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The women's fragrance market is extremely seasonal, with sales mainly concentrated in the last two weeks before Christmas.

Although there have been attempts to lessen the dependence on Christmas by celebrating other events, such as St Valentine's Day and Mother's Day, almost all fragrance brands maximise sales during the Christmas period.

Many of them offer promotions, which usually consist of two or more items from the range at a competitive price. Often fragrance is linked to skincare and make-up, which provides an opportunity for crosspurchasing and to introduce customers to products they might not have previously tried out.

In 2002, the women's fragrance market as a whole was valued at some £504m and, by the end of this year, Mintel expects the market to reach £517m.

The market is split between fine and mass fragrances, with fine fragrance accounting for almost three-quarters of total market value sales.

This massive market dominance shows no sign of diminishing, as growth within the fine fragrances' sector has far outstripped that of mass brands.

Although mass fragrances are priced significantly below that of premium brands, price discounting and promotional activity have made fine fragrances more affordable to consumers who are prepared to trade up to brands which they perceive as being more aspirational.

Advertising is key to projecting the right brand image and there is a strong correlation between fragrance brands that are heavily advertised and success in brand share terms. However, only the largest fragrance companies can afford to advertise their brands.

Between 1998 and 2002, advertising expenditure on the largest sector of the market - women's fine fragrances - grew by almost a quarter, which reflects the intense competition between the major companies. By contrast, advertising spend on mass-market fragrances declined, highlighting the lack of support for this sector.

According to Mintel's exclusive consumer research, almost half of all respondents are loyal to one particular brand, while just five per cent go for a fragrance that has just been launched.

Given that the fragrance companies are putting a considerable amount of effort and investment into launching new fragrances, this presents a worrying picture of consumers who are not particularly interested in trying out new brands.

Just under a third of women usually receive fragrance as a gift, which demonstrates the importance of gift offers during the preChristmas period.

The fragrance houses will continue to launch several fragrances per year in order to bring excitement and novelty to the market.

However, in the long term, this situation is unsustainable as the consumer will eventually tire of so many new launches and the companies will be unable to maximise profit on one-shot brands.

High penetration of fragrances means that companies must find ways of getting women to extend their fragrance wardrobe by positioning brands for different usage occasions and encouraging them to use fragrance more frequently.

Jenny Catlin is a market analyst at Mintel International What a girl wants: fragrances Women Tend to stick to favourite fragrances

Aged 15-24 45%

Aged 25-34 43%

Aged 35-44 47%

Aged 45-54 43%

Aged 55-64 51%

65+ 43%

AB 41%

C1 52%

C2 46%

D 41%

E 40%

London 41%

South 41%

East Midlands 50%

Wales/South West 46%

Yorkshire/North East 46%

North West 47%

Scotland 40%

Source: Mintel International Base: 1,104 women aged 15+