Champagne where the unboxing ritual is very important. I love the Ruinart box and I wanted to retranslate their box opening experience, which is thoroughly unique. We took inspiration from Ruinart for their box (and of course also the quality of their champagne!), and when my 100ml arrives, its innovative approach will be impossible to overlook.

 I love to learn from other industries. It is how we discover new approaches and innovate, by looking outside our own boxes and pushing boundaries for a common goal. The same approaches can be seen in the primary packaging for our products, where we also push the sustainable message. For example, our 100ml bottle will also be refillable; a simple idea, yet a significant innovation requiring months of research with our suppliers. There’s no denying I push our R&D partners hard, but as we don’t have years of time and money for development, there are few other approaches we can take. In a start-up, you launch fast, you learn from your customers, you improve, and you iterate until you optimize a dream product tailored for them. This is exactly what Steve Jobs showcased with his brilliant iPhone, launching new models every year with small improvements each time - it’s such a great technique to develop the best and most innovative products in the world, whatever your industry might be.

 There is so much innovation we can bring to the packaging, the product itself, the ritual, the gesture, the scents in perfumery… it is endless, and it keeps me awake 24 hours a day. I have so many ideas, and it is impossible not to become frustrated when I realise I may not be able to execute all of them perfectly.

My biggest challenge was to find the people who can quickly adapt to the pace of this start up, and take on the hard work at its heart. It is so intense - I always say it is the equivalent of completing non-stop 100m sprints within a 40kg marathon!

 Millennials seek balance in their lives, and they are not so ready to sacrifice everything to become successful. Statistics suggest that only 5% of them will resist with the kind of pace required at Maison 21G. They all have the dream to be in a start-up, but most of the time they don’t understand what it takes to make it successful. I think more entrepreneurs should be open about the pain they have been through before they claimed their huge success.

I’ve always been fascinated by the interview with Elon Musk, when he cries as he explains how he was trying his 5th rocket launch after four high-profile failures. Here is a guy whose success has come about from going through hell, and you can read it on his face… even if I love his big smile. It’s perhaps telling that I have only one millennial who has survived since the beginning of my adventure, and he is so into it. He is on a mission with me now and it has become almost his own company - I absolutely love his energy and drive!

 With our success and access to more funds, we have been able to attract more skilled and talented people, all seeking to escape the politics and the stagnation of the big corporate world. It takes so much energy to innovate and change things in the luxury industry, and at one point, for free spirits like me, we give up and look for more challenges and new ways to implement innovation.

 On this topic, I am hugely proud to announce the arrival of Jacques Gouallou at my side as General Manager. Jacques was the president of Benefit and has more than 20 years’ experience in the luxury industries, working with both LVMH and L’Oreal. Benefit is also a brand I really admire, especially regarding how they have disrupted the makeup industry. I was one of the first consumers of the brand in France 20 years ago, and I love their irreverent tone. Jacques also had the dream to build his own startup, and he has seen firsthand just how complex it can be. At Maison, he has a real feel for this startup ambiance, and I have no doubt that he will make a significant impact on what we do. It is a win-win alliance with me and Jacques. We can only achieve greatness together, because we are on a mission with strong beliefs in the brand and the potential of our unique business model. He will bring tremendous value especially when it comes to company structure, processes, retail, and marketing - all of his key and proven strengths. Jacques will be the catalyst of my ideas and will also attract more skills and talent with his presence at Maison. It is no exaggeration to say that this is a game-changing talent acquisition for me and my team.

3-Expansion plan and the scale up phase, a one of the most challenging one: how to duplicate a bespoke model

 The objective is now to duplicate our successful business model across the rest of the regions where the economy is starting to grow again post-covid. Asia will recover fast, of that I have no doubt. Asian markets and individuals are more resilient, and the cost of development will be less than in Europe or the US. I am so proud to see China finally catching up with fragrances, and it is a good thing that they are jumping directly from ‘no fragrance’ to ‘niche fragrance’ - they don’t want to smell just like everyone else! Yesterday I had a wealthy Chinese customer in my shop, who was keen to explain to me that 1% of the population wants to stand out and are really looking for personalisation and bespoke, educational, and unique service values. She was a fan of Maison 21G, and I created her bespoke perfume with my Black Collection ingredients. Once finished, she asked me to blend a scent for her whole home, with candles and reed diffusers. Within 30 minutes she had spent 2000 SGD, proving that if you know how to adapt to another culture and set of desires, and are willing to share your knowledge and point of differentiation with high quality, the potential is limitless!

.We have already sealed a contract with a key distributor in Korea - Human wellness - to open a huge flagship store in Gangnam along with a private atelier. My partner is a pure entrepreneur like me, and he knows his local market perfectly. However, he is not a typical distributor who makes a fortune with the Gaigo, taking back cosmetics to China. This is how most brands in Korea make their money, but in doing so, they don’t really penetrate the local market. The figures are not only often faked, they are inflated by these ‘travel retail’ tricks, and as such, if we do a good job, we can gain the heart of the Korean consumers in mutually beneficial ways.

