Speaking with WWD in Tokyo, Mecca Cosmetica & Maxima founder Jo Horgan has shared her business mottos – which she called “Mecca Maxims”.
The co-chief executive officer of the beauty giant started by stating that the business’ main motto is “adapt or die”. Ultimately the company is on track to become one of Australia’s largest beauty retailers this year, and Mecca’s ever-changing store formats – spurred on by morphing consumer demands – is one of the ways it will achieve this.
Mecca has adapted to the changing market by listening and responding to customers and changes in their interests and consumption habits. This includes offering a variety of services in its stores like professional makeup application, makeup tutorials and master classes alongside the rise of the influencer, and events like ‘MECCALAND beauty festival’ – its first solid foray into consumer events with an opportunity for beauty lovers to learn from influencers and experts.
Elaborating further, Horgan explained: “We dreamt up these experiences to deliver the holy grail in physical retail: instant gratification for the customer.
“We are basically upending the principles of retail space management. We’re taking 30 percent of our productive selling space, which we pay massive rent on, and we’re turning it over to a higher-cost-to-service, lower-return activity, but we hope to increase customer engagement and in turn customer loyalty.”
Another business motto is “our people are our power,” – a saying cemented in Mecca’s value for its own team. This is also evidenced by the face that Mecca Brands was named one of the top five “Best Places to Work” in Australia four years running.
“Mecca’s culture is my personal passion project, because I believe a highly engaged team is the secret to retailing success,” Horgan said. As an example, she said that during Mecca’s 20th anniversary last year, she personally celebrated with every team member in every state of Australia.
