Pillar, Flanker, Concentration – Say What?

I often get a giggle out of the confusion and attempted comprehension of perfume terminology. There are terms such as sillage, enfleurage and baudruchage that go over the head of many collectors, let alone the mere mortals browsing department store perfume counters. Arguably, such terms are of little use to most people. Some, however, are quite crucial – even to the husband making a very last-minute anniversary gift purchase at said department store counter.  Of these, pillar, flanker and concentration might be the most useful to the everyday perfume buyer. Let’s explore.

What is a pillar?

When a brand releases a pillar fragrance, it is an entirely new release, one that has no connection or affiliation with any existing fragrances within the brand’s collection. A pillar fragrance is a standalone fragrance meant to champion its name, from which flankers might later be introduced to extend the brand. Examples of pillar fragrances include Chanel N°5, Dior Poison, L’eau d’Issey, Yves Saint Laurent L’Homme, and Gucci Bloom – these were entirely new releases for each of their subsequent brands, pillars from which whole collections grew.

What is a flanker?

A sequel or spin-off to a pillar fragrance, a flanker is an extension of a pillar fragrance’s brand in the form of a new release that carries the pillar’s name while offering a variation of its scent or theme. Flankers offer brands the opportunity to capitalise on the success and popularity of a pillar fragrance – usually by tweaking the pillar’s existing formula and packaging – to create a family of fragrances under the pillar’s own brand. Examples of successful flanker fragrances include Chanel N°5 Eau Premiere and N°5 L’Eau, Issey Miyake’s almost countless L’eau d’Issey flankers, Dior Hypnotic Poison and YSL La Nuit de l’Homme – the later of which proved a bigger commercial success than its pillar, which partly explains the logic behind flankers.

Flankers come in variety of forms, the most common or which is the flanker that offers a variation on the same theme of a pillar by maintaining the structure of said pillar but amplifying certain notes. Examples of this type of flanker include Chanel Gabrielle Essence, a more opulent version of the original with 10x the tuberose and a more heavily weighted base, or Gucci Bloom Acqua di Fiori which tinges its pillar green with the inclusion of galbanum. To this end, there exist countless flankers that offer a limited-edition variation on popular pillars, many of which only last as long as the holiday gifting period – think CK One and Jean Paul Gaultier Classique. Then there are flankers meant to capture buyers in new demographics; these might see the softening the pillar’s composition to appeal to a younger or Asian markets as is the case with Chanel N°5 L’Eau, or the addition of oud for the middle eastern market as with Mugler Alien Oud Majestueux. Sometimes though, brands can break the mould of a pillar entirely and release a flanker whose only similarity to the pillar is in the name and bottle. Examples of this kind include Gucci Guilty Absolute pour Homme, Dior Hypnotic Poison and Chanel Coco Mademoiselle – flankers that share no resemblance to their pillars aside from the shape of their bottle, and, funnily enough, proved even bigger hits with the perfume buying public than their pillars.

From a marketing perspective, flankers allow brands to increase market share by capturing new customers at a lower cost than would be possible with a new pillar. A flanker’s tweaking of an existing formula and bottle design requires much less investment than does the launch of a new pillar which necessitates all-new market research, composition formulation, new bottle and packaging design, and significant marketing expense. Flankers also present brands a means for greater market penetration; fans of the pillar might be committed enough to purchase any subsequent flankers the brand releases, and those people that didn’t purchase the pillar might be persuaded to purchase a more appealing flanker. Flankers make for a great business strategy then, but they could, and quite fairly so, be dubbed an invention of the marketing department; an industry tool to boost sales with minimum effort and creativity, the result of which is often a release that is rarely better than any pillar. As the enormous success of Coco Mademoiselle proves though, flankers shouldn’t always be written off.

Flanker vs Concentration

With flankers having reached something of a saturation point in recent years, the perfume industry is increasingly turning to re-concentrating fragrances as a means of brand extension in lieu of flankers. Examples of re-concentration include the Eau Tres Fraiche and Parfum releases of Terre d’Hermes Hermès, Dior Sauvage Parfum, Tom Ford Private Blend Intense releases, and Chanel’s own Parfum concentrations of everything from N°5 to their latest Parfum release of Coromandel from the Les Exclusifs de Chanel collection. Re-concentration allows a brand to maintain a pillar fragrance in softer and/or more amplified concentrations, thus appealing to different buyers. Maybe it is a result of the trend still being in its relative infancy, but all too often I see re-concentrated releases being incorrectly labelled as flankers, especially in the realm of online forums. Flankers they are not.

Re-concentration is merely the tweaking of a formula to increase or decrease the ratio of aromatic oils to alcohol in the bottle: the greater the percentage of aromatic compounds as in an Eau de Parfum or Parfum Extrait, the greater the intensity and longevity of the fragrance, while decreasing the percentage of aromatic compounds results in lesser intensity and a shorter longevity as is the case of an Eau de Cologne or Eau Fraiche. Naturally, this re-concentration of aromatic compounds will have some impact on the end result, the scent you smell, due to materials at different concentrations smelling differently, and some notes even being disguised by, or overpowering others. However, these changes are not the deliberate attempt of a perfumer to alter the formula of a pillar, so, consequently, these releases are not flankers.

Speaking of concentration, it is widely accepted that the concentration as a percentage of perfume oil to alcohol (or fixative which can include water more rarely) is as follows:

• Parfum Extrait: 20-50% aromatic compounds
• Eau de Parfum: 10-30% aromatic compounds
• Eau de Toilette: 5-20% aromatic compounds
• Eau de Cologne: 2-5% aromatic compounds

Pillars, flankers, concentrations – these are terms not widely understood outside of perfumista circles. I hope my explanations here go some way toward clarifying their meaning for anyone that might have found themselves on this page seeking explanation. We like what we like – be it a pillar, flanker, Parfum or Eau de Cologne – but an understanding of the terminology might just help you to make a savvier buying decision in an industry driven as much by hyperbole as our own noses.