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Bonjour Millionaire,
What I would give for a Chick-fil-A diet lemonade right now. I'm so sorry to bring this up on a Sunday but misery loves company. |
Was this email forwarded to you? |
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ON THIS EPISODE OF GO-TO-MILLIONS |
D.S. & Durga is 1 of those fragrance brands you know, but you don’t really know… |
You’ve seen it at high-end department stores next to those other brands you’re not sure you’re pronouncing correctly. I do try to pronounce brands correctly but it gets really hard in perfumery. You got 1 of their hand lotions in a premium amenity bag (no shame if you swiped it from first class while exiting the plane - I sit in 34A but happy for you).
You used the soap in the Chase Sapphire Reserve lounge or a hotel lobby bathroom. You’ve smelled D.S. & Durga countless times—and enjoyed it—without realizing that you were being marketed to. It’s a growing trend called experiential scent marketing, and D.S. & Durga is ALL IN.
Which is smart in a crowded fragrance space. (Have you been to Sephora lately? The selection gives me a headache, literally.)
Consumers can only buy and should only wear, don’t get me started so much perfume. The number of businesses with physical locations, on the other hand, is seemingly endless.
Every business wants to smell good. And by good, I mean, distinct and expensive.
Smells like partnership opportunities, no? And yet, not every fragrance brand is willing to play a supporting role in another brand’s marketing.
Thankfully, D.S. & Durga has no problem being a luxurious little side-piece in a brand experience. It’s probably more lucrative than we can even imagine. But let’s rewind for a hot second: Here’s how D.S. & Durga became the best-smelling secret of some of today’s biggest travel and hospitality brands.
Something was in the air in the mid-aughts…let’s set the scene: -3 guys in Brooklyn started Etsy and kicked off a DIY/maker boom in 2005.
-Mustaches were everywhere. (Explain this 1 to me, Millennials.) |
- Anything iconoclastic (or too earnest) was deemed “ironic.”
- And, David Seth Moltz and Kavi Ahuja met at Pure Food and Wine, the hottest vegan restaurant in NYC. (Later the subject of the Netflix true-crime documentary Bad Vegan)
David was a musician/waiter. Kavi was an architect. Brooklyn was still considered affordable. Obviously, they fell in love and got married. |
Then, David jumped on the DIY bandwagon and…taught himself to make perfume. For fun. To be fair, TikTok and Love Island didn’t exist yet.
David gave his 1st fragrances out as Christmas gifts before deciding he wanted to start a side hustle. He called it D.S. & Durga. D.S. for David Seth. Durga, after the powerful and chaotic Hindu goddess - David’s pet name for Kavi. |
David wasn’t the only 1 nosing around in essential oils and aromatics...
MALIN+GOETZ was founded in 2004.
Le Labo and Byredo in 2006.
D.S. & Durga joined the scene in 2008, as the global financial crisis slowed the luxury goods market.
Consumers were looking for more accessible and interesting alternatives to the old fragrance guard. Early D.S. & Durga delivered. (These days, you can’t get a bottle for under $200.)
But, back to the good old days mustaches notwithstanding: David formulated the scents, and Kavi sneakily used her office’s fancy printers to make the labels.
Soon, D.S. & Durga was a hit in indie brick-and-mortar boutiques. An unironically janky e-commerce site brought in customers outside NYC.
Then, 2 years in, Anthropologie placed a $26,000 order. Speaking of tastemakers of the mid-aughts. (Look at this old intro on Anthro’s FB page.)
David and Kavi quit their day jobs to focus on D.S. & Durga full-time. David led creative and chemistry. Kavi handled branding. The brand’s original tagline: Perfume as armchair travel. The first 2 fragrances: Burning Barbershop and Cowboy Grass. You know you want to smell them. |
Clearly, D.S. & Durga was in the right place (Brooklyn) at the right time (the DIY/maker boom). But, it wouldn’t still be here, bringing in a projected $20-30M per year as of 2023, if it was all just luck.
