PARIS — Givaudan has launched the first artificial intelligence-based fragrance co-creation service with Tmall, Alibaba’s business-to-business consumer platform, in China.
The companies announced in early June 2021 that they had joined forces on what they called the T-Lab, which would shorten end-to-end fragrance development to four weeks, compared to the traditional 40 weeks, to accommodate fast-paced digital opportunities China.
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In China, where fragrances remained unpopular for many years after the Cultural Revolution in the 1960s, interest in perfumes has increased significantly.
Fragrance sales in China are expected to reach $1.27 billion this year, according to Statista, and the category’s compound annual growth rate is forecast at 7.27 percent between 2022 and 2026.
Givaudan said in a press release on Friday that it has launched a “human-machine co-creation service powered by artificial intelligence,” in partnership with the Tmall Innovation Center [or TMIC]enabling customers to realize their olfactory vision with unmatched sampling speed in China’s unique e-commerce market.”
For just over two years, Givaudan and Tmall have been working together to combine fragrance solutions and manufacturing capabilities with T-Lab’s consumer behavior data capabilities.
“Creatogether leverages the newly updated version of TLAB 2.0, utilizing data from TMIC’s olfactory culture map and Givaudan’s own AI-powered fragrance assistant, Carto,” said Givaudan.
The resulting process is described as “man-machine fragrance co-creation” that can be achieved in just five steps.
Givaudan explained that this is the “creative ideation phase, including thorough research and analysis; olfactory visual exploration; digital fragrance co-creation using AI instant sampling technology; commercialized submission of fragrances and finally validation of new products, go-to-market strategy and marketing plan.”
“Our unique co-creation model allows brands to get deeply involved in the fragrance creation process. Thanks to a visual touchscreen, customers can quickly realize their olfactory vision. The interactive process will be carried out in close collaboration with our perfumers, utilizing the latest data insights from TMIC and the infinite creative capacities of Carto,” said Yaling Li, Givaudan’s Head of Fragrances Greater China and South Korea, in the statement.
Givaudan is delving deeper and deeper into China. For example, in July 2021, the group said it had invested in a Series A funding round in Next Beauty China, an incubator for emerging fragrance and beauty brands focused on expansion in the country.
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