Kimex on how to harness bespoke fragrances

Celebrating its 25th anniversary, the fragrance producer refines its brand proposition to communicate its growth plans. The company markets itself as more than a perfumery house and, instead, an image creator for the wider Asia area and the international market.

“Just imagine your fragrance, we will make it come true”​ is Kimex’s ethos as it promotes its Korean history to connect and communicate with its target consumers. In today’s cosmetics and personal care industry, cultural backstories are forming a core part of marketing strategies and storytelling campaigns.

Korean scenery​

To reflect this, Kimex is offering its consumers an ‘Oriental Secret Garden’ that utilises the natural concept to devise and develop individual and tailored perfumes.

Korean-based Kimex is obtaining nature-derived ingredients and oils from its largest island off the Korean Peninsula, Jeju Island. Kimex accesses a variety of plants and collection of ingredients including orange, tea aromas, flowers and forest scents.

It is not only the environment that is unique. David Lee, Manager of Kimex comments that the fragrance business is also different from others in the cosmetics sector. In today’s market, brands need to explain the concept and story behind the product in order to commoditise it, and following this, be able to “customise the fragrance base to appeal to today’s K-beauty shoppers”.​

What are consumers asking for?​

Consumer demands revolve around long-lasting and sensory scents. Achieving this level of customisation is not without its challenges, Lee shared. In the corporate environment, a process is carved out that involves the customer providing the scent direction, followed by manufacturing, evaluation and modification.

Plants, flowers and herbs are commonplace with fragrances, proving a strong marriage between cosmetics and skin care, as the natural trend continues to be the main thread between all these industry segments.

This relationship enables brands to position fragrances in the premium end of the market, supplying these to cosmetics, skin care and perfume names. “The well-respected and high consumption nature of the household industry also supports this, yet currently, the industry has limited scents to offer its customers,” ​added Lee.

As Kimex marks its 25th year in fragrance, it plans to leverage the global power of K-beauty and geographically grow with its customers to non-domestic markets including Southeast Asia, China, the US and Europe to provide innovative fragrance options.