Content area
Full text
Bumble and bumble's Sephora Entry Aims to Break Barriers
A bridge is slowly being built between the warring camps of hair salons and prestige retailers and the professional and upscale brands they carry.
Bumble and bumble believes it has the answer to the pro hair care industry's conundrum: how to enter retail distribution without alienating salons and damaging their core business. Growing business at salons, in fact, is the crux of the plan.
Beginning in the fall, Bumble's professional hair care products will be merchandised in full regale at 10 Sephora stores nationwide, with half of the stores' displays featuring interactive touch screens to educate consumers on the brand's salon heritage, and video loops showcasing Bb's fashion DNA backstage during fashion week. But in a twist, these displays will prominently list nearby Bb network salons where consumers can cash in a $20 gift card they will be awarded for purchasing two full-sized Bb items. The card can only be used toward hair services not products.
That Sephora has agreed to promote another outlet where consumers can ultimately buy items it, too, is selling signals the creativity manufacturers and retailers need to survive since the 2008 financial meltdown.
Allan Mottus, a beauty industry consultant, said since January, when Sephora dropped former anchor salon brand, Frdric Fekkai, as a result of its entering the mass market, the retailer has been looking for a new professional partner.
I see this as a way for Sephora to compete with the competition, like Ulta. In a world where there are fewer shoppers, retailers and manufacturers are doing everything they can to convert them into customers.
In a further sign that Sephora may be loosening its rein on the brands it carries, Living Proof, a prestige hair care brand designed to fight frizz, which launched exclusively in Sephora in February 2009, announced this week it has signed on with professional beauty distributor BSG. The deal looks to bring Living Proof into thousands of salons over the next year, with the possibility of tripling company sales in the first 12 months, said Rob Robillard, chief executive officer of Living Proof.
Since we launched we have been getting tons of requests from distributors and salons and stylists about when we will make Living...