Brands
Why Wild Stone’s ‘Sense’ is a great unifier
NEW DELHI: Every individual wants to look good and smell good when they walk out of their homes and are in the vicinity of other people. It leaves a strong impression among others about their personality and helps create a strong recall about them. While there is a huge market for apparel to satiate consumer demand, there is an equally wide range of products – colognes, deodorants, and perfumes – available in the latter category to help people smell good when they are out.
The fragrance category in India was estimated at Rs 66.58 billion, as per a Business Wire report, and is expected to touch Rs 139.44 billion by 2024. The largest share of the segment was held by deodorants (60.65 per cent), followed by perfumes (32.14 per cent). This category includes several homegrown and international brands – Fogg, Nivea, Engage, Park Avenue, Axe, Wild Stone, Denver, that are vying for a bigger slice of the sales pie.
Interestingly, most of these brands started with deodorants and created a strong top-of-the-mind recall before entering into the perfume category. They relied on heavy advertising to create this impact and have leveraged the halo impact of their brand into the perfume category.
Now, in its first foray into the unisex perfume category, Wild Stone – a well-known male grooming-personal care brand from the house of Mcnroe consumer products – has launched ‘Sense’, a one-of-a-kind fragrance as an ode to visually challenged people.
It is meant to celebrate the sense of smell as a great unifier experience as felt by both visually challenged as well as sighted individuals. It is not unusual that in the absence of visual information, the brain rewires itself to enhance other senses, like the sense of smell.
The thought behind Sense is to present a unique offering which represents an idea of a positive and happy world as perceived by every individual, whether by seeing or by smelling and feeling it.
Mcnroe joined hands with Givaudan (the world’s largest company in the flavour and fragrance industries) to create ‘Sense’ – a fragrance that celebrates the power of perfume to evoke strong and emotional reactions, memories and associations.
Mcnroe Consumers Product head – business development Ankit Daga said, “We are living in an unprecedented time today which the world has never witnessed. In times like these, people are looking for positivity and hope, and we thought it made sense to launch ‘Wild Stone Sense’ as a product that cuts across all barriers of sight and unifies every individual in our sense of smell. We are grateful to Givaudan for their help and expertise in creating this wonderful fragrance for a wonderful cause. Itu Chaudhuri Design (ICD) has done a fabulous job by strategising and creating a pack that speaks for the Sense campaign. What makes this initiative special is that Sense has been co-created with some gifted visually challenged individuals from NGO Saksham as a fragrance that is a testimony to positivity and hope in today’s time”.
The brand believes that perfumes are a language of their own; they speak of different memories, a symphony of experience which are felt and experienced in different ways by every individual, making it unique but universal in its nature. Wild Stone Sense is a fragrance offering made to celebrate the universal language of smell. Through this association, Wild Stone will help towards the welfare and upliftment of the visually challenged community as proceeds from the sales will be donated.
The product’s packaging of rainbow-inspired colours indicates the joyous nature of life. The branding is written in Braille for use and appreciation by the visually challenged consumers.
“Wild Stone, through the unique fragrance, not only aims at imparting a sense of optimism and happiness to the wearer but also a sense of responsibility and pride to the buyer for having contributed to the noble cause of the welfare of the visually challenged. The packaging is unique in itself – it is, in fact, the first-of-its-kind Braille typography on a perfume bottle in India,” added Daga.
In the past, the brand has promoted its perfume products with an extremely impactful campaign – ‘Log toh notice karenge’. Focused on showcasing the cons of smelling good, the film’s about a party where a boss is introducing his employees to his daughter. The boss also happens to notice one particular employee and compliments him on his perfume. The scene then shifts to the next day morning where the boss goes to wake his daughter up. As he hugs her, he smells the same scent on her as he did on his employee. The spot ends with the message ‘Log toh notice karenge’.
Wild Stone had released several films as part of the campaign to build upon the idea and create buzz for its perfumes and connect with audiences.
Brands
Komerz acquires Glassbox to launch creative commerce model in India
Brand storytelling meets AI-driven distribution as Komerz targets $345bn digital market
MUMBAI: London-headquartered commerce platform Komerz has acquired brand and marketing consultancy Glassbox, creating a single integrated system that blends creativity, distribution, and measurable sales.
The move introduces a new “creative commerce” model, combining AI-powered infrastructure, brand strategy, and performance measurement within one platform. By connecting upper-funnel brand building with lower-funnel conversion and repeat purchases, the combined entity aims to provide brands with a seamless growth engine.
Komerz Global CEO Ramesh Krishnamurthy said, “Creative commerce must operate across the funnel. Contextual content, data-led activation and distribution must function as one accountable growth engine.”
Komerz global COO Siddharth Shankar added, “Creative without distribution is theatre. Distribution without brand equity is discounting. Bringing both together lets brands build equity while driving measurable growth.”
Glassbox, founded in 2021 by Geetanjali Bhattacharji and Anil Nair, works across brand strategy, marketing transformation, and integrated communications. Bhattacharji said the integration reflects how “brand building must evolve from episodic campaigns to always-on, data-informed commerce frameworks.”
Komerz, valued around $330 million, operates across the UK, Europe, Asia, and North America. The acquisition will help multinational corporations manage complex global portfolios while enabling challenger and D2C brands to scale across India’s digital commerce market, projected to reach $345 billion by 2030.
With this deal, Komerz is strengthening its global “creative commerce” footprint, following its recent acquisition of US retail measurement firm Pathformance, and positioning itself at the intersection of creativity, commerce, and technology.
