Beauty Store Business

JUL 2016

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12 July 2016 | beautystorebusiness.com of a larger entity of all beauty business groups reporting to Leah Bailey, president of global beauty. My responsibilities have changed drastically with our new global focus. I co-lead the pro-beauty group with Scott Hagstrom. In addition to Hot Tools and other beauty brands in our portfolio, Scott and I are newly responsible for the Gold 'N Hot brand, Comare Combs and the Brazilian Heat appliance lines. In line with Helen of Troy's global outlook, the decision was made to take Hot Tools, currently a well-known North American brand, to an international level. My responsibility is to lead the brand as it launches worldwide to maintain the Hot Tools look, feel and performance; at the same time, taking into account the needs and requirements of different countries. Scott and I will also support the local country sales and marketing teams to make sure everything runs smoothly. We introduced Hot Tools in Taiwan two years ago, Mexico last November and launched in Europe at the Cosmoprof Bologna show this past March. This is a very exciting time for us as a company. What was your first order of business coming into your new position? Taricco-Cropp: To embrace the many fast and furious changes happen- ing every day. We optimized our SKU mix, reached out to stylists and consum- ers to get the customers' insights about the products we offer and what they would like to see in the future. I work with our global category organization [GCO, which is responsible for new product- development efforts] to help look for new-product ideas and then vet those ideas with stylists and consumers. I'm still learning new things every day. It certainly is not boring. Scott, how have your responsibilities changed? SCOTT HAGSTROM: Previously, I managed all of our sales relationships with our distributors and key customers. Additional responsibilities that I now am more actively involved in include more of the day-to-day business operations. I am also much more involved in work- ing with our new product-development team. Basically, if it has anything to do with the professional division, Terri and I are involved. Leah, please describe for our readers Helen of Troy's structure as it pertains to the pro-beauty business; as well as any restructuring that has taken place among its beauty brands. Bailey: Scott Hagstrom and Terri Taricco- Cropp run our pro-beauty business together. They are a formidable team with more than 60 combined years of experi- ence in the beauty industry. As mentioned before, we have restructured the com- pany so that both Hot Tools and Gold 'N Hot are managed by the same team. We also have moved sales for our professional personal care and acces- sory brands to our professional team. They now sell Infusium Pro, Vitapointe and Sea Breeze, and Hot Tools brushes as well. What is the company's structure as it pertains to the retail business? Bailey: Retail was also restructured. We go to market as a professional distribution organization and a retail distribution organization with shared ser- vices for beauty in the areas of market research, creative, agency management, digital marketing, package design, tech- nical support, customer relations and our global category organization, which leads innovation overall for Beauty, with separate focus on the professional and retail industries. In retail, we have a global focus on the Revlon brand in appliances and acces- sories, which we license from Revlon. We also have a U.S. licensing relationship for Bed Head, and have developed our own brand, Pro Beauty Tools. It's our understanding that Helen of Troy recently attained Mexican distribu- tion. Would you like to talk about this, as well as Helen of Troy's general push for international distribution? Bailey: Hot Tools is going global! We have been in Canada for a long time. We entered into a relationship with a distribution group in Taiwan in 2014 and launched into Latin America last year. Europe completed our worldwide distribution in March 2016. We are very excited to bring Hot Tools to the world. The reception has been amazing. Every- one knows Hot Tools, and they are so excited to now have the brand available in their countries. As I said before, we want to be No. 1 in the world. Scott, how do you approach sales for Helen of Troy? Hagstrom: Strategically and custom- ized by account. I have a team of six salespeople who handle various national territories and customer groups. My team sells multiple brands, such as Hot Tools, Gold 'N Hot, Caruso and others. They work with reps from various rep organizations to sell and manage business accounts in their respective territories. We have big-picture strategies for all customers, and we are diligent about managing the details of these accounts on all levels. We have goals and objectives, and we manage specifically to those goals and objectives. Terri, what are some of Helen of Troy's hottest products? And why do you believe they are in such high demand? Taricco-Cropp: Our new and first- to-market XL Curling and Flat Irons are our hottest new products as they offer our customers a larger styling surface for larger sections and faster styling. The long-hair trend makes this an especially important innovation. Curling irons are our biggest sellers. They are in demand for a couple of reasons. The biggest reason is our technology in the iron. It has a Pulse Technology feature that senses heat loss and immediately produces heat to keep the iron at the desired temperature. The surface of the iron has no HOT SPOTS, meaning some spots are hot and some spots are cool. Because of this feature, stylists trust that our irons will deliver results FAST and form strong, smooth curls that will last for days. We also offer the largest selec- tion of sizes and finishes of anyone else in the industry: 26 curling irons/wands, 13 marcel irons/wands, eight spring sizes from 3 /8 inches to 2 inches, seven marcel sizes from 3 /8 inches to 1- 1 /2 inches. We offer five unique finishes: 24K Gold, which is the Gold Standard in styling irons. It is award-winning; and now The Gold "We introduced Hot Tools in Taiwan two years ago, Mexico last November and launched in Europe at the Cosmoprof Bologna show in March." Image courtesy of Helen of Troy

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