Prologue: There’s a new player in town at TFWA World Exhibition in Cannes (27 September to 1 October) this year. New to the travel retail channel that is but certainly not to the world.
STABILO, a German brand with a richly storied 170-year heritage, is using travel retail’s premier trade show to inject what it calls new relevance into the traveller journey.
The brand, world-renowned for its STABILO Boss highlighters, has identified dual attractions in the channel. Firstly, and on a pure revenue basis, it sees a rich opportunity to sell a world-renowned portfolio of writing, drawing, colouring and highlighting products.
Secondly, it recognises a global brand-building platform where STABILO can work with retail partners to create exciting products, experiences and retail concepts that continue to evolve with travellers.
There’s a nicely articulated philosophical as well as commercial tenet to that mission. STABILO says its heritage and success are built around observation, colour and creativity, dynamics it believes are finding new relevance in the traveller journey.
“STABILO has always observed how people learn, create and express themselves and translated those insights into products,” the company says. “The STABILO BOSS is perhaps the clearest example: a simple, recognisable product built around a simple purpose: helping people highlight what matters.”
In this two-part feature, Martin Moodie examines STABILO’s foray into travel retail and then (click here) discusses the company’s heritage, aspirations and channel-specific approach with Schwan-STABILO Group CEO Michele Molon.
It’s not often when writing about a company that I find myself simultaneously using one of its products, writes Martin Moodie. But in analysing my extensive print-out notes and CEO interview transcript for this feature, I am doing precisely that.
The item? A STABILO Boss highlighter (or two to be precise in my case – one pink, one indigo), a product used the world over by a vast consumer audience including students, teachers, businesspeople, medical professionals, politicians and countless others. It’s difficult, in fact, to think of any other product in travel retail that boasts such universal usage.
While STABILO is synonymous with highlighters, the brand – part of the wider Schwan-STABILO group (see panel) – is also renowned for its fineliners and coloured pencils. And it is colour, combined with creativity and self-expression, that lies at the heart of the brand’s debut presence at TFWA World Exhibition in Cannes next week.
Add durable, functional and responsibly developed equipment to that roll-call of qualities as Stabilo’s sister brand, outerwear label Deuter will also be showcased via a curated backpack assortment.
Although STABILO will exhibit both a curated selection from its existing range, and new products developed with the travel retail opportunity in mind, the brand insists it is not marking its Cannes show debut with a finished, fixed model.
“Cannes is the beginning of a journey: an opportunity to present an initial proposition, start conversations, learn and co-create with the industry,” the company avows.
Instead, the brand is taking a listening approach, based on curiosity. STABILO plans to observe how travellers discover, connect, gift, play and create memories, and then deploy those insights to build commercially relevant products, experiences and retail concepts with partners.
Colour, as any set of STABILO highlighters, fineliners or crayons testify, lies at the heart of STABILO’s DNA. In relating colour’s qualities to travel retail, the brand says it serves both a functional and an emotional purpose.
How so?
- It helps travellers identify and choose products;
- It makes curated ranges visible in the retail environment;
- It creates moments of discovery;
- It supports personal expression;
- It helps travellers highlight and preserve what matters to them.
The obvious question that arises is how in an increasingly digital age does a traditional writing instrument brand such as STABILO retain its relevance let alone advance its credentials as a serious travel retail proposition?
“STABILO does not position digital and analogue tools as opposites,” the company responds. “The brand’s strength lies in understanding how people use different tools to learn, organise, create and express themselves, then combining those behaviours in relevant ways.”
The STABILO Highlight App exemplifies this approach. It extends the purpose of highlighting into a digital experience – users can scan highlighted content and gain insights from it. At TFWA World Exhibition, two bundles will be presented, each combining a four-item set with access to the app and 100 free scans:
- A set with four STABILO BOSS ORIGINAL highlighters;
- A set with four STABILO swing cool highlighters.
The SKUs create a bridge between a familiar physical product and a digital service. The highlighter remains the tangible, recognisable product, while the app adds functionality and continued engagement after purchase.
The key message is not that digital tools replace handwriting or highlighting, STABILO says, but that its products connect both worlds around the same human need: making information and ideas easier to notice, understand and remember.
Why travel retail and why now?
People accept the time, cost, planning and effort of travel because something matters to them, whether a face-to-face business meeting; a relationship; a cultural experience; a shared family moment; a personal interest; a special occasion; or to create memories they want to take home, STABILO observes.
These changing traveller occasions create a new consumer opportunity, the company believes. Products that help people write, draw, highlight, play, gift or capture an experience can become relevant at different points in the traveller journey.
In formulating its travel retail approach, STABILO is following its time-honoured central brand principle: “We observe, then create.”
In practical terms that begins with watching people and their behaviour. In particular it analyses how people learn and remember; organise information; express ideas; use colour; create personal meaning; share experiences; and choose products for themselves or others.
And then comes the creation. The observations are translated into products; colour systems; curated assortments; retail presentations; creative experiences; and new concepts developed with partners.
For travel retail, STABILO is applying this principle to three initial traveller groups: business, leisure and family travellers. These are not intended as rigid demographic segments but represent different traveller missions and purchase occasions, the brand says.
STABILO’s exhibition stand in Cannes – appositely themed ‘Highlight What Matters’, is not simply to display products, the brand points out. Instead it will bring the adopted mantra to life by using colour and curation to guide visitors through the offer.
STABILO plans to demonstrate:
- How colour can structure and signal different assortments;
- How products can be curated around traveller needs rather than only product categories;
- How one brand can address different purchase missions;
- How a modular concept can work across different retail environments;
- How the retail experience can invite discovery and conversation.
STABILO says it is not simply repackaging an existing assortment for a new channel but embracing travel retail to explore new products, new presentations and new ways of creating relevance for travellers. One thing is certain, the brand’s long-awaited foray into travel retail promises one of TFWA World Exhibition’s most colourful debuts ever. With plenty of highlights. ✈
Footnote: STABILO is exhibiting at TFWA World Exhibition (Blue Village G12). Contact Lead, Global Travel Retail Strategy, Karen Tse: karen.tse.ext@schwan-stabilo.com
