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La Prairie’s Maike Kiessling (right) with Nuance-Watson’s Alessandra Piovesana: a partnership that helped create La Prairie’s first travel retail flagship store in Asia, at Hong Kong International Airport |
SWITZERLAND. In line with the growing beauty-wide trend for socially responsible initiatives, La Prairie will be extending its “luxury with a conscience” philosophy this October, with the introduction of two new Marine products.
The company’s original Advanced Marine Biology Cream, which was launched earlier this year, is said to harness the powers found in sea borne anti-oxidants, which enable marine plant life to thrive in a hostile environment.
The result is a combination of five deep-sea elements within a treatment suitable for men and women from the age of 30, to help counteract the earliest stages of ageing skin.
Importantly, for each jar sold, La Prairie has made a contribution to the Ocean Futures Society, which oversees a variety of projects to promote the awareness and preservation of the planet’s oceans.
The Society was founded by Jean-Michel Cousteau, son of the French ocean explorer and film-maker Jacques Cousteau. Its mission is to inspire and educate people throughout the world to act responsibly to protect the world’s seas.
“This co-operation with the Cousteau family is just wonderful,” Managing Director of Travel Retail/Duty Free Worldwide and Distributor Markets Europe and Middle East Maike Kiessling told The Moodie Report. “People really understand the link between this product and the Ocean Futures Society. It’s relevant, it makes sense, and consumers today want luxury with a conscience.”
The first new extension to the line is the Advanced Marine Biology Tonic. “This is unusual in that you apply it with your hands, not with cotton wool,” Kiessling explained. The three-phase product should be applied to skin directly after cleansing.
“The second extension is a gorgeous blue-green, very light Marine Biology emulsion, which can be used day or night.”
“People really understand the link between Advanced Marine Biology Cream and the Ocean Futures Society. It’s relevant, it makes sense, and consumers today want luxury with a conscience“ |
La Prairie Managing Director of Travel Retail/Duty Free Worldwide and Distributor Markets Europe and Middle East Maike Kiessling |
Other key second-half introductions from La Prairie include two major anti-ageing formulations. “Our Anti-Aging Longevity Serum is a very strong de-ager”¦that will be an alternative to Botox,” declared Kiessling. “It will increase the life span of every cell, to help cells stay alive and live longer.”
This will be complemented by an Anti-Aging Stress Cream, which should ideally be applied on top of the Serum. “When you use both products together, not only do you get a strong de-ageing effect, but your skin is completely balanced too,” Kiessling explained.
“It rebalances and fights ageing, which is important for modern women, who of course want anti-ageing products but have skin that is often stressed and/or irritated too.”
While La Prairie is best known for its high-end treatment products, it has been steadily building a fragrance pillar following the introduction of luxury feminine scent Silver Rain in 2005.
The latest olfactory offering is Midnight Rain, which was previewed at last year’s TFWA World Exhibition.
Positioned as a more sexy, night-time fragrance, the product line-up includes a 50ml edp, a purse spray and a body veil. It is presented in the Silver Rain signature tear-drop shaped flacon, this time coloured black with holographic pigments of purple, silver, magenta and gold.
Other novelties within fragrance this year include a Silver Rain limited-edition trio of 30ml sprays, in colourful shades of pastel pink, blue or green.
Another interesting development is La Prairie’s slow but sure push into make-up, the third beauty axis.
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La Prairie offers “eco luxe” with its Advanced Marine Biology Cream |
Two years ago, Kiessling made no secret of La Prairie’s ambition to evolve towards full beauty house status. September 2006 saw the company’s luxury treatment cosmetics collection, Cellular Treatment Colour Système, make its European debut at Harrods. The collection had previously been available in the US and Canada since 1990.
At the time Kiessling told The Moodie Report: “We are well on the way to becoming a full beauty house, while retaining our expertise in the luxury skincare business. Our philosophy is to remain a true skincare authority, but to offer fragrance and colour too.”
The next step in this direction comes courtesy of La Prairie’s Complexion Center, which will showcase the key foundation category.
“We are introducing three new shades within our Caviar foundation, and discontinuing one,” Kiessling noted. “This will enable each country to select the shades they really want. We will also repackage in a Powder Finish some of our best-selling items. And we will repackage our loose powder.”
