Elisabeth King reports on Revlon relaunching its global tagline, a US$66 billion beauty deal, LVMH to purchase BITE Beauty, and Gucci hit with an intern lawsuit.
LOVE IS ON - Revlon re-launches with first global tagline in a decade
Write down the word Revlon and what do you see? A lot more than the name of one of world's best-known beauty brands says Lorenzo Delpani. After a string of brainstorming meetings, the CEO of Revlon Inc started unscrambling the seven letters he spends most of his working day looking at and found the word "love" at its heart. The R stands for romance, notes Mr Delpani, and "on" suggests turning something on. In Revlon's case, the flood of emotions triggered by the application of good makeup - attraction, flirtation, seduction, passion, admiration, infatuation.
Why now? With the big multinationals such as Estée Lauder, L'Oréal and P&G reaching for their chequebooks on a regular basis to expand their empires, even high-visibility brands like Revlon are feeling the increased competition. The LOVE IS ON campaign, produced by the AR New York agency, is a blanket global re-launch across TV commercials, print and digital ads and social media which aims to re-connect consumers to the brand. Ambassadors Halle Berry, Emma Stone and Olivia Wilde will feature strongly, as will a new recording of the Robert Palmer anthem from the 1980s - Addicted To Love - which will act as a brand manifesto says Mr Delpani.
To kick off the campaign, Revlon unveiled the Global Love Beacon, an interactive billboard in New York's Times Square, last week. Located at 1500 Broadway and the corner of 43rd Street, it features a LOVE IS ON live camera that captures and streams "love moments" from passers-by.
Unlike some beauty brands, Revlon has not pulled back on advertising in the US reports Kantar Media and spent US$65.3 million in the first six months of the year and US$123.3 billion in 2013. TV commercial and print ads debuting globally next year will be saturated with the LOVE IS ON message - Romance Is On, Sexy Is On, Desire IS On, Temptation Is On - backed by in-store point-of-sale material.
It's important to note that while Revlon may have slipped to a number 10 ranking in the US, Australians and New Zealanders are still very enamoured of the brand says Revlon Australia. In both countries, Revlon retains it's long-held position as the market leader in colour cosmetics.
In the year-to date, across 1200 pharmacies and 364 Priceline stores on both sides of the Tasman, Revlon holds a number one overall ranking in Australia with a market share of 23.8 percent, in contrast to the 16.5% of its nearest competitor. The brand ranks number one in Lip ( 34.8%), Foundation (30.4%) and overall Face (26.4%) and number two in overall Eye (14.6%), Nail (21%) and Eyeshadow ( 21.2%).
It's a similar story in New Zealand where Revlon also holds the number one ranking overall - 23.5%. Revlon only dips to number 2 once in New Zealand in Nail - 24.2%. But holds firm at number one on overall Face ( 19.7%), overall Eye ( 22.3%), Lip ( 32.9%), Foundation ( 21.4%) and Eyeshadow ( 27.3%).
Actavis takes over Allergan in US$66 billion deal
A few months ago we reported that Valeant Pharmaceuticals and maverick investor Bill Ackman had made a hostile bid for the manufacturer of Botox. Allergan was right to ignore it and has scored a buy-out price US$12 billion higher than Valeant's last offer. Actavis, the world's third largest manufacturer of generic prescription drugs, has signed a deal to purchase Allergan for US$66 billion.
Allergan also makes Prevage MD and Vivite skincare, the dermal filler Juvederm and the eyelash treatment Latisse. The combined company will become one of the world's top 10 pharmaceutical companies with estimated annual revenues of US$23 billion. Brent Saunders, the CEO and President of Actavis, will retain the top job and Bill Ackman has done pretty well, too. He owns 10% of Allergan's shares and will net US$2.3 billion from the takeover.
LVMH buys BITE Beauty
More accurately, the Kendo Division of the world's largest luxury goods group has stumped up the money for the Toronto-based beauty brand which specialises in natural lip products. Founded only three years ago by Canadian fragrance developer, Susanne Langmuir, BITE Beauty will hit the shelves of Sephora's new Sydney store alongside its stablemates in the Kendo portfolio - Ole Henriksen, Marc Jacobs Beauty, Kat Von D Beauty, Formula X and Elizabeth and James Fragrances.
BITE Beauty revolutionised the natural lip category with its motto - Edgy, Edible, Innovation For Lips - and has become one of the fastest growing brands in Sephora's history. Langmuir will continue to helm the brand. This is only the second buyout for Kendo - the first was Ole Henriksen - as the division prefers to create new brands. Like BITE Beauty, it is growing at breakneck speed and its products are now available in 24 countries.
Gucci hit with intern lawsuit
The fashion industry is the new hotspot for intern lawsuits in the US, with Marc Jacobs, Calvin Klein and Oscar de la Renta recently being served papers. Last week it was Gucci's turn to have its name called out at the New York State Supreme Court.
The Italian fashion house has been named in a wage and labour violations suit by former intern, Lindsey Huggins. She claims that she didn't receive educational benefits, training or payment when she worked at Gucci's 5th Avenue store for six months in 2008.
Huggins is now the fashion coordinator for RedSprinkle DC, a boutique consultancy which advises start-up and established businesses in the fashion and beauty industries. She's hoping that other former interns who were subject to the same conditions will join her in a class action - a 40 hour work week selling, doing daily excel spread sheets, answering phones and re-pricing merchandise for no pay.
Snippets from the wires
- AERIN, the lifestyle brand founded by Aerin Lauder, looks set for take-off. The brand's signature fragrances will be launched in Australia in time for Mother's Day 2015. Ms Lauder has announced the appointment of Alessandro Fabrini as President and CEO. The suave Italian is a veteran of Burberry watches and eyewear, Gucci, Bally and Bulgari.
- Condé Nast may be laying off print staff and settling intern lawsuits in the US but the publisher is hiring in other areas. Makeup maven and YouTube star, Kandee Johnson, has just signed on as Condé Nast Entertainment's new Lead Beauty Contributor.
- There's a major list most retailers would be happy not to feature on - the 2014 Global Retail Theft Barometer. '"Shrinkage", as the practice is officially known, cost the global retail industry $155 billion in 2013. Light-fingered shoppers only accounted for 24% of the total losses reports Checkpoint Systems. Administrative and non-core losses accounted for 36.9%, followed by supplier fraud (23.9%) and employee theft (15.1%).
- Consumers have become blase about discounts when it comes to low-priced personal care items reveals a new report by IRI. No wonder. In the UK, 56% of FMCG personal care products are sold at reduced prices and across Europe and the US one out of every three products is sold on deal. Deodorants and sunscreens are the most heavily discounted items across major markets. The least discounted? Colour cosmetics. According to IRI, while retailers and manufacturers are still scrambling to offer markdowns, the sheer number of them is no longer having the desired effect of lifting sales.
