Symbolic and visceral, smell is a powerful brand language that convincingly conveys identity and differentiation. It creates a direct, tangible connection between a brand and its consumers.

Aesop and others realize that modern brand building lies in meeting today’s new consumer in the places they are: the hotel, the restaurant, the boutique. Now the onus is on CPGs to unlock new channels to break out of stalled growth.

For every new brand that takes the long view on customer service (fixing a broken product even if it’s the customer’s fault), there are countless more where the customer relationship ends at the moment of sale.

It doesn’t matter how sophisticated direct-to-consumer brands make their products or supply chains today — if shipments get stacked at the front door of your apartment, that’s a failure. Fortunately, a more thoughtful, seamless future is on the way.

Having just come out of stealth, and with investments in Naadam and True Botanicals, Fabulous Brands is a new $50M fund that’s aiming to provide the growth capital young brands need to get from $5M to $50M in eighteen months.

Rapha’s $261M purchase by Walmart heirs Steuart and Tom Walton puts an end to an ‘on again, off again’ sale saga that stretched across nine long months.

Happy Returns is a new upstart that’s addressing a new need in today’s e-commerce driven world: Rather than doing returns by mail, customers are able to drop off their online returns at a Happy Bar, and Happy Returns handles the rest.

Perhaps the most astonishing revelation about nude undergarments and apparel is that, compared to, say, the cosmetics industry – of which there’s an overabundance of nude options – in clothing, there are only a handful.

We’d heard rumors for several months that a new weekly by the publisher was in the works. In Berlin, editors Andrew Tuck and Tyler Brûlé revealed what they’ve been working on these last few months.

Lean Luxe has learned that landlords, while they search for long term tenants, are warming up to short term leases with smaller modern luxury brands who’ve been scrappy enough to pitch them on these spaces.