Cosmetics with Fun and Flair

Promoting diverse product lines from nail lacquers to artificial eyelashes to glittery body gels calls for some colorful thinking. Fortunately, the marketing teams at Worldwide Cosmetics are always ready to meet the next merchandising challenge with creative packaging and P-O-P.In fact, one glance at a recent display featuring nail polish in ice cream cone-shaped bottles perched in an ice cream cart makes it clear that creativity is not in short supply. "Part of our problem is that we have too many ideas," says Donna Louis, vice president of sales and marketing for the professional division.The "problem" that she speaks of isn't really a problem at all. It's this unique, fun, and sometimes racy thinking that sets Worldwide Cosmetics apart from its competitors, and it's the force that's turning the company's products into leading brands. "Most companies will just continue to use a black vacuum-formed 18-piece display with a new header card on it," Louis explains. "But every time we come out with a new collection, we design a display to get the products out there and drive incremental volume."In the BeginningIt's hard to imagine that when Worldwide Cosmetics opened its doors in 1984, it didn't market a single cosmetic product. In fact, the company began operations by offering a variety of nail sundries for the professional manicurist under the Winning Nails brand name.But when Chief Executive Officer Sol Majer and Chief Financial Officer William Moskovitz chose the name Worldwide Cosmetics, they had a vision that the company would one day expand into other areas of the beauty industry both nationally and internationally.Sometimes vision becomes reality. Today, the North Hollywood, Calif.-based company has nine product divisions made up of many nail care lines and many cosmetic lines. Yearly sales exceed $10 million and Worldwide Cosmetics now employs more than 100 people. In addition, domestic and foreign distribution are continuing to grow.The growth has been fueled by the launch of new products and the acquisition of new brands, which has created the ongoing need for unique merchandising programs.Two Teams for MarketingSome of Worldwide's products are sold exclusively in professional beauty supply stores and through full-service beauty distributors while others are available in standard (and even unusual) retail locations. The distinction between the two is clear in the company's marketing department -- one marketing team concentrates on the professional products and the other on those sold at the retail level.The professional products' team includes Louis, Liz Allen Hardy, marketing consultant, and Josie Moreau, brand manager for the China Glaze division. This team focuses on bringing the China Glaze, Kami Nail Art, Winning Nails and Betty Boop nail products brands to life in beauty supply stores and salons. Additionally, they are responsible for the Riky Wax hair removal brand, the Water Works! permanent powder hair colors brand and the Gypsy Lashes eyelash accesssories brand."There is a ton of P-O-P in these stores -- we definitely have to stand out to be successful," says Allen Hardy.On the retail products side are the Hotsie Totsie teen and tween novelty cosmetic division and the Marbella cosmetic division. Dino Valentino, president of the retail division, and Michael Eckert, executive vice president of the retail division, oversee these brands. Dana Siegel, director of marketing for the Hotsie Totsie division, is in charge of creating the P-O-P that can be found in toy stores, junior apparel stores, novelty and gift shops, and in some mass merchants and drugstores nationwide.The retail brands require a variety of in-store displays, Siegel explains, since retailers get a new display each time they buy a specified assortment of product.At the CoreThe company's leading product division is China Glaze, consisting of a complete nail lacquer treatment line. While the professional products' marketing team creates displays for all of its brands on a consistent basis, extra efforts are centered on the China Glaze brand. "It's the strongest division within the company and it keeps growing," explains Louis. "Our positioning is very good in the marketplace now. In the past two years, the brand has really come into its own and is well-recognized."In an attempt to continue building its image, a major marketing campaign is underway for the China Glaze brand. The new look includes an image logo change on the bottles and a complete arsenal of new displays. Louis and her team used in-house designers as well as outside consultants to design displays that would showcase the brand's core product line that is available throughout the year. "We're collectively working to build the China Glaze brand name," says Louis. "The displays will complete the whole changeover." Permanent floor and counter merchandisers will debut this month, and the changeover should be complete in six months. They feature a contemporary look consisting of metal, wood and acrylic. "We're trying to create a little piece of furniture and use materials that will make them look more permanent in the stores, while still keeping them very trendy and fashionable," Louis says.Generally in place for five to six years, the displays were designed to be durable and easily recognizable in any location. "When we design new permanent displays," Louis explains, "we try to look ahead and make sure that they're not going to last for just a year or two because it's obviously a costly venture for us." In an effort to cater to all types of supply stores and salons, the company is offering a 48-piece display, a 192-piece display featuring 48 of its top-selling colors, and a 480-piece display that holds the entire core line of 80 colors. "We often take up a lot of shelf space because some stores will buy enough polish for both of the larger displays and then they'll also buy all of our seasonal collections," says Louis. "Our customers are serious about the brand."Marketing FunIn addition to such major merchandising campaigns, the team on the professional side is always working on other programs. Themed display programs have become standard operating procedure. Utilizing the concept of "escapism marketing," they create destination themes for each seasonal collection. "The idea is to create a marketing theme and story around the new nail lacquer color launches," explains Allen Hardy. "We want to add excitement to the launches and give our customers a place to think about."A recent themed promotion for Bali Bliss included an 18-piece display featuring a tiki hut with bottles of nail polish sitting in the sand beneath it. A nine-piece beach chair display provided a place for the bottles to "lounge." "With this program, our