Elizabeth Arden: Art, Science & Scents

Sure, Elizabeth Arden Co. promises near-magical results for its customers. But it relies on a lot of solid science to back up its claims. For example, the company is currently underwriting a joint research venture with the Linus Pauling Institute, studying the topical use of vitamins and minerals on the skin. At times, it seems that Arden's corporate motto is "Better Looking Through Chemistry."When Arden's display development teams create new cosmetics units, the challenge is to balance information on the science, such as ceramides or hydroxies, with an appealing artistic vision. That is a tall order. A display must be an elegant showcase for fashion-sensitive products yet withstand the rigors of constant sampling. Certain cosmetic formulations that do wonders for the complexion may wreak havoc on a display's finish. And with a worldwide market to serve, one display definitely does not fit all needs.Class, No MassArden's product displays can be grouped into three primary categories: make-up/colors; skin care/treatment; and fragrances. Make-up products are at the foundation of the New York-based company, which was established in 1910. As a rule, displays for make-up products are produced in a family of black colors.The company pioneered skin care/treatment technology in the 1970s with its Visible Difference line. In 1990, the company developed Ceramide capsule products, a line taken a step further in February 1994 with the launch of Alpha-Ceramide, a skin-care system based on alpha hydroxy acid. Another breakthrough was the Spa Collection, the first complete collection of spa body, bath and sun products developed by a prestige cosmetic company. Arden's skin-care-product displays typically are executed in white.The company's high-profile fragrances include its signature line, Red Door; an assortment of Elizabeth Taylor products including Passion, White Diamonds and the new Fragrant Jewels collection; Lagerfeld; Chloe; Nuits Indiennes; and an exceptionally successful 1993 launch, Sunflowers. Arden's fragrance displays carry the distinctive colors of the individual brand.The distribution of Arden products is scrupulously limited to fine department and specialty stores, but the reach is worldwide. Arden's corporate parent, Anglo-Dutch Unilever, is a highly diversified company with headquarters in both London and Rotterdam. Arden is able to take advantage of synergy with other Unilever companies, most notably Calvin Klein Cosmetics Co. and Chesebrough-Pond's USA. In September, for example, Kim Delsing, former president of Calvin Klein Cosmetics, became CEO of Elizabeth Arden and chairman of the U.S. division of Unilever Prestige Personal Products.In the United States, Arden cosmetics are available in approximately 3,000 retail locations (called "doors" within the trade). The company markets through another 500-600 doors in South America, 6,000-7,000 in Europe and 1,000-1,500 in the Pacific Rim area. Industry estimates, recently reported in Women's Wear Daily, peg Arden's global sales volume at nearly $1 billion annually.All of Arden's promotional activities work hand-in-hand: media advertising builds an image while in-store display encourages trial. "The ads drive the business to the store," says Joseph D'Anna, manager of display development & purchasing. "The display gets you to the counter. The package and how it looks gets you to try it."A Unified VisionCoordinating a consistent, corporate look has been a primary goal in recent years. In addition to establishing display color families for the make-up and treatment lines, Arden has slowly developed a specific corporate look for its in-store counters. "There is more synergy between the Arden counters and the Arden on-counter displays," says Susan Arnot Heaney, director of public relations. "Now, even if you took every product out of the counter, you would know that that empty counter space is Arden because it has the corporate logo and identity."D'Anna estimates that 90 percent or more of the designs for displays and P-O-P materials come from in-house. Creative staffers report to two different executives: Joseph Xavier Spellman, executive vice president, marketing development & creative services, and Mike Lombardi, senior vice president of packaging & purchasing. "Joe's the concept guy and Mike is the execution guy," says D'Anna.The company has a large design department, led by four senior directors: John Rowan, Susan Wacker, Michelle Nahum and Denise Paglina. These senior designers have responsibilities that are segregated by product. As a result, the same person not only creates a design concept for a new product's packaging, but also for all of the collateral materials, including promotional P-O-P and permanent displays, that are associated with it. "Everything is coordinated into one vision in terms of the look," D'Anna says.Keeping up with Arden's product developers is a challenge. "Products are always launched with some sort of display, whether it's just a cardboard cube or a card," says Heaney. "And it is