FROM LUXURY DAILY | DECEMBER 2016, 19

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Tiffany & Co.’s Fifth Avenue flagship’s proximity to Trump Towers has resulted in an unlikely branding effort for the U.S. jeweler.

The jeweler’s iconic flagship, known for its cameos in Hollywood films and its annual holiday windows, finds itself on the same block as Trump Towers, the Midtown Manhattan home of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump. Since the election results were announced Nov. 8, protesters have been picketing outside the building, causing the Secret Service and New York Police Department to heighten security along Fifth Avenue, just in time for the holiday season.

"The truth is that politics and business do not mix, and when those worlds collide, good things rarely happen," said Rob Frankel, branding strategist & expert at Frankel & Anderson, Los Angeles. "'Cause marketing' is a huge myth, often alienating as many (or more) prospects than it might attract. "Overall, I see this less as a political statement and more along the lines of the signs you see posted when a store is remodeling, which proclaim 'Pardon our dust! We're open for business!'" he said. "Nobody really notices and business doesn't improve until the signs are removed and foot traffic returns to normal."

Branded barricades
As a result of the extra security measures, storefronts near Trump Tower’s, including Tiffany and Gucci, which has its New York flagship within the tower, have seen decreased foot traffic as barricades deter shoppers and worsen congestion on the already busy thoroughfare in Midtown Manhattan.

Barricades along the street caused Tiffany to cancel its holiday window reveal. While the store remains in business with normal hours, its sales are expected to take a hit this year, according to CNBC.

In addition to the imposing presence of the metal blockades, security personnel have also been on heightened alert. Individuals headed to the luxury stores around the tower are the only ones getting through to the sidewalk, but this means potential shoppers enduring questioning by police before they are allowed to pass (Trump’s midtown Manhattan base causes problems for luxury retail).

Tiffany, for one, has partnered with the New York City Police Department to make the most of the security presence by designing branded covers for the police barricades.

The barricades, dressed in Tiffany blue slipcovers, have been positioned from 57th Street around to the jeweler’s entrance on Fifth Avenue, thus creating a Tiffany “safe zone.”

Doing so provides a pathway for passersby to view Tiffany’s annual holiday windows. While this solution ensures some consumers get to experience its windows, Tiffany likely missed out on the attention and crowds that make it a point to see its display this year.

The placement of the branded barricades also allows consumers to enter the flagship through its main entrance. Prior to the barricades being set up, consumers were encouraged to use the jeweler’s side entrance facing 57th Street.

In a statement the jeweler said: “Tiffany is in frequent communication with the New York Police Department and U.S. Secret Service regarding safety and security along the perimeter of our Fifth Avenue flagship. We remain open for business with regular hours and welcome customers to enter the store via our 57th Street entrance while any barricades along Fifth Avenue are in place.

 “Our iconic flagship store windows, which feature sparkling scenes of New York City at the holidays, are now on display for all to see. Our façade has also been illuminated as planned.”

Alternate viewings
A digital solution has also been implemented to ensure that consumers who would rather not visit in person due to the barricades and upped police presence can still experience the windows. 

Tiffany, Louis Vuitton and Cartier are among the 18 New York storefronts getting a digital audience this holiday season with help from Google. Google’s “Window Wonderland” recreates the feeling of strolling outside iconic retailers on a consumers’ desktop computer, mobile phone or tablet.

While about 5 million tourists descend on New York this time of year, many located in other cities, states or countries will not be able to get to see these in person, making this Google experience the next best thing.

(...)

PARU DANS AIRPORT-BUSINESS.COM | DECEMBRE 2016

Rituals Cosmetics has opened a 44sqm landside store at Eindhoven Airport in partnership with Lagardère. The store is large enough to offer the full Rituals product range.

Rituals opened two new standalone stores on 23 November – a 23sqm store in Vienna Airport’s Plaza operated in partnership with Welcome Trading, and a 44sqm landside store at Eindhoven Airport in partnership with Lagardère. The Vienna store offers all the brand’s best-selling products, while the Eindhoven store is large enough to offer the full Rituals product range.

“These are both important new openings for us,” says Neil Ebbutt, Director Wholesale for Rituals. “It brings our portfolio of standalone airport stores to seven and reflects the commitment we have to investing in this channel with our own stores. Airports are without doubt one of the most important channels for us to showcase Rituals to an international audience. The fact that there are some great international retail operators to partner with also makes it that much easier to bring more Rituals standalone stores to airports. These stores also allow us to offer a much wider product range and we have over 400 in total, each one inspired by an ancient Eastern tradition to transform every day routines into more meaningful moments. They include body care, skin care, pure tea, scented candles and fragrance sticks.”

