Introduction: “From waiting time to wow time. Get ready.” So says L’Oréal Travel Retail Luxe General Manager Danièle Lahana-Aidenbaum, whose ambitions for the division centre on retail excitement, fragrance discovery and channel exclusivity.
In her first interview since taking on the role, she speaks to The Moodie Davitt Report Brands Director Hannah Tan at the TFWA World Exhibition in Cannes about creating airport experiences that engage travellers, expanding the niche and couture fragrance offer, and driving growth worldwide.
The Moodie Davitt Report: Can you share the thinking behind L’Oréal Travel Retail’s vision to transform airports into entertainment destinations? What is the Luxe Division’s role in turning that vision into a reality?
Danièle Lahana-Aidenbaum: What is unique about the airport is that you arrive and feel differently. You are excited to travel, whether for business, family or friends, but then you are stressed because of security and everything you need to do.
According to L’Oréal Travel Retail research, 60% of people feel relaxed once they pass security, and they have 60 minutes to spend with us, discover our brands and experience something different.
Our role as the industry leader is to create something different for them: excitement and entertainment.
Luxe represents more than 90% of our travel retail business. Our job is to create this entertainment destination at the airport. When you buy luxury, you want an experience. We have been doing that for a long time, including through skincare diagnosis with Lancôme and, more recently, Helena Rubinstein.
We are also doing a lot with fragrances, which are booming and driving growth worldwide. With our fragrance portfolio, we are offering different experiences.
For example, this summer we had the Prada Market and more recently Valentino Vendetta and Giorgio Armani I Will. Travellers will come to the airport and fall in love with our couture brands and experiences. In my view, you simply cannot replicate that experience in a local perfumery or when buying online.
L’Oréal Travel Retail has always embraced innovation. For example, Lancôme Café de la Rose crossed the boundaries between beauty, F&B and culture. How are you building on that approach to push the boundaries even further?
We will never stop, and we will do it across all our brands.
What is magical about Lancôme Café de la Rose is that it fully expresses the brand’s Parisian roots. The founder of Lancôme used to say that Lancôme was the French word for beauty. That is something we want to celebrate.
Today, we are pushing the boundaries by leveraging Lancôme’s skincare expertise. We have launched Longevity MD, with Demi Moore, which is a very innovative proposition.
Across our airports in Asia, we have spectacular longevity activations with diagnosis and tailor-made offers. It is a new kind of entertainment: learning about the future of your skin, growing older gracefully and how you can stay young for as long as possible.
In travel retail, we were the first to do very big activations, so we need to do even better. It is about maintaining our level and staying ahead
Another example is YSL and its colourful new Laundry concept. That is the power of our brands and the people who work for them, creating even more amazing experiences each year.
How are you responding to the growing interest in niche fragrances?
Consumers love niche because they are falling in love with fragrances and the juices themselves. They want sophisticated signatures, something bespoke to them and an amazing bottle to have in their homes.
Niche is also about the story of the brands. One way to stay ahead is to have a portfolio of brands with strong, genuine expertise in niche, working hand-in-hand with perfumers to create a signature you recognise immediately when you walk down the street. Our portfolio has some incredible niche fragrance brands, such as Creed, Aesop, Balmain and many others.
What are your ambitions for Creed and the new Bottega Veneta and Balenciaga licences?
Creed is already in travel retail, and we will expand it further, working with the existing team and our L’Oréal teams.
Our new couture licences with Bottega Veneta and Balenciaga are exciting because, when you buy from these brands, you buy two things: a strong fragrance signature and a piece of fashion.
Not everyone can buy a Bottega Veneta bag, unfortunately, but almost everyone can have the fragrance collection. You have the Intrecciato signature on the glass, which is exquisite.
Could those licences extend into other beauty categories?
For the moment, it will only be fragrances. It is the same for Balenciaga.
Where else do you see opportunities within the fragrance portfolio?
Beyond amenities and hygiene, we are accelerating significantly in fragrances with Aesop, with a very premium offer.
Then there are our couture brands: Valentino, Prada, YSL, Armani and Mugler, which have very strong signatures. There are big launches coming next year, and most of these brands have both mainstream and niche offers.
What are your main priorities in your new role?
The first priority is creating and delivering retail excitement. In local markets, digital is getting bigger and bigger. We have two amazing opportunities: people arriving at the airport relaxed and ready to spend, and traffic, which is growing and significant.
When you already have passenger traffic, excitement and people ready to spend, our role then is to create the extraordinary in retail.
That is my main priority, and to do it worldwide, adapting to consumers and travellers in Europe, the USA, Latin America, the Middle East and Asia Pacific.
I want us to be more worldwide than ever. That is also more relevant given what is happening in geopolitics. We need to be strong everywhere.
People will keep travelling, and our role is to surprise them wherever they are, with a local touch and our global signature.
How are you differentiating the travel retail offer from local markets?
Beyond the experience, we are focusing on exclusivity. We have always had travel retail-exclusive (TREX) sets. These will become stronger across every brand, and we will also create new formats.
We also had an amazing avant-première with Vendetta this summer. We were the first market to launch it, and it was a massive launch for Valentino.
For travel retail to be the first channel for that key launch and pave the way for local markets is quite amazing. Travel retail creates awareness because we have retail, media and visibility, and we are investing in it. Exclusive offers, exclusive products and avant-premières will definitely be a big part of the job.
What message would you like to convey to the industry?
We are very optimistic. We want to create growth and make travel retail a unique destination with a unique sense of purpose.
From waiting time to wow time: get ready. ✈