continuous. This year alone, we are launching a major fragrance, a major skin care product, a whole restaging of our foundations, and a new extension to the Ceramide Skin Care line. Then there's our Parfums International division, which has fragrances launching. Then there are what are called line extensions. Every color has been either reformulated or restaged in its shade in the last 12 months."A product launch begins in Arden's Marketing Development department which, in concert with the R&D staff, devises new product formulations and contents. Once the product concept is established, the marketing development managers sit down with Arden brand marketing managers to work out the utilitarian aspects of the packaging and display. That information then goes to a senior designer who prepares sketches of all of the promotional materials. Ultimately, all display ideas are presented to Arden's president as part of a total program -- advertising, marketing, the retail plan -- for final approval.D'Anna's primary responsibility is on-counter displays as well as fixtures. "I take a designer's sketches to different vendors and try to figure out how we can get it made. My job is to make it look and function the way the designer intended, but for the budget that marketing wants to pay.""Joe is the reality specialist," says Heaney."I'll cheat to get something to look exactly the way they want," D'Anna explains. "On the new Spa Skincare display, for example, the designer had the look of glass in mind, but we know that glass isn't feasible." To bring the display in under budget, D'Anna worked with his supplier, IDMD Manufacturing, Scarborough, Ontario, Canada, and substituted a green-tinted acrylic that has the look of glass.Tight TolerancesArden does use a variety of temporary P-O-P materials to support both launches and ongoing promotional activities. These materials, which are typically accented with different colored tissues, range from generic Arden items such as cubes and bags, to custom-made table drapes and exploding cartons. Custom elements often are added to the mix to create a special look for a specific retail chain or promotion. For example, during the November launch of a new fragrance, called True Love, stores were sent do-it-yourself display kits with table drapes, silk flower garlands and rose petals.However, the biggest investment is in permanent displays. "Typically the things we do are injection-molded or fabricated," says D'Anna. "We do no board displays, and we virtually do no vacuum-formed displays. Injection molding is sturdier, and when you are making large quantities, it is typically the most cost-efficient way to do it. Mass market cosmetic companies typically use more vacuum-formed pieces. In the upscale market or for a permanent application, you tend to use injection molding because you get a better piece and can hold it to tighter tolerances."D'Anna says Arden does most of its business with about a half dozen suppliers. "It really depends on the extent and scope of the project. We have some people who we deal with who are very good at manufacturing and others who are very creative but don't manufacture that well."Displays are shipped directly to qualifying retail accounts. They are provided free-of-charge, with the size of the display determined by the customer's volume.Space limitations present a big challenge. "There are a lot of variations at different stores," D'Anna says. "Typically, a unit shouldn't be more than 18 inches from the top of the counter to its highest point. Also, we compete with ourselves, because we have a limited amount of space given all of our potential components."Another goal has been to make displays more user-friendly. "For the past seven years, we have been making a concerted effort through packaging, presentation, formulation and advertising to attract a younger consumer," says Heaney. "The typical age range was 25-49, with an emphasis on the 30s and 40s. But the Spa Collection and the Sunflowers bring in younger women, even teenagers, who often are not as comfortable with the service as the older customer is and just want to browse.""The collateral packaging and materials that the designers have come up with are becoming more fun," D'Anna adds. "The Nuits Indiennes is a very elegant piece, but it is not intimidating. The new Spa display, in its own simple way, is elegant, but it is not threatening."A Boost for BrowsersOne of the biggest projects Arden has undertaken recently has been a new master tester unit for make-up. This permanent countertop display holds samples of most Arden make-up products, housed in interchangeable plastic trays (called dominoes) that can be taken off the display cabinet. "The big feature is that the display can be continually updated with new formulations as needed," D'Anna says. "The beauty consultant also can pull sections of the master tester out and carry them around. She's not locked into one spot on the counter."The new master tester also encourages a level of self-service. "The beauty consultants are still the focal point," Heaney