Question:
From time to time, I have gone down to the local CVS or Walgreens and bought:
LeMale
212 Men
L'Eau D'Issey
Obsession
Eternity
Farenheit
Cool Water
Chrome
Dolce & Gabana Pour Homme
Curve
Polo Blue
So, are these "drugstore" fragrances?
I do note that while many of these fragrances had fine showings in the early years of the Basenote Awards, few of them have been nominated recently.
Perhaps in part because they are now available in drugstores?
And what about "mass-marketed"? Aren't the finest colognes in the world available online (which is the definition of mass-marketing)?
I can understand the need for a Budget category in the awards, but I don't understand why "Budget" is lumped with "Drugstore" and "Mass-Market" in the title of that award.

Answer:
Here in Germany, I have never seen any of these in drugstores. I wouldn't call online retail the definition of mass market. At ausliebezumduft you can purchase a Clive Christian fragrance for 600 euros, but that's most definitely not a mass market product. Mass market refers to the market volume. For instance, Adidas fragrances are available in every super market - which makes them mass market scents. Budget simply means it's cheap, and is always retailing cheap. What's cheap and what not is a matter of definition, of course.
I don't know, but from my point of view, the category is aptly named.

Answer:
I think drugstore refers to the old spice/bruts/tabac of this world. For these full retail is and always has been cheap.

Answer:
Mass Marketing is a type of marketing (or attempting to sell through persuasion) of a product to a wide audience, as opposed to niche marketing. The idea is to make a message via a form of communication (telemarketing, radio, television, newspapers, etc) that will persuade a wide variety of people to buy a product.
Individual fragrances do not appeal to the widest market available. For example: For every lover of Fahrenheit, there's two that don't like it. For every lover of Dzing!, there are three that don't like it. We represent a very small part of the population, so our stats are skewed.
- Rich