customers can bring the tropics into their salon and help their customers think of a vacation destination," Allen Hardy says.Each themed promotion starts with a concept and continues through to the names chosen for the colors and the final look of the display, Louis explains. Some even include a contest to win a trip to a specified location. "We try to make them turnkey promotions, and lately, we find our distributors and salon owners just waiting to see what our next fun promotion will be," she says. "Our competition is selling great colors and great quality polish, but we're selling it in a fun way -- and we're selling a lot more polish than we ever thought we would." A lot more. The themed promotions have been the driving force behind the increase in business from 2000 to the present in the salon market, Louis notes. "Our business literally quadrupled because the salon owners have started buying full displays of product," she says. "Now they want a whole display in their salon as opposed to buying one or two colors off of it." New collections and displays are introduced twice a year, and themed promotions are timed to launch a month or two after the spring/summer or fall/winter collections come out. "But if we have something that is really hot, we may have to bring out the spring/summer collection, for example, and a fun specialty collection," Louis says.Specialty collections are borne out of new developments in technology or new ingredients. Last summer the company introduced a nail polish that changes color in sunlight. The product, Sun Glaze, was merchandised in two bright orange and yellow displays with sun-shaped header cards. "When those types of concepts fall into our laps, we want to introduce them right away," Louis explains. "We create a cute merchandiser for the collection and go out there with it."Worldwide's Creation ProcessThe team generally has three months from start to finish when bringing a new collection to market. "Everything is laid out according to our promotional calendar, so when our advertising hits, we make sure that all of our distributors, their salespeople and our salesforces have the selling materials to get it out there," says Louis.In the past, the team would focus only on polish colors in its advertising, but that has changed. Recently, displays have also been included in ads. A ruby red slipper display that was created for the Wizard of Ooh-Ahz holiday collection was featured in a recent ad. "We've really played up the displays so our customers will recognize them when they go to their distributors," explains Allen Hardy. When designing new displays, the team keeps its target market -- the 20- to 50-year-old professional manicurist and her clientele -- in mind. But, as Louis says, the market is broadening with a younger crowd going into salons today as manicures and pedicures are getting less expensive. "Our colors are fashionable, but we also create the very fun specialty collections with the purples, blues and other funky colors that will cater to anybody between the ages of six and 70."Approximately 50% of the design work for new projects is done in-house by the company's two graphic designers and the other 50% is done by design agencies or other suppliers, according to Allen Hardy.The Retail SectorThe Marbella division and the Hotsie Totsie division both include product lines that are available in standard retail stores. Marbella, the first cosmetic division to operate under the company umbrella, includes a collection of semipermanent lip and eye liners as well as the eXXtreme line of lip gloss and mascara products. Hotsie Totsie, which was introduced last January, features teen and tween novelty cosmetic lines. With all of the fun, novelty items available through the Hotsie Totsie lines, Siegel says it's important to give each item special attention. And she does that through P-O-P. "We do each cute packaged item on its own display, giving it a fun name and explaining what it is and how to use it," she says. "We don't want our items to get lost." The target audience for the Hotsie Totsie lines is 6- to 13-year-olds. "All ages flock to the merchandise because it is so novel and everybody can relate to it," Siegel says.New displays launch in January and August. Siegel says she and two in-house designers work together to design each one. Typically made of vacuum-formed trays, blister cards or corrugated, they are designed to be thrown away when a new promotion hits.Fitting within retailers' shelving specifications is the main goal for each display. Making sure they're eye-catching and effective is important as well. "We have to make sure they don't fall apart and that the headers don't flop back," Siegel says. "They need to be sturdy enough to last until the new ones come in." For the launch of the Hotsie Totsie brand, a multitude of displays were introduced. Then when the new Hotsie Totsie II lines launched in August, 13 more displays followed. Siegel says plans for this year are equally aggressive. Being creative enough to catch the eyes of the teen and tween markets is Siegel's ultimate challenge. "To stimulate creativity, I study everything that's out there on the market. I look at accessories, gift items, boxes and treatments that are on other items and take anything I like and incorporate it into our cosmetics."With each new item being introduced, Siegel tries to push the envelope of creativity. "We're coming up with new concepts and themes and adding new merchandise constantly," she says. "A recent addition is light-up lipstick that actually lights up when the customer turns the lipstick up." Big plans are underway for the Hotsie Totsie lines in 2003. "We plan on branching off and doing a lot more accessories as well as permanent fixtures for stores to put a whole teen program together," says Siegel.Filling a VoidLooking ahead, Louis says Worldwide Cosmetics will continue to expand as it finds unique products. "We don't want to fall too much into the 'me too' type products. We are looking for niche cosmetics -- products that are different and that will fill a void in the market."Although the company's top executives support its P-O-P initiatives, Louis says the team has begun having to defend its budget more. "We have some really unique things that we're working on now. Anything that is a little more intricate is going to cost more, so we do have to validate wanting to make this type of display. We'll have to guarantee that we're going to be selling a lot more than without the display," she says. "But we're confident now because of our track record during the past couple of years. Every unique display we have come out with has increased our business."

Cosmetics with Fun and Flair

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