Freeman Cosmetics: Finding, Filling, Creating Niches

Seeing a niche and creating a product to fill it has always been one of the hallmarks of Freeman Cosmetic Corp. The Los Angeles-based company started with a single shampoo product 21 years ago and is now recognized for its line of hair and skincare treatments."We have always felt that we are on the cutting edge," explains Jill Freeman, director of marketing. "And we've been somewhat successful by creating a niche for ourselves in the market. That is what separates us from our competitors. I think it's perceived in the trade that Freeman will come up with something exciting. It's what distinguishes us and it's how we've been able to grow."Natural ingredients and scientific advancements are at the core of the formulations of Freeman's products. Making sure that message comes through, while connoting value for the consumer, is the ongoing challenge for Freeman and her marketing staff. Primary packaging plays a dominant role in the communication of product attributes, while a variety of displays and other merchandising tools help win coveted shelf space and secondary product placements in stores, Freeman notes. Shoppers can find the company's many products in supermarkets, drugstores and mass merchants.Advances in packaging technology have allowed Freeman Cosmetics to create unique shapes, such as that employed for its recent Barefoot line. The tube for the at-home footcare treatments are trimmed and crimped at the top to resemble toes. "[People] go directly to our products because of the packaging," Freeman says. "What we are trying to do is show what is inside the package by what is on the outside."But gaining the customer's attention is only part of the process. Says Freeman, "Once someone picks it up and smells the product, they have to take it home and try it. It's then that they realize that it not only smells nice and works well, but that it is a good product and is reasonably priced."Internal IdeasFreeman Cosmetics' marketing department is made up of five people involved in a variety of tasks. Additionally, the company employs four in-house designers and two packaging engineers. "All our work on packaging and displays ends up being a collaboration among all of us -- the graphic designers, the creative designers, the packaging engineers and marketing," explains Freeman. Once the project is defined and designed in-house, the company goes to its vendors for the best possible execution of the concept."Sometimes we will go to our vendors and say, 'This is what we are looking for, but we are open to other ideas.' And then they will come back to us with their ideas," says Freeman.Executing all of those designs and assuring that they get to market in time requires months of planning. According to Freeman, she and her marketing cohorts set their promotional calendar six to eight months before the first of the year. "And every year it changes," she says. "There are certain promotions we do every year, called anniversaries, but we do come up with new ones. And we usually have one major promotion in every calendar quarter."With every one of these promotions comes some sort of P-O-P merchandising support: a display, take-one pads or materials specifically designed for that event. "We really put a lot behind our promotions," notes Freeman. "We know we really need that off-shelf merchandising to pull the product out of the stores. In terms of our new product launches, it's even more important."Choosing PartnersFreeman Cosmetics is also expanding its promotions with partners. Earlier this year, the company joined with 3M Health Care for a year-long effort that offered consumers a Buf-Puf facial sponge with Freeman's Botanical, Beautiful Skin and Beautiful Bath treatments. Later in the promotion, Buf-Puf boxes will include foil-pack samples of Freeman products.This month, Freeman Cosmetics will team up with Kellogg's to offer free samples of its shampoos and skin treatments on specially marked packages of Special K cereal. "The demographics are perfect for us," says Freeman. "All the consumer has to do is send two proofs-of-purchase from Special K and they will receive four free 3/4-ounce Freeman samples and a 50-cent coupon for their next purchase."We think this is opening up a whole new avenue for us and it definitely takes us to another level. The people at Kellogg's have been really easy to work with and it has been fun. I am really looking forward to the response because I think we are going to hit a lot of consumers who have never tried our products before."Working for SpaceWhether it's promoting a new product or executing a recurring annual effort, the company's goal is to try to obtain more shelf space and grab a secondary display location. Although competition for space is fierce, Freeman says that changing retail environments may actually play into their hands."I think we are starting to see the consolidation of stores," she says. "We have seen it primarily in drugstores, but I do think that some of the food stores have since started to consolidate so that they can open bigger stores." Those bigger stores mean more opportunity for off-shelf merchandising.And Freeman Cosmetics is creating just the kind of displays and products to take advantage of that opportunity. In January, the company unveiled 3/4-ounce foil packets containing many of its most popular treatments, shampoos and conditioners. A four-shelf, 47-inch-tall power wing display presents 480 of these samples, or travel-size packages. The company calls this unit its Freeman Personal Care Center.The white, vacuum-formed styrene unit is decorated with fruit and flower graphics and is designed to be easily restocked. The units began arriving in stores in March of this year.The cosmetics company feels it succeeds when it can get its products and displays in multiple departments of the same store. "We are able to promote our hair, skin, bath and feet products together because of the price point," says Freeman, "but we are also able to get off-shelf displays in perhaps the haircare and the skincare aisle or both."In every case, Freeman Cosmetics is always trying to achieve two goals with its displays: trial and incremental sales. And although the company uses mostly temporary pieces when it puts out a display, it is constantly trying to grab permanent space.Maintaining its identity on its own displays without annoying retailers is a challenge for the company. Freeman Cosmetics wants its displays to sell down quickly, but it doesn't want to make it easy for retailers to restock its units with a competitor's product. "We try to put our name somewhere on all of our displays," says Freeman, "so that our competitors don't get in there. We have done the same with our shelf organizers and larger displays. But we try to do that without annoying the retailer. Most of the time they are OK with how we have branded our displays."Working with retailers will often mean that Freeman Cosmetics is executing a specific promotion for a chain. "We want to partner with the retailers and we want to do what they ask of us," says Freeman. "We do many specific promotions every year with our different retail partners."The retailers, especially the mass merchants, don't put a lot of [restrictions] on us, but we try to anticipate their needs and be efficient in terms of utilizing space. We try to get as much product as we can on a display, but still keep it relatively small."Testing Their SuccessFreeman Cosmetics employs a formal procedure for measuring the success of its display efforts. "We have questionnaires from our marketing department that go out to our regional managers and brokers," says Freeman. "They, in turn, talk to the retailers and send them back to us. I think that is one of the reasons why we are successful, because we are taking into account the retailer's opinions."The company also employs scanner data from Information Resources Inc. to judge the sales effectiveness of its displays, but the retailer feedback is the cosmetics maker's most important tool.The Next Big IdeaFreeman says she and her staff are always on the hunt for their next idea. They seek inspiration for their packaging and merchandising efforts in many places. "We get stacks of magazines, we walk through stores, all types of stores, not just our channels. Department stores, shoe stores, record stores, video stores," she says. "We look everywhere. We go through all the other aisles besides ours. Because I think there is a lot of innovation going on, and not just within our category."Freeman says the company cannot rest on its laurels. "We know that there are tons of competitors out there, and we know we have two or three seconds to say what we need to say," explains Freeman. "Is the consumer going to take this off the shelf? Is it appealing enough? Is it bright enough to first catch her eye and then friendly enough that she is going to take it off the shelf? We think it is important that they know what the product is."What is Typical?Ask Jill Freeman to describe Freeman Cosmetics' "typical customer" and she will begin to speak, pause, roll her eyes a little and laugh."It depends on the product," she says. "I would say that she is, if she is purchasing our skincare products, probably 15 or 16. For our facial scrubs and masks, between 15 and 25." For haircare products she envisions the target customer as a little older."We think if she is younger, a lot of times she will ask her mom to buy the product," notes Freeman. "She will see it in advertising or learn about it from a friend. If she gets an allowance or she just went off to college and has a limited budget, she sees our product and knows that she can afford it."

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