Common patterns: Singapore’s Maison 21G duty-free debut underpinned by big data capabilities

In July, the Singapore-headquartered company made its travel retail debut at The Shilla Duty Free Singapore terminals one and two, DFS Macau Galaxy, and DFS Hysan Hong Kong.

“For us, it’s about the reach. You have so much traffic in travel retail, and I need to grow my brand awareness. I don’t have millions to spend on it like the big companies,”​ said founder and CEO Johanna Monange.

Maison 21G, which is known for its personalised perfume concept, created nine travel retail exclusive fragrance sets.

Each signature box contains a 30ml Eau De Parfum and 3ml perfume essence. The essence is meant to be infused into the eau de parfum, allowing buyers to customise the strength of the aroma based on their preferences.

Consumers can go through a quiz to determine which sets will suit them best.

This concept was developed with the time-conscious traveller in mind, Monange told CosmeticsDesign-Asia.​

“When you’re travelling you don’t have the time to narrow down your choices like we do in our workshops, so we created these sets based on the data I’ve collected. With the data per country, I was able to see the patterns. Like sage has been a hit, anyone who smells it loves it, so we can pair it with ocean or bergamot, and they will love it.​

“We nailed down the combinations and they essentially became my ‘hero’ products. Then we broke it down into different moods: freshness, elegance and intense. You can take the quiz and get recommendations.”​

In addition to the nine sets, the company also reimagined its Dual Crayon concept. The Petite Collection features two sets: La Parisienne and French Riviera.

Each set offers scents that travellers can use individually, or layer to make their own Dual Crayon.

Additionally, Monanged hinted at an exciting new project exclusive to Shilla Duty Free Singapore.

Since launching in 2020, Maison21G has since expanded to markets including South Korea, Vietnam, Dubai, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia. It is also set to launch a flagship store in Shenzhen, China.