FRANCE. French beauty house Guerlain, owned by LVMH Group, has partnered with Extime Duty Free (the joint venture between Lagardère Travel Retail and Groupe ADP) to celebrate the renovation of its counter at Paris Charles De Gaulle (CDG) Airport, Terminal 2E.
The Moodie Davitt Report was on location for the official ribbon-cutting ceremony, which was attended by top executives from Guerlain, Extime Duty Free and Groupe ADP.
Guests had the opportunity to discover the brand’s private fragrance collection, l’Art & la Matière, enjoy Champagne, a live violin performance, and custom engraving of their exclusive Guerlain gift.
The newly redesigned store — described by the Maison as an ‘Ultimate’ door — features Guerlain’s latest merchandising design and now features the full product portfolio including premium lines such as L’Art & la Matière, the Bee Bottles and Orchidée Impériale Black.
It also offers a range of exclusive services such as skincare, makeup and fragrance consultation and product personalisation with custom engraving.
The mission is to elevate the customer journey and make travellers feel as if they are shopping in a Guerlain flagship boutique, complete with a range of personalised services.
The counter, which is the first Ultimate Concept in France travel retail, follows the successful launch of the concept in the Middle East.
These include two doors at Hamad International Airport with Qatar Duty Free in 2022, and one door at Dubai International Airport with Dubai Duty Free, opened in March 2023.
In the last two years, several Ultimate counters were opened in Asia Pacific travel retail, including the Guerlain flagship boutique at the cdf Haikou International Duty Free Shopping Complex.
“Aéroports de Paris have survived a big crisis but also some beautiful periods in recent years, but we wouldn’t be here today without partners like Maison Guerlain. This is more than just a commercial partnership but a relationship built on trust,” commented Extime Duty Free General Manager Guy Bodescot.
A festive pop-up campaign
Guerlain is also running a multi-location festive pop-up campaign that showcases its latest artist collaboration with Begüm Khan.
Guerlain is running 14 high-profile promotions across France, including ten at Paris CDG and Paris Orly airports, that feature exclusive retailtainment with product personalisation and engraving, as well as glittering festive merchandising inspired by Begüm Khan’s bestiary.
Guerlain’s festive podiums are also running in Rome, Prague, Warsaw and Geneva, in partnership with Lagardère Travel Retail.
The holiday-themed animations are dressed in vibrant gold and green inspired by the whimsical animal and plant motifs that feature in Khan’s holiday collection.
It showcases the limited-edition Guerlain Rouge G Tiger and Feline Fantasy, the 879 Glittery Tiger Ombres G, the tortoise-inspired pot for Météorites, and the Leopard edition for the Terracotta bronzer.
Guerlain’s gifting offer has been redesigned to feature a sparkling green ribbon with a jewelled bee brooch, designed by Khan.
During the Paris event, The Moodie Davitt Report spoke to Guerlain European Travel Retail Marketing Director Sophie Rousseau to talk about the luxury beauty house’s new counter, the power and potential of its triple-axis portfolio, its upselling mission and how the 190-year-old Maison is balancing heritage, art and modernity to engage a new generation of beauty consumers.
Describing the early success of the counter, Rousseau said: “It’s only been one month but we’ve seen great incremental growth driven by high perfumery and our luxury skincare line Orchidée Impériale and the services around that. We’re really satisfied about the first results.”
Commenting on the inspiration behind the renovated counter, she said: “The idea is to change the customer journey and make them feel like they are entering a Guerlain flagship boutique, not just a counter in the airport. We want them to feel the services, the personalisation and the gifting too.”
“Travellers enter the store to explore fragrances but stay to try out the skin diagnosis or sample different makeup looks with the help of our expert Beauty Advisors. Younger generations for example may be attracted to our Abeille Royale collection, but then we can upsell them to Orchidée Impériale and L’Art & La Matière.
“The idea is always to create collections and upscale with our more premium offer such as L’Art and La Matière and Orchidée Impériale Black. In China and the Middle East, which are very luxury markets, we have done strong work to premiumise our distribution and craft a curated more elevated offer. For example, we have developed a facial cabin in cdf Haikou International Duty Free Shopping Complex which reflects our mission to extend the airport experience to downtown as well.”
Describing the pop-up campaign with Lagardère Travel Retail, Rousseau said: “The high-profile promotions bring Begüm Khan’s magical world to life while revelling in the Christmas spirit. Each year, Guerlain teams up with an artist or its holiday range and this year, it was with Turkish jewellery Begüm Khan. She created this fantastic bestiary with colourful animals, bejewelled prints and dazzling patterns to really make Guerlain shine this festive period.
“Our goal is to boost our triple-axis from Aqua Allegoria, makeup with Terracotta and Rouge G, and finally skincare with Abeille Royale. The animation also offers plenty of personalisation opportunities for Rouge G.”
Balancing heritage and modernity
For a brand with over 190 years of heritage, how is Guerlain attracting Millennial and Gen Z consumers? Rousseau said: “I think that Guerlain succeeds in balancing our heritage and modernity. This is what really attracted me to the brand when I first joined the company having worked previously for companies like Shiseido and Sephora.
“We communicate our history and heritage in a modern way. We have tapped French makeup artist Violette to become the Creative Director for Guerlain Makeup and she has really infused the brand with a lot of creativity, vitality and modernness.
Guerlain has consistently invested in travel retail, she added. “For us travel retail is one of our biggest markets, driven by Asia and Europe. It is an important channel not just for driving sales but also for building brand image. We see the channel as a kind of luxury ‘department store’, which is why Guerlain travel retail is its own department in our headquarters.”
The renovated counter, which is the fullest expression of Guerlain’s brand universe, reflects this ‘department store’ approach to retailing. However, the success of the concept would not be possible without Guerlain’s Trinity partnership with Extime Duty Free and Groupe ADP.
“Our Trinity partnership with Lagardère Travel Retail, Extime Duty Free and Groupe ADP has been strong from the beginning,” Rousseau explained. “This partnership has proven resilient throughout the pandemic, when we took the time to explore how we can improve and adopt new models to meet the needs of evolving traveller demographics. In the coming years, our partnership will only grow stronger.
“After the crisis, we were the first to reinvest in people, because we know that people are necessary to offer the full Guerlain experience to travellers, and we invested in our travel retail infrastructure to elevate and revamp our counters and the Ultimate Counter is the result of all that hard work.” ✈
