Maximize the sensory perception of a perfume, better targeted sampling campaigns, optimize a cosmetic formula, better understand customer behaviours… In a few years, the scoop of big data has expanded considerably. Retailers, brands, manufacturers: the entire perfume-cosmetic sector is concerned! Yet the field of opportunities offered by big data processing still remains to be discovered.

Will it soon be possible to enhance, with the help of computers, the perfumer’s expertise? Assist his nose to consistently design successful fragrances? In theory, the principle is simple: use huge databases (of raw materials, sensory perceptions, consumer preferences) and combine them, using powerful algorithms. Yet who could seriously imagine that the creator of the next Chanel No. 5 – or, in another area, that the author of the next Guernica – could be an algorithm? We must always be prepared for surprises with Google, who already creates paintings – sold up to 8,000 dollars – with the help of intelligent machines, but then, replacing artists by statisticians is another story…

Nevertheless, massive data revolution is already well underway and the perfume-cosmetic sector is not lagging behind. “The scope of application of big data is very vast, from banking to perfumery and it can address such matters as fraud risk or business growth, like for example the appeal to products,” explained Patrick Zerbib, a zettafox co-founders, a start-up specialized in knowledge extraction from large amounts of data using machine learning technologies.