Arden to launch celebrity fragrance- again
launch of a new line of fragrances. The announcement comes just a
few weeks after the company's shares fell on the back of rising
competition in the celebrity fragrance market.
The new products will join other celebrity-endorsed Elizabeth Arden fragrances, by names including Elizabeth Taylor Britney Spears and Hilary Duff.
The licensing agreement includes the development, marketing, and distribution of fragrances with Mariah Carey's exclusive endorsement, said the company in a statement on Thursday. The music star is set to be "personally involved" in all aspects of product development, packaging and marketing.
"We are thrilled to begin this partnership with Mariah Carey," said Scott Beattie, chairman and chief executive officer of Elizabeth Arden.
"She is, unquestionably, a star of incredible magnitude. All over the world, people aspire to the values she represents. We look forward to launching an inspiring new global fragrance brand with Mariah that will be a timeless classic," he added.
But in recent weeks shares in the leading US cosmetics company fell around 4 per cent after a number of leading financial analysts downgraded their rating, citing rising competition in the celebrity fragrance market and a weak start to its new anti-aging skin product.
Gary Giblen, analyst with Brean Murray, downgraded the company's rating from a 'strong buy' to 'accumulate', while JPMorgan's Dara Mohesenian downgraded from 'neutral' to 'overweight'.
Murray said that the downgrade was attributable to the recent performance and market conditions, while Mohsenian cited a run-up on Arden's stock price, which has been steadily rising since the beginning on the year.
Elizabeth Arden has struck with a series of high profile launches in recent months, including a fragrance sponsored by Hilary Duff and an anti-aging line called Prevage - a physician-strength topical antioxidant containing 1 per cent idebenone.
The company had been hoping that the launch of these two new lines would do much to boost its position in an ultra-competitive market, particularly in the US, where both anti-aging and celebrity sponsored perfumes are two of the fastest growing sectors.
The current market for celebrity fragrances is frantic, with the majority of Hollywood A-list seemingly involved in some sort of sponsorship right now. But with the popularity of such figures often changing rapidly, this category can prove to be volatile.
Right now Elizabeth Arden has the rights to market Britney Spears fragrances, which have proved to be category leaders, but with the launch of a third fragrance bearing her name, analysts have said that this could ultimately jeopardise future sales.
The first fragrance in the Mariah Carey line is expected to hit prestige department stores in the spring of 2007.
Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