The stores offer a lifestyle shopping experience, with passengers at Vienna and Eindhoven able to immerse themselves in the brand’s mantra – transform daily routines into meaningful rituals. On entering the store, travellers are offered herbal teas and the opportunity to experience the products through complimentary hand massages. Of course, the stores are currently stocked with a range of gift sets for Christmas.

A lot has been made of how airbrushed images in cosmetics advertising campaigns are setting beauty standards that are biologically impossible. But does that apply to the language used in the ads as well?

A lot has been made of how airbrushed images in cosmetics advertising campaigns are setting beauty standards that are biologically impossible. But does that apply to the language used in the ads as well?

A linguist from the University of Portsmouth believes the choice of words might also play a subliminal role in encouraging women to see themselves as “flawed and needing to be fixed”.

Helen Ringrow, a lecturer in Communication Studies and Applied Linguistics, says the underlying theme in advertisements for women’s cosmetics was the constant need to fix problems including dry hair, lack of glow and poor skin. She said: “The language used tells women their faces, hair and bodies are always falling below some imaginary standard. It makes women feel they’re never quite measuring up, never quite right. “It also creates problems we never knew we had, such as selling us deodorant which makes our underarm skin tone appear more even.”

She says the multi-billion pound beauty industry “thrives on making women’s bodies appear to be a flawed commodity which cosmetics can fix”. As part of her research, Ringrow studied more than 400 beauty ads in Cosmopolitan and Elle magazines over a six-month period in 2011. She noted subtle linguistic differences in tone and language in French and English advertisements but the underlying messages were similar.

Ringrow said: “The advertisements tell women that their bodies need endless work and that they are not quite good enough without the use of cosmetics.” She also added the advertising also relied heavily on scientific language, saying: “Women are bombarded by a cocktail of scientific words, sex and youthfulness in cosmetics advertising.

“You’ll find bold claims for the power of something scientific-sounding, like peptides or bio-proteins, which are not always proven, especially not in the small quantities in which they are found in many cosmetics products.”

Ringrow has revealed the results of her research in a book titled The Language of Cosmetics Advertising, published by Palgrave.

Les produits de beauté pour hommes, un marché d'avenir et qui le restera? De nombreuses marques spécialisées ont éclos grâce au commerce électronique et la mode du hipster barbu mais soigné, sans pour autant faire de l'ombre aux géants des cosmétiques.

PHOTO FOURNIE PAR TRIUMPH

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ÉTIENNE BALMER
Agence France-Presse
Paris

Karine Schrenzel, codirigeante du groupe français de vente en ligne spécialisé ShopInvest, a le sourire: son pôle de cosmétiques masculins devrait connaître une croissance de 65% cette année.

«Un homme a deux barrières» face aux produits de beauté: «Il n'a pas forcément envie de passer un samedi après-midi à flâner dans les boutiques de cosmétiques, et il a une certaine pudeur, que le web permet complètement d'effacer», estime cette femme d'affaires interrogée par l'AFP.

Sur ses deux sites spécialisés en la matière, MenCorner et Comptoir de l'homme, les produits les plus plébiscités sont des huiles à barbe, des autobronzants, des colorations pour cheveux, des crèmes minceur ou dépilatoires.

«Ces produits sont très surpondérés sur internet» par rapport aux ventes en magasins, où dominent les classiques déodorants, gels douches, shampooings et autres produits de rasage, selon Mme Schrenzel, qui mise sur ces créneaux de niche pour se démarquer de la grande distribution et d'Amazon.

Les grands groupes ont souvent des marques avant tout féminines, avec des gammes masculines venues par la suite. Des marques originales, créées dès le départ pour les hommes, «ont vraiment une carte à jouer», estime-t-elle.

En 2015, le marché de la beauté pour hommes, ou «grooming» (hors produits de rasage, savons, dentifrices et parfums) représentait des ventes mondiales de 17,4 milliards d'euros, 30% de plus qu'en 2011, selon le cabinet d'études Euromonitor.

Cependant, cela représente toujours moins de 10% du marché total des cosmétiques.

Design dandy et rétro

En Occident, les hommes ont longtemps été réfractaires aux produits de beauté. «Dans l'univers judéo-chrétien, l'esprit et le corps étaient complètement séparés», rappelle à l'AFP Michèle Verschoore, spécialiste en dermatologie cosmétique chez L'Oréal et auteure d'un Guide de la beauté au masculin, paru début 2016.

Mais aujourd'hui, «l'idée venue d'Asie se globalise, il n'y a plus de tabou masculin sur le bien-être», surtout chez les jeunes, ajoute Mme Verschoore.

Aux États-Unis, puis en Europe, de nombreuses marques indépendantes haut de gamme pour hommes sont apparues ces dernières années, en particulier dans le domaine du soin de la barbe, affectionnant souvent un design dandy et rétro, comme les britanniques Captain Fawcett ou Apothecary 87.

