Hi there,
In this article, We want to talk about a perfume company that utilize lots of interesting digital marketing strategy. Without a further ado, here’s: Dossier perfume digital marketing strategy.
Brand Origin
Founded by Sergio Tache in 2018, after realizing perfume margins are high and with huge markup. And with the cheaper alternatives being no better (fake/low quality ingredients), He created Dossier that focuses on producing high-quality products sourced from Grasse, France. Their first product is a perfume that was inspired by Tom Ford, and that was their first hit.
However, Tache is not a new kid in entrepreneurship, as before founded Dossier, He already founded Irresistible Me (hair e-commerce company) in 2016, and Charlotte Lacroix (skincare company) in 2017.
Product
Here are Dossier 3 main products:
1. Perfumes
Of course this is their main product of all, their Perfumes. The sub-category consists of perfumes for women, men, and unisex, also if you categorized it by scents type, it consists of Dossier impressions (scents that inspired by other luxury perfume), AND Dossier originals (their own scents, developed by themself).
You can check their perfumes collections here: https://dossier.co/collections/all-perfumes
2. Candles
For typical perfume companies, it’s very common to expand their product to Diffusers, but Candles, not so much. That’s why this move kinda amazes me, when they are creating Candles. Here are their candle spec: 2 wicks, 17.5 oz, and 70 hours lifetime.
Here is their landing page for their Candles: https://dossier.co/collections/candles
3. Diffusers
Like I said, I saw couple of perfumes companies/startup that expanding or diversify their product to Diffusers, since it’s share the same things: fragrant and scent. As seen below, their diffuser also inspired by couple of luxury perfumes such as Le Labo’s, YSL, and Tom Ford.
Find their collections of their Diffusers in here: https://dossier.co/collections/diffusers
Product USP
Lot’s of USP seen on Dossier website:
- Fragrance for all (eliminate retailer markups, celebrity marketing, and licensing fees, that makes price 70-90% less compared to the premium fragrance).
- Continuing point 1, with that being said they able to offer familiar scents perfumes to premium brands (such as MFK, Le Labo, YSL, etc) with cheaper price.
- Safe for body: (1) Colorant & UV filter free, (2) Vegan & cruelty-free, (3) Paraben & Phthalate-free.
- Using finest ingredients, sourcing the scents from Grasse, France.
- Full refund if the product doesn’t suits you.
Dossier Product Market Fit
Above is their product & market relationship, where on the left side is what they offer with their product, AND on the right side is what kind of customer they attract.
What We Can Learn from Dossier Product Strategy
- Able to create a perfume with similar scents with a luxury brand is one thing, BUT to make it way cheaper and affordable is another thing.
- Consider diversifying or developing our product line into something more innovative, compared to just a typical move from other players in the industry. In the Dossier case, I like how they expand their product line to Candles, compared to the typical move to only expand to Diffusers.
Business Model
- D2C
- B2C
- Consumer Packaged Goods Vertical
- Perfumes; Scents Product
Subscription/Membership (Dossier+), Monthly subscription that will charged user USD 29 that becomes store credit. This can be used to purchase perfumes, or save up for your next restock. Source: https://dossier.co/pages/dossier-plus
Digital Marketing
Let’s cover their digital marketing effort from the paid ads, SEO, newsletter, up to social media.
Social Media: Instagram
Almost half a million followers on Instagram.
July 11, 2023 Dossier IG account
What they post varied from UGC (user generated content), product launch announcement, endorsement video, giveaway, informational, up to collaboration post. One thing that stands out is that they rarely post something hard sell in their feed.
Below is the example for one of their informational post on the carousel formats:
They also post lots of Reels, it seems like their team knows how to use Instagram optimally.
Social Media: TikTok
July 13, 2023 Dossier IG account
When we take a look at the tiktok account, we see that majority of the video similar to what they post on Instagram, this technique often called Mirroring. But some of the video on TikTok are exclusively found only on that platform, and vice versa. Just like this one video that featuring Sergio Talks Podcast that can only be found in their TikTok.
YouTube
When you type “Dossier” on youtube, there will be tons of content creator videos promoting the products.
We are not sure about the partnership agreement, but it could be an endorsement deal & affiliate link. As shown in almost every video that featuring Dossier product, there is an affiliate link for 10% discount in the video description from this content creator, as seen below:
Owned Channel: Email Marketing
I subscribe to the Dossier newsletter, and receive at least 1 email per day. What they send each day varies from: (1) new product launch, (2) product informational/education, (3) giveaway, and up to (4) promo.
Here’s one of my favorite email about the product education, where they give 3 questions to find our most suitable or ideal perfume:
And below is their new product launch email newsletter, where they launch Smoky Mezcal & Cucumber:
Also if we see on their footer format, it shows their 4 USP: Free US shipping for 3 products, and so on.
Paid Channel: Meta Ads
Let’s start with these first ads, the angle for these ads is about Father’s day gifts. Key visual showing curated products recommended for a father with visual copy saying what premium perfume this product inspired by, such as “Tom Ford’s Last Cherry” that cost USD 375, but for Dossier products that smell similar only USD 49. They also offer 20% off, and free shipping on 3+ items.
Landing Page of the ads goes here: https://dossier.co/collections/fathers-day, where it display a selection of Father’s gift recommended perfume.