says, "but if they are busy, we don't lose a customer because she can still browse."The last master tester for color was produced in 1988. Development for the new display, which was produced by New York City-based Dauman Displays, began in February 1992. A European version of the unit shipped to 6,000 stores in January 1993, and 2,200 units of an American version were released this year. Production costs were approximately $300,000$400,000 for the tooling and 30-40 molds, which Arden owns. Individual displays cost about $350 to produce.Because some local health laws restrict product sampling, the clear plastic top of the American version of the master tester unit is locked down. That way, all of the make-up products, except lipstick, are inaccessible. They can be seen under the plastic cover, but are actually tested from samples held in the display drawer. The lipsticks, which customers typically test by rubbing on a piece of paper, are accessible.Not all areas of the country restrict sampling this way, but Arden likes to play it safe. "We do have a very stringent legal department," says Heaney. "It is an in-house joke that they are stricter than the Federal government."Unpredictable PerfumesFragrance displays pose one of the biggest technical challenges for D'Anna. "Some plastic materials are fragrance-resistant, and others are purported to be fragrance-resistant," he says. "But we've had a lot of experience with our fragrances and different materials, and sometimes they don't like each other very much."Essentially, fragrances are all the same," he adds, "but there's something in the interaction of the raw materials that will make each one a little different. So you have to find the plastic material that is suitable for your fragrance."As a result, extensive testing is necessary prior to any launch. "One of our suppliers supplies our sister company, Calvin Klein," he says. "They developed a resin that Calvin Klein can use on all of its fragrance units. But we tried their specially developed, chemically-resistant resin with some of our fragrances and within minutes, we had chemically impregnated the resin."D'Anna says that he has been using molded nylon on some displays, such as the Fragrant Jewels collection, with success. "But when you don't have the right amount of time, you go into overkill. If you noticed some of our recent displays in fragrances, such as Nuits Indiennes, a lot of them are metal or electroplated, both of which are very costly things to do. It won't be attacked by a fragrance, but it is also very expensive."Another hazard arises at the store level. "We've had sales associates who will try to clean a display with a perfume tester. The alcohol will turn the plastic cloudy. We put a warning label on the back of the displays when we send them out, but you are at the mercy of the sales consultant."Global Market, Local MarketingWith its international focus, Arden's creative teams must consider a variety of factors when developing displays. "In terms of the dollar return, the U.S. brings in more money, but Europe has more retail doors," D'Anna explains. "That's because a lot of the selling in Europe is done in small shops, boutiques or parfumeries that have very limited space. In Europe, we put the make-up master tester display on a freestanding pedestal base that was the same height as the glass countertop. That way, we didn't take up space on the counter that a perfumery can't afford to give up."Heaney says that the only truly "global" products are fragrances -- customers simply evaluate these products based on their particular scents. Arden typically ships fragrance display materials in the five basic European languages: English, Spanish, French, German and Italian.Make-up and treatment displays, however, are becoming more nation-specific. Certain colors, especially lip and eye colors, are more viable in some parts of the world depending on cultural preferences. Treatment products require a great deal of feature/benefit information."We are in the process of shipping a master tester for treatment products, which is a first for us," says D'Anna. "We started out with two versions: large and small. But in the end, we produced four variants of the large, and nine versions of the small, with the differences being language and products that are specific to a region or country."Another recent first was a global product launch. Usually, products are released in phases. But Alpha Ceramide was launched on the same date on both sides of the world. "We had huge numbers in Europe and the U.S., with collateral in 22 different languages -- everything from Swedish to Russian," D'Anna says. "The displays were manufactured at the same time by [Stamford, Conn.-based] Mechtronics in two different places: in Paris, at one of their affiliates, and in the U.S. at their facility. This has been the only time we've done that so far, but the possibility that it will become more of an issue as we go forward is very real."

Elizabeth Arden: Art, Science & Scents

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