She continued: “At present this is selling incredibly well in South Korean travel retail, where it’s our number four selling item overall. The Koreans just love loose powder.”
And La Prairie will introduce a brand new foundation this October, which will incorporate anti-ageing properties. “This will be a little lighter and more translucent, in line with the needs of our younger consumers,” Kiessling explained. “It will be available in eight shades.”
Kiessling acknowledged the importance of merchandising such products appropriately, particularly in the often space-starved constraints of the travel retail channel.
“We will have a completely new unit specially developed for duty free,” she revealed. “It will enable the whole Complexion Center to be put in and out of the shelf, and it will be very easy to understand and self-service.”
Kiessling continued: “This is what our consumers deserve. They spend so much money with us that they are entitled to the right environment and the right service.
“We are converting so many new customers to La Prairie at airports. Travel retail is the place to be to recruit new customers to the brand.”
The retail review
As you would expect from a brand known historically for its high-end skin care, Asia is a key region for La Prairie. In particular, the brand’s first travel retail flagship store in the region, a beauty centre which opened at one of Nuance-Watson’s two Temptation fragrances & cosmetics stores at Hong Kong International Airport in January 2007, has generated outstanding results.
“We are converting so many new customers to La Prairie at airports. Travel retail is the place to be to recruit new customers to the brand“ |
La Prairie Managing Director of Travel Retail/Duty Free Worldwide and Distributor Markets Europe and Middle East Maike Kiessling |
“In the first quarter, we were up again +65%, even after the incredible results of our first year,” Kiessling revealed. “And we are pleased with that because we have an ambitious target, to always grow, everywhere, at double the pace of the location. So if a retailer grows +30%, we want to do +60%. We always want to know how our retail partners are performing”¦ because it puts things into context and makes our results more meaningful.”
But despite such good results in Hong Kong and elsewhere, Kiessling is still not completely satisfied with La Prairie’s Asian presence. “We are underdeveloped in Japan,” she acknowledged. “That is the next big challenge.
“When you go to, say, Tokyo Narita, you don’t see us the way you should. La Prairie there is not what La Prairie is in the rest of the world.”
She continued: “Of course I understand that we cannot have shop-in-shops or huge flagships everywhere. But we still need to look good wherever we are. We cannot be selling products that cost £500-600 and expect customers to get down on their knees to pick them off a gondola.
“Travellers need consultations, from knowledgeable people, and where possible somewhere they can take the time to sit down, put their bags down, and get focused, hands-on advice.”
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La Prairie plans to develop its colour axis with a renewed focus on the foundation category |
Above all, Kiessling noted, brands must tailor their offer according to the location and the customers it serves. “You have to adapt,” she emphasised. “For example, in Moscow Sheremetyevo, with Aer-Rianta, we are working on a new project where we will put the customers at a Champagne bar, completely in the limelight.
“Russian customers don’t want privacy, and they don’t want to be touched or have to talk too much. They just want the newest, hottest product, to be seen and to have fun.”
Kiessling continued: “So we have to look at who is our customer and what they expect from us. Whatever we do must be in the La Prairie style, of course, but it needs to be adapted for different countries. There are such extremes between what the Japanese and the Russians want, for example. And if you think you can do the same for both, then you are very wrong.”
Kiessling acknowledged the importance of all the major retail openings in Asia this year, but singled out China as the most important market. “We really cannot size the volume [of business] that China will represent,” she explained. “It’s almost too big to predict.
“Apart from Beijing and Shanghai, there are about 300 other airports, and let’s say another 50 develop in the next ten years which are right for us. We can’t put a figure on that business; we can’t forecast how big it will grow. For that reason it is still unpredictable – but very exciting too.”
As is the way La Prairie is developing generally in travel retail. “We are not a niche brand any more,” noted Kiessling. “We are now one of the biggest skin care players, with fragrance and colour developing too.
“More importantly, travel retail isn’t niche either. Before, we weren’t really touching the business seriously, because we just weren’t sure about duty free. It used to be that there were only a very few locations a luxury brand like us could be.”
She concluded: “Now the environment has changed so much, and so many airports look better than their downtown counterparts. That’s why travel retail is now right for La Prairie.”
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