Below is the other version of the ads for the Father’s Day ads campaign. This one using the comparison angle.
Around mid 2023, they launched the Time Square campaign, where their ads literally showed on the timesquare. This campaign got boosted by this meta ads.
Free delivery for 3 products become the main offer for the ads below. Not only that, customer will be get up to 20% discount if they purchase 5+ items.
Landing Page of this ads goes to https://dossier.co/collections/all
Which contain all the products that they have, but something stand out on this collections page, since they have a maroon card on the left saying how many discount they got depends on the amount of the items the customer purchase.
Comparison to the premium perfume brands like MFK’s Baccarat, and their “markup & packaging” is what they try to do here. But reading their ad copy where the lines says “The perfumes you’ve had your eye on are almost sold out” indicate that this ads is a retargeting ads, that aim at people that already visit this specific product page on the website. Landing page of this ads goes directly into the specific product page: https://dossier.co/products/ambery-saffron
Meta ads could be used to introduce your new lines of product as well. This below ads as the perfect example of it. Their new product that we are talking about is Dossier Home, their room diffuser.
Landing Page goes to the Dossier home collection page: https://dossier.co/collections/dossier-home, where it shows all the diffuser collections.
Last but not least for their Meta ads.
These ads below is a bit unique, since they are in the form of interviewing random people on the street, and they try to emphasize the price comparison between the dossier product and one of the brand they got inspired from. In my opinion this ad creatives are quite refreshing comparing to the usual UGC ad creatives.
Landing Page for this ads goes to the specific product itself: https://dossier.co/products/musky-oakmoss?_pos=3&_psq=musk&_ss=e&_v=1.0
Paid Channel: Google Search Ads
Using SEMRush for the Desktop search, and sort by traffic, here are the top 6 search ads keywords used by Dossier for their Google Search ads. All of it revolved around brand keyword “Dossier” with product category (perfume, cologne) as variation, except for the review keyword.(source: https://www.semrush.com/analytics/adwords/positions?q=dossier.co&searchType=domain)
On the other hand, if we check the Mobile device paid search position, we got slightly different results, as we have “where to buy dossier perfume” as number 4 target keyword to bring traffic.
Here is the sample of Dossier’s ad copy for dossier perfume target keyword:
and below here is the sample of Dossier’s ad copy for dossier shop target keyword.
What we can learn from this:
- Show your best offer in the ad descriptions (e.g: Buy 3 perfumes save 10%).
- Write your USP on the ad descriptions (e.g: Free Returns, No Brand Markup).
Paid Channel: Google Performance Max
It looks like they are running Performance Max, since a lot of this type of catalog ads appear on their Google ads transparency pages. The placement of Pmax of course varies between: Display, Search & Video.
Placement on the Display:
Placement on the Search:
Paid Channel: Youtube Ads
Below are their Youtube ads that take an angle of comparing the Le Labo perfume which cost around USD 200, compared to their similar scent perfume that only cost for USD 39. Followed by the USP, no markup, made in France, Vegan, cruelty free. And closed by the CTA to shop online on Dossier.co.
Below is the UGC type of ads showing 1 male & 1 female, showing their reaction to the scent. Finished by CTA to the website.
Below is the hand footage opening the product packaging, with the testimonial quotes from the happy customers that we can see on the screen.
Organic: SEO
Using SEMRush, here are the SEO analysis of Dossier website (https://dossier.co/):
Most of their organic traffic comes from the US (87%), which is normal considering their area of service.
Also, when we compare it to the other D2C perfume website, such as Hawthrone, Dedcool, and Snif, we see them on the top of their organic game, with huge organic traffic, and backlinks.
Their top organic keywords coming from brand keyword, and product keyword, that direct user to the either homepage OR product pages.
Blog on the other hand, just contribute to a minor portion of the organic traffic.
Promotion Strategy: Discount, Offers & Incentives
Offers in marketing is like a fuel for your growth engine, it will encourage user to do registration, doing 1st purchase, or even repeat purchase, and here is what Dossier have:
- New user offer: “WELCOME” for 20% off
- Buy any 3 items / get 10% off, 4 – 15% off, 5 – 20% off.
- They emphasize how much you can save by buying Dossier inspired perfumes, compare to the luxury brand, as seen on the email content below.
My Personal Favorite for Dossier Marketing & Growth Effort
- The way they mobilize the youtube content creator is top notch, this is proven when you type “Dossier” on the youtube search bar, and you get dozens of creators reviewing Dossier products, and give affiliate links as well.
- I like their email about product education, where they give 3 questions to find our most suitable or ideal perfume, which is the email with the main subject three question two (to) find your new one, that we already covered in the email section.
Pirate Metrics AAARRR Funnel
- Awareness: Lots of youtube content creator “army”, Digital Ads, Social Media.
- Acquisition: New user offer, up to 20% off
- Revenue: Buy any 3 items / get 10% off, 4 – 15% off, 5 – 20% off.
- Retention: Dossier Club (https://dossier.co/pages/account), earn points for every trx & redeem it.
Referral: Give USD 10, receive USD 10 (https://dossier.co/pages/referral), Give your friends $10 off their first order and get $10 (in points) for each successful referral.
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