Let’s try to reverse-engineer the secret ingredients: 1st of all, D.S. & Durga manages to be both elevated and a little weird. |
Its stores and packaging are minimalist, but its influences and resulting fragrances are maximalist, with unexpected combinations of notes. D.S. & Durga perfumes, candles, and lotions are designed to transport the wearer somewhere between reality and fantasy.
Sometimes it’s ancient Roman ruins. Sometimes it’s driving around listening to college radio in your 20s. You can read about it on the evocative liner notes that come with each bottle. |
Every bottle smells and hits different. The creative is different.
I mean, what other brand would make a perfume that smells like tennis? |
By 2015, D.S. & Durga was sold at Barneys (RIP). Kavi’s architecture background came in handy the next year, when D.S. & Durga opened its flagship store. |
By this time, D.S. & Durga made perfumes, candles, soap, and lotion. In 2020, it added auto fragrances. As in, car air fresheners. |
Diptyque would never!
D.S. & Durga was so beloved for its evocative storytelling, scents of place, and upscale quirkiness that it made sense when other brands came knocking.
It started with music. D.S. & Durga partnered with Duran Duran on 4 rollerball perfumes to celebrate the band’s 40th anniversary in 2018.
Then hospitality. Ace Hotel and other upscale accommodations started carrying the brand’s toiletries.
D.S. & Durga created fragrances inspired by the Surf Lodge Montauk and El Cosmico hotel in Marfa, TX. More recently, it created the signature fragrance of the freakin’ Carlyle! |
At $210, this bottle is 34% of the average starting rate for 1 night at the Carlyle. That’s some AP Girl Math. Le photo credit |
Corporate scent branding was well-established in hotels and retail, but D.S. & Durga’s partnership with Delta Airlines, launched in 2023, broke new ground sky.
Take a whiff next time you walk through a Delta premium lounge or cabin.
That scent pumping through diffusers and spritzed on the hot towels you get in 1st or business class (lucky!) is called Delta Calm.
If you’re a Chase Sapphire Reserve cardholder, you can get another hit of bespoke D.S. & Durga in select airport lounges. That scent is reportedly called First Class.
But, why should airlines have all the fun? D.S. & Durga also partnered with Volvo in 2024 on a Scandinavian forest-inspired candle called SWOODISH.
Corporate scent branding has flourished, blossomed, BLOOMED post-pandemic, for a few reasons. |
Scent is proven to be one of the easiest, most memorable ways to elevate an experience.
You might not remember what you ate or watched in business class, but you’ll remember that the cabin was fresh and relaxing and didn’t smell one bit like economy farts. (New D.S. & Durga idea for Frontier Airlines: Economy Farts.) In a world where many luxury and luxury-adjacent brands are pretty much doing the same thing, scent is an excellent way to stand out.
And, this is not scientific, but remember how we were discouraged from smelling anything but our own hot masked breath during the early days of the pandemic? That feels related somehow. Scent is social. It’s human. It’s intimately connected to memory formation. (And that IS scientific.)
We missed it, and now we can’t get enough. |
D.S. & Durga is walking a tightrope of luxury and ubiquity. In certain bougie circles, anyway.
Some of the brands that work with D.S. & Durga might be getting the better end of the deal. Partnering with Delta Airlines doesn’t give D.S. & Durga much cachet, IMO. Just cash. |
To maintain its status with the cool kids, D.S. & Durga needs to work with more exclusive brands, events, and communities. Like Go-to-Millions!
Here’s what I’m thinking: Top notes: Caffeine. Chocolate. Impulsively purchased jewelry. Heart notes: YoY growth. Marketing memes. Unscented shampoo that still kinda has a scent. Base notes: Large bills. A well-worn rewards credit card. Finally finishing this email.
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What's your favorite perfume or cologne? Of all time? Forever on the market. Yours, Ari |
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Get your brand in front of 55,000+ marketers, ecommerce operators, and executives. |
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