EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION. Every good brand needs a story and they don’t come much more interesting than Moroccanoil’s. While travelling in Israel, co-founder Carmen Tal had her hair badly damaged by a colour service. A friend brought her to a salon where she experienced an “astonishing” oil treatment that instantly transformed her hair from damaged to shiny, smooth and manageable.
That experience inspired the creation of Moroccanoil Treatment, which flourished quickly based on positive word of mouth from runways to salons to editorial spreads. Since 2014 travel retail has been added to those channels and progress has been encouraging as Vice President, Retail and Travel Retail Sales John Gates told Martin Moodie.
The Moodie Report: You first started really targeting the travel retail channel in 2014 (exhibiting at the Orlando show). How would you assess progress since?
We’re extremely pleased with the progress made since exhibiting at Orlando. We are now in over 55 travel retail locations globally, inclusive of many recently-launched key Caribbean markets such as St. Martin, the Bahamas, Aruba, Bermuda, Cancun and Barbados. The Caribbean market offers fantastic exposure to global tourists who frequent these islands from all over the world.
We have also opened more distribution channels within Europe (airports and inflight/onboard airlines).as well as five more points of sale in the US travel retail market, including three in Miami International Airport, one more in Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport and a new point of sale in Washington Dulles International Airport.
All markets are important to our brand, especially emerging markets as they present a great opportunity to introduce high quality, performance-based beauty to an entirely new demographic.
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What is the role of the channel for you? Showcase? Domestic market driver? Both?
The role of the channel provides both aspects within each market, as we are showcasing the newly-introduced Moroccanoil Body collection while further driving overall brand awareness. Moroccanoil is in the service business and we’re always looking for ways to provide our global consumer with convenience at every touchpoint in their life.
As one of the fastest-growing retail segments, we not only see the travel retail channel as a monumental opportunity for Moroccanoil to be prominently positioned in the world’s highest-trafficked locations, but also as a chance to introduce a new clientele to a broad range of our luxury personal care items.
In 2014 you described travel retail as the brand’s “third key consumer touchpoint” alongside spas and local market retail. How does your approach vary by channel?
The approach varies through product assortment and merchandising; we will always have the key hero SKUs represented. However, as space is limited in the travel retail channel, we merchandise accordingly, taking into account the specific amount of space available, as well as the mind-set of a traveling consumer. We typically introduce smaller size product in this channel and/or travel-friendly packages.
How much have you adapted your offer to the travel retail environment – and consumer?
Our branding and consumer messaging/visuals is the same worldwide, conveying our leadership in oil-infused beauty. We have always considered our client’s lifestyles and travel habits as part of their daily life – whether it’s business or pleasure – therefore, even before entering into the travel retail channel, Moroccanoil already had travel-size products available. Once we decided to enter this channel, we focused primarily on fantastic travel-size gift sets that would address consumer hair type and body needs.
You told us a couple of years ago: “Whatever we do in this channel must align with how we operate already within our spa/hospitality business. And it must be suitably premium”¦ consistency and continuity are key. We want to build a brand, not just introduce a product.”
Given the inevitable space constraints of the airport environment, how have you been able to deliver on those requirements? After all, your domestic consumers often experience the brand in the hands of a professional.
Our consumer-facing visuals and messaging are the same across all consumer touchpoints reflecting our leadership in oil-infused beauty. The only slight difference with travel retail due to space constraints is an abbreviated hero product assortment, travel-friendly sizes and Moroccanoil-branded kits/gift-sets for both Hair & Body.
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Moroccanoil previewed a number of novelties at this year’s IAADFS show in Orlando |
Key growth markets?
The outlook for Moroccanoil in travel retail this year and beyond is further growth and distribution within Europe and the US and to launch in Asia in 2016.
Your #InspiredByWomen global initiative is commendable. Tell us about how this came about, its progress and reception to date – and your overall philosophy towards corporate social responsibility.
Although we began developing the seeds for this project a few years ago, the concept behind InspiredByWomen has been in Moroccanoil’s DNA since the brand’s inception.
Women have inspired us since the very beginning, and each and every product has a unique and special story of inspiration behind it. Women all over the world have told us that Moroccanoil transformed their lives, simplifying their beauty regimen with our performance-driven products, giving them newfound confidence. With InspiredByWomen we wanted to take our notion of beautiful transformations to the next level – to empower women to discover beauty through inspiration.
This life-long project allows our business to communicate what our brand stands for, who we are as a part of the global community, and helps us to reveal to the public a much deeper side of Moroccanoil – one that speaks to what we see as our purpose in life as a successful beauty brand aside from making amazing beauty products.
We are extremely proud of this project, and are thrilled with its global success thus far. Overall, the InspiredByWomen videos have generated 9 million-plus views and 21 million social media impressions.
As a fast-growing global company with multiple international offices, Moroccanoil is wholeheartedly dedicated to investing in the communities it serves and represents, and remains very active in philanthropy, including The Human Society among other charities.
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The brand’s roots, literally, lie in the professional hair care channel, a platform you have subsequently diversified significantly (aiming for a “head-to-toe” lifestyle beauty brand) from a body collection to sun care. How would you assess your success to date? Where next? And again, given space constraints in this channel, has extending the range proved a challenge?
Moroccanoil Body has been extremely well-received. It’s been truly fantastic to experience such success with it thus far.
Next, we’ll be furthering the range within the three scent categories, as well as the oil collection based upon the continued advancement in technology and the ever-changing consumer lifestyle. We are also exploring the development of new categories that further support our leadership in oil-infused beauty.
While we have not experienced any true challenges just yet due to the space constraints in the travel retail channel, it’s likely to become more challenging in the future as we will want to continually offer new products, while always including our hero SKUs.
How would you sum up the philosophy of the company?
Inspired by the Mediterranean – the nature, textures, culture, flavours and scents of the region, we create transformative beauty products that engage the senses. A transporting, head-to-toe experience; an exciting, sensual, memorable journey that is luxurious in every way.
OK, let’s look forward. What are the major challenges and opportunities for the business?
The biggest challenge the company faces in travel retail today is keeping up with the demand for the brand and product – a good challenge to have. We also have the opportunity to look at new and innovative ways to introduce the brand to the ever-changing global consumer.
Future positive?
Absolutely! The future looks extremely positive. We have been very fortunate to have experienced so much global success as a brand in less than a decade, and we look forward to much more success to come as we continue to develop new, innovative, performance-driven products, and continue to expand worldwide.
