James Franco fronts launch of new Coach men's fragrance

By

Cassidy Mantor

Published
May 26, 2017

Coach is launching a new men's fragrance this fall called Coach for Men and has announced that James Franco will be the face of the campaign.

Fragrance is a relatively new category for Coach. Coach Eau de Parfum debuted last year through InterParfums, which holds the license for Coach fragrance. InterParfums is still in the process of a global roll out of the women's fragrance but shows $8 million in sales for its first quarter with the product.

Franco now joins Selena Gomez who was tapped last year as the female face of the brand. Gomez speaks to an edgier, far more youthful consumer than Coach's products previously were targeting.

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Coach Creative Director, Stuart Vevers said of Franco that he "represents so many of the references I've used at Coach—references of American style that resonate around the world."

Franco is a longtime Hollywood presence known for key roles including playing the iconic James Dean in his biopic. Franco is also a director, writer, artist and philanthropist. He is both rugged and sensitive, qualities Coach undoubtedly wanted to tap to reach a diverse male consumer.

"Creativity is the way I engage with life. It's the way I engage with other people and communicate, and it's really the way I find meaning in life," said James Franco.

Coach has to take an aggressive stance on entering the men's fragrance market. The recent purchase of Kate Spade will hopefully help Coach get an inside look on multi channel retailing, something Coach has not been winning at for the past few years as it has struggled to maintain a bottom line with a large retail footprint.

Fragrance licensing can be extremely lucrative. The Coach for Men fragrance will begin to roll out this September.