JANE LAUDER DISCUSSES BRAND STRATEGY AT CEW

Cosmetic Executive Women (CEW) hosted its first members-only Women in Beauty Series event on June 9 at the Harmonie Club in New York City featuring a conversation with Jane Lauder, Global President/General Manager of Origins and Ojon. She shared her experience of forging her own path through The Estée Lauder Companies and driving the success of the brands she manages. Joining The Estée Lauder Companies in 1996, Ms. Lauder’s positions within the company have included Senior Vice President, Global Marketing for Clinique, Vice President of Marketing for BeautyBank and heading the creation and launch of both Flirt! and American Beauty. CEW President Carlotta Jacobson stated, “I’ve watched you grow up in the beauty industry,” as she introduced Ms. Lauder, noting that her grandmother, Estée Lauder, the Founding Chairman and namesake of the company, would be proud of her success. “With so much competition in the cosmetics industry, it’s not an easy task to make individual brands stand out among the rest, but Jane Lauder does that time and again.”

From its products to the rich history, Origins has been a brand that Ms. Lauder has always admired. It was created in the late 1980s with the vision of consumers wanting natural products. Recognizing that 80% of the world uses plants as primary medicine, Origins developed products that were both efficacious and derived naturally from potent plant-based ingredients. “We learned that our target customer is worried about aging, is health-conscious and a label reader,” said Ms. Lauder. And though the consumer is mindful of the ingredients in the products, she stated, “Efficacy comes first. We can’t sacrifice performance for being natural.” She also noted the brand’s success in the recent introduction of Origins in China. Combining Eastern and Western medicine, the Chinese consumer understands the brand’s mission. Origins now has 11 doors open in the China as well as stores in Taiwan and Hong Kong.

For Origins, retail stores have always been a foundation of the brand. “You can buy products with the click of a button, but nothing can replace the experience of purchasing in-store,” declared Ms. Lauder. With a pioneering approach to creating a retail space, Origins was the first beauty brand to provide an open-sell environment where customers are able “to gather and discover” products around a community table with help from Beauty Advisors—who have been renamed “Guides.” The company’s recent retail redesign modernized its space but still incorporates the feeling of openness and being a part of nature.

Since March 2010, Ms. Lauder has also been leading the Ojon brand. She informed that hair care has the highest monthly searches on the Internet, with approximately 17 million searches each month. “More than cosmetics, people are hungry for hair care advice,” she stated. Two of the biggest challenges for consumers regarding hair care are choice and convenience. Consumers are looking for more variety in hair care offerings, and e-Commerce makes products more readily available. She noted that the prestige and natural categories are the two fastest growing segments in hair care.

Ms. Lauder told the audience that she considers sampling necessary for hair care. Ojon recently teamed up with Sephora for a promotion that allowed customers to trade in their empty hair care bottles for new Ojon products. The promotion, offered in 35 doors of Sephora, traded over 20,000 units.

According to Ms. Lauder, companies utilizing social media Web sites must do more than introduce the latest and greatest. “The biggest challenge is not just about spotlighting the next big thing. We need to also include information that is useful and exciting.” She referred to Origins Facebook page which also incorporates health and well-being articles, interactive discussions and product sampling. During a promotion that provided samples to members, the Origins Facebook fan base jumped from 50,000 to 150,000 fans. Currently, the page exceeds 220,000 members. Ms. Lauder also mentioned another initiative from Origins —its ongoing tree planting campaign. The brand has planted 140,000 trees and counting since April 2010. And when asked what was up next, Ms. Lauder said that she is looking for new formats to explore, such as gaming, as an opportunity to further connect with the consumer.


CEW’s Carlotta Jacobson with Origins and Ojon’s Jane Lauder and Chrysallis’ Jill Scalamandre	Givaudan’s Kerry Squillante and Alison Chaneski with Vicky Nelson and Janis Goberman Design’s Janis Goberman	Elizabeth Arden’s Laurie Dowley with Prevention’s Laura Petasnick

mark.’s Dawn Speller, Kathleen French and Paige Edmonds	Robertet’s Pierre Wulff, Olivia Jezler and Jérôme Epinette	Origins Jamie Dwyer, Leona Pineda and Tara Boss with Clinique’s Carmela Blackman

Jane Iredale Cosmetics’ Sarah Steven with Givaudan’s Alain Alchenberger and Marypierre Julien	Origins Alysha Brown and Erin Kritzer with Orly Sigal of Clinique	Johnson & Johnson’s Alexis DiResta and Erin Cotter (r.) with Givaudan’s Natasha Côté and Catherine Lee

Birchbox’s Katia Beauchamp and Elizabeth Eckardt (r.) with Ms. Dowley	IThe Estée Lauder Companies’ Beth Spruance, Thia Breen and Catherine Barber	Arcade Marketing’s Sonia Milfort and Alice Sciortino (r.) with The Estée Lauder Companies’ Stephanie Bruno and Susan Tendler

Ms. Darland and Dior Beauty’s Lisa Hawkins	Dior Beauty’s Terry Darland (2nd l.) with InStyle’s Tim O’Connor, Lynne Dominick and InStyle.com’s Juliet Reichman	Clinique’s Janet Pardo and CeCe Coffin

The Estée Lauder Companies’ Jane Hertzmark Hudis, Lynne Greene and Marianne Diorio	Ms. Greene and Ms. Hudis (2nd r.) with Arcade Marketing’s Debra Leipman-Yale and Monitor Group’s Jennifer Lacks Kaplan	Ms. Pardo with Givaudan’s Karen Flinn and Tom Ford Beauty’s Caroline Geerlings