Fragrance brands are leveraging online communities and niche creators to shape the industry.
In Ep. 164 of Earned, Conor Begley sits down with Mona Kattan, CEO and founder of Kayali Fragrances to discover how Mona transitioned from being hesitant to post on social media to fragrance fame, creating a brand that stands out with authenticity and community engagement.
To start, Mona shares her transformative journey from a social media skeptic to a celebrated fragrance entrepreneur, highlighting the pivotal moments that shaped her path. We dive into how Mona’s diverse experiences influenced her approach to business, underscoring the significance of authenticity and engaging consumers appropriately. Mona discusses the power of the creator economy, emphasizing how fragrance brands, much like those in fashion and skincare, are harnessing the potential of online communities. Now a separate brand, Mona reflects on the challenges and triumphs of launching Kayali Fragrances under the Huda Beauty umbrella, navigating initial skepticism to achieve significant success by 2021. We explore the impact of fragrance content creators and the unique community Mona has cultivated through Kayali's heart-driven approach. As an indie brand, Kayali's dedication to product excellence and genuine connection sets it apart in the competitive fragrance industry. To close the episode, Mona rounds off the episode with a taste of Dubai's diverse offerings for anyone looking to make a trip!
Check out highlights from the episode below, or or tune into the podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen!
The following interview has been lightly edited for concision.
Mona Kattan on keeping your heart at the core of your community: “I've been building my fragrance community for over 14 years. I've been obsessed with fragrance my whole life.”
Conor Begley: Why are all these people talking about you? Why are they so attached to the brand? What are some of the things you've done, whether it's building relationships with them or inviting them to events, or gifting products?
Mona Kattan: Our community has been growing and we've been building it way longer than Kayali Fragrances has been around. I've been building my fragrance community for over 14 years. I've been obsessed with fragrance my whole life. Prior to starting Huda Beauty, I was trying to convince my sister to launch a fragrance brand with me.
I have my first samples that I worked on in 2011 or 2010. I did ambassadorships with a few fragrance brands in 2014 and 2015. I started building the community from then and even before that.
It's a very authentic story and there's a lot of credibility there. We're very close to our community. We've always been that way from day one for many reasons. Number one is that I genuinely care. I genuinely love meeting people. I love building our community. It's something that's very true to who I am as a person and my team. That goes back to us just having the same core values. We love connection and we love building our community. We were ahead of the game a little bit, thankfully, from an indie brand perspective.
My team is so passionate. We put so much heart into every single thing that we do. Even in our community, we become real friends with them. It's amazing but it's hard. As we've been growing, because sometimes it's like the community is growing so big that it's even hard to keep up with everybody. But we're doing our best because we genuinely really care about our community.
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