German conglomerate Henkel launched its latest brand, the Authentic Beauty Concept, in the US on Tuesday to revitalize its portfolio of hair care products.
Available in the US through Ulta.com and SalonCentric.com, Authentic Beauty Concept is vegan, cruelty-free, and free of parabens and sulfites. Additionally, marketing uses an unmodified model. The Authentic Beauty Concept launched in Europe in his July 2019. In addition to laundry and glue brands, Henkel also owns the Dial soap brand and his Schwarzkopf hair care, and chose to incubate ABC rather than acquire or pivot to existing hair brands.
ABC’s inner workings are not only a seemingly progressive brand, but also Henkel’s modern starting point. Traditionally, Henkel employees have worked on a wide range of categories and products, such as hair care and shampoo, rather than on specific brands. But ABC has his 11-person dedicated team and offers “startup-style” functionality, said Matt Lowenthal, vice president of marketing at Authentic Beauty Concept.
“To create a brand that truly fits the market movement towards wellness, mindfulness, sustainability, veganism and cruelty-free, Henkel has taken a brand-building approach from the ground up,” said Lowenthal. I’m here. “Authentic Beauty Concept was born out of a desire to truly match the trends seen in the market.”
Henkel has been busy over the past 12 months with mergers and acquisitions, especially in the North American market. Henkel previously acquired his 51% stake in California-based eSalon in July 2019 and New York-based DevaCurl in November 2019. The brand recently addressed accusations that its products were damaging customers’ hair.
Henkel is reportedly a shortlisted acquisition of Coty’s hair care division. On January 1st, the company hired a new CEO and CFO. Henkel said on April 8 it withdrew its 2020 accounting forecast due to the impact of the novel coronavirus, with the beauty care division expecting organic sales to fall by nearly 4% in the first quarter. increase. According to a press release, the hair salon business was hit hard by the closures, but organic sales in the retail business remained stable year-on-year.
ABC and recent acquisitions are not the only updates to Henkel’s hair care business. According to Q4 2019 earnings, the company built a customer relationship management system for better engagement, offered more customized products, and created enhanced digital experiences to help all beauty brands. We are passionate about growing our online sales. Furthermore, at the end of 2019, Henkel established a conception, design, implementation and operational process for integrating digital and IT teams across the company. At the same time, we introduced the SalonLab Hair Analyzer to our salons to provide customized products and began rolling out our new CRM in over 50 countries.
Authentic Beauty Concept’s U.S. market launch has some key differences compared to its European launch, not only due to the current coronavirus impact. into your Instagram content strategy. In the US, on the other hand, there is a good balance of professional and platform-native influencers. Ahead of its U.S. launch, ABC is working with 30 unpaid micro-hi influencers (talented products), with her two paid celebrity-hi hair stylists as spokespersons. In addition, Instagram and website blog content for the U.S. market is richer in content on how to use products and lifestyle content centered on wellness compared to Europe. The dynamics of distribution between Europe and the US require ABC to market more directly to consumers. This is because the brand is sold more through European professional salons.
The US launch event has been postponed, but Lowenthal hopes to reschedule it for the third quarter.
The first shipments arrived at all Ulta stores on March 16, the day before the stores closed. ABC does not sell directly to consumers, but plans to use the website AuthenticBeautyConcept.us to redirect customers to Ulta and Salon Centric sites, but this functionality has not yet been added. ABC also builds search optimization with keyword ad targeting focused on phrases like “vegan hair care,” but Lowenthal declined to share ad dollars.
Marisol Barrera, Senior Brand Manager, Authentic Beauty Concepts said: “We’ve been trying to relay content that is both informative and brand-introductory in the hope that it will be discovered organically. [content], such as teams working from home. ”