 John, my partner, knows by heart the local beauty market. He is a brilliant marketer and has an amazingly efficient team who trust him implicitly, and apply agility and focus to his projects. He has a very large database of stars and women who care about their identity, and his smart, agile, and efficient practices make new pathways for success; something I will never have with a faceless conglomerate team in Korea. Indeed, I am willing to bet that within 3 years, he will put the brand solidly in the top 5, as Korea is famous for being one of the toughest markets of Asia… but a major trendsetter from which the whole world of beauty takes its cue.

 When a brand succeeds in Korea, bringing on board renowned K-Pop stars who share their story and journey with your brand, it can be game-changing. This is my intention with Maison 21G, and I’m once again going against the grain when it comes to the typical ‘star model’ of the perfume industry. Most celebrities will aim squarely at the mass market with their scent creations, and opt to push ‘cheap and cheerful’ fragrances to their fans with the support of big groups and distribution models. However, they end up ruining their image, and their perfumes have a very short life on the marketplace. Just look at the perfumery careers of Lady Gaga, Jennifer Lopez, Katy Perry and dozens more - what has become of them?

  At Maison, our KOL’s sell a new approach to perfumery, encouraging people to craft their own scents and not merely being followers! As such, the star will be remunerated by the number of scent designers they create for us. Their followers can use a specific code associated with their idol, and they create their own scent which will be uniquely theirs. The digital model allows us to put such creative techniques in place, and our influencers can even have their own landing page inside our bespoke website. It will take us only 2 days to create their full influencer/ star page.

 Our stars can enjoy the experience of creating their very own perfume, without anyone bothering them to change their scent in order to be more conformist, or fitting with what the market needs like all the big groups ask of their celebrity partners. I have created perfumes for famous designers in my past career, but the amount of consumer tests we should run on their fragrances to make them more commercial is nothing less than insane!

This is just one of the reasons why you don’t see any olfactory innovation in the prestige industry. They are always on the lookout for the common denominator that pleases everybody… Well, everyone except the designer/ creator themselves.

 At Maison, our influencers can truly express themselves and create the perfume of their dreams. We are champions of self-expression and being different from the crowd, and I want them to help me to promote the concept of personalised perfume all around the world. Everybody should have their own wardrobe of scents tailored to their personality, mood, and DNA, empowering them to feel more unique and confident in life, whether you are famous or otherwise. This is my mission.

 I also have the immense privilege to have signed a huge distribution agreement with Chalhoub group. The team dedicated to Maison is 200% on our side; they love the concept, and they know it is already in the DNA of their consumers to blend their own fragrances. Their customer base loves perfumes and to mix and match, and while the competition will be huge, the quality of my ingredients and the level of choice I am offering to their consumers is unique, and will make all the difference when compared to any other niche brand. At Maison you can have a high-quality Oud like any other brand, yet you can blend your Oud with a natural Rose, a leathery note or a white tea. Who else offers that level of opportunity?

 Finally, China is set to be my biggest challenge. I know my proof of concept in Singapore will be a huge help, but we need to deploy in a very professional way, while not trying to go too fast. We need to enter this monumental market with a unique and exclusive image, and ensure the experience is placed right at the heart of the concept. The Chinese are eager to learn our culture; they have become highly individualistic, and the role and the influence of the KOL remains huge in China and is reflected by astronomical prices.

 I need to find a way to seduce these consumers and bring real innovation to them in order to reduce my costs. The digital aspect of the business will be the challenge, as you need to invite them to discover the brand with smaller formats, trial sets of ingredients where they can mix and match and start to play with the unique concept of the brand. Home scents are also growing fast, and the bespoke Reed Diffuser has the potential to be a huge hit. I know I will be copied - it’s an inevitability of entering this market - but again, the high quality of my essences and the level of captive ingredients I will put in my formula with IFF will be our protection to push back against imitators.

 We are finalising a huge contract with Eternal Optical Far East, of the oldest actors in the Chinese perfume industry. Steven Lau was among the first to invest in perfumery and he has stuck to his beliefs from the very beginning. He has various luxury brands like Hermes and Bulgari who believe in his quality of work in retail, and I fell in love with his vice president, Chole, a fantastic woman, empowered, kind and full of energy.

 Conclusion:

Ultimately, everything we do is about human relationships, something I’ve put at the forefront of my brand since day one. I think as an entrepreneur you re-learn how to work with your intuition and guts, following your heart and rationalising your decisions with your head. Without question, I have made a few mistakes with my heart, but in the end, I still believe this emotive approach is the right way to run a business: powered by a lot of passion, tons of works and stress, fantastic encounters, family support and the right people surrounding you, wherever they are a distributor, a colleague, or a partner - these are the friends you need to recharge your energy and keep your eyes focused on your goals.