Lames et Tradition s'inscrit dans la même veine. Lancée il y a un an et demi, cette petite marque française vend notamment des huiles à barbe estampillées «naturelles» et «made in France», principalement à des professionnels. «Les barbiers ça pousse comme des champignons», se réjouit Stéphane Couty, le fondateur et patron de cette TPE (très petite entreprise), qui cherche à se développer à l'export. «On a été rentable dès notre première année», ajoute cet ancien du BTP.

Didier Arthaud, fondateur de la marque 66°30, est sur un créneau au développement plus lent, les crèmes de soin visage pour hommes, bio de surcroît. Il sera rentable cette année, pour la première fois depuis le lancement de sa marque en 2009.«On est sur la niche de la niche», car «globalement les hommes sont moins sensibles au bio que les femmes», en ne l'associant pas à l'efficacité qu'ils recherchent avant tout dans les cosmétiques, selon cet ancien cadre de grandes entreprises françaises.

L'entrepreneur met en garde ceux qui verraient les cosmétiques pour hommes comme un nouvel Eldorado: «Les mentalités vont beaucoup moins vite que les marketeurs».

Et les grands distributeurs sélectifs, tels Sephora, Nocibé ou Marionnaud, privilégient les poids lourds du secteur comme Biotherm (groupe L'Oréal), Clinique ou Clarins, relève-t-il.

Enfin, quand un acteur indépendant commence à devenir intéressant, il finit souvent par être mangé par un gros poisson.

Cet été, la marque américaine Dollar Shave Club, qui vend en ligne par abonnement des rasoirs et des produits de soin pour hommes, a été ainsi avalée pour un milliard de dollars par le néerlandais Unilever (Axe, Rexona, Dove...), leader mondial des cosmétiques pour hommes (hors rasage) devant le français L'Oréal.

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Victory for Mail as microbeads in make-up are banned: Minister calls on shoppers to boycott cosmetics with the tiny toxic beads

Andrea Leadsom urged Christmas shoppers to boycott microbead products. The Environment Secretary promised an outright ban by next October. More than a quarter of cosmetics on the shelves contain the plastic additives

A top minister last night urged Christmas shoppers to boycott cosmetics and personal care products containing microbeads as she promised an outright ban by next October.

The vow by Environment Secretary Andrea Leadsom is a major victory for the Daily Mail.

She will today begin a consultation on the need for a similar crackdown on other household goods containing the tiny toxic beads, such as washing powder and cleaning products.

In the meantime, the Cabinet minister called on shoppers to check the list of ingredients on make-up and other products including toothpastes, face scrubs and shower gels before buying. More than a quarter of cosmetics on the shelves contain the plastic additives.

Mrs Leadsom told the Mail: 'The UK has always been a leader in environmental protection and we take our responsibility to marine life – not only in our own seas, but around the world – very seriously'.

BY RACHEL JACOBY ZOLDANRJACOBY13 | allure.com
DECEMBER 19, 2016

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In a move I didn't see coming, Bobbi Brown is leaving her namesake cosmetics line after 25 years, WWD reports. (I know, right?!) Bobbi Brown Cosmetics, owned by beauty giant Estée Lauder Companies (which recently acquired Too Faced Cosmetics as a part of a burgeoning brand portfolio that also includes Origins, M.A.C., and Clinique), will continue to exist, but Brown is expected to leave the company by the end of the year. (Read: like ten days from now.).

And while we're sad that the creative genius behind Bobbi Brown Cosmetics (the Bobbi Brown—the one who sat in the backseat of an Uber with our beauty editor recently—more on that later) is leaving her brand, we know it's still in good hands as Peter Lichtenthal, global brand president, will continue to oversee the business in her absence. While Brown has yet to reveal her next move, sources speculated to WWD that she'll have a new business endeavor to focus on in 2017.

But hang on. Let's pour one out for Bobbi Brown and her line for a second. I'd argue that she was not only one of the original pioneers of the natural beauty look, but rather the official inspiration for the no-makeup makeup movement that I actually live by. It's soft, pretty, and frankly unfiltered in a world where seemingly everything is Facetuned, Photoshopped, or "tweaked just a tiny bit." Fabrizio Freda, the CEO and president of the Estée Lauder Companies, told WWD that Bobbi Brown Cosmetics is a "global prestige cosmetics powerhouse, with a highly promising future, poised for its next chapter of growth."

Exactly what that chapter will entail, of course, remains to be seen. And I'm still really jealous of Lexi, our beauty editor, who, yes, got to ride in an Uber with Bobbi and get her makeup done and of course emerged with that ethereal, lit-from-within, only-Bobbi-Brown-could-produce glow.

Thank you, Bobbi Brown, for your 25 years of flawless skin and barely there makeup. Our faces salute you. Mine does, at least.