News- Art. o przyszlosci YSL Beaute (ang.)

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Dlugi, ale interesujacy i poruszajacy wiele dyskutowanych ciekawych watkow
artykul-wywiad z Chatal Roos- "mozgiem" grupy YSL Beaute, z moodiereport:

"FRANCE. In 2000 one of the beauty industry’s most high-profile executives
returned to the brand that catapulted her into perfumery’s premier league.
The prospect of rejuvenating YSL Beauté managed to lure Chantal Roos –
creator of such iconic fragrances as Opium, L’Eau d’Issey and Jean Paul
Gaultier Classique – away from Beauté Prestige International (BPI) and back
to the house where her career took off.
But in Roos’ ten-year absence, much had changed, and there were serious
challenges to address, in terms of distribution, competition, personnel,
image and innovation. True to form, Roos rolled up her (couture) sleeves and
got down to the job in hand.
Thus the turnaround began. For the flagship brand Yves Saint Laurent, make-up
blazed a trail that was soon followed by a new feminine fragrance Cinéma.
Meanwhile, scents from thrusting young designers, such as Alexander McQueen
and Stella McCartney, also made their debut.
The distribution was cleaned up, as was the management, and a new era began.
So, does Roos consider her latest half-dozen years with the group to be “six
of the best” – or second best?

“2005 was a rich year,” she replies. “The launch of Cinéma developed nicely
all over the world. What has been particularly great is that Cinéma has been
incremental business. It has not hurt Opium at all, which is very important.
And we had another huge year within make-up.”
Colour was the foundation stone on which Roos decided to rebuild the house of
YSL. And it has delivered impressive performances, both domestically and in
travel retail, scorching up the rankings and gaining significant market
share.
With Cinéma developing into a second pillar line for YSL, Roos is now keen to
focus on the group’s designer division. “We had a difficult story at the
start with Alexander McQueen,” she admits candidly. “We perceived very
quickly that the first fragrance [Kingdom], launched in 2003, would remain a
very niche line. It was not enough of a statement to establish the brand.
"So in 2005, we have launched another fragrance, MyQueen, into Anglo-Saxon
markets. The first results show that it has started well, much better than
the previous one.”

Meanwhile Stella, the debut fragrance from Stella McCartney, has turned in a
solid performance. “As an example, at the end of last September year-to-date,
without any new launches or openings, we were up +13%,” notes Roos with
satisfaction. “The line is growing in a very healthy way.
“And that is despite the difficulties inherent in launching a new or smaller
brand in today’s saturated market-place.

“Today everybody is always looking for something new, or for new brands,”
sighs Roos. “And when a big brand arrives with a new launch, all the doors
are open. But when you arrive with smaller brands, such as Van Cleef &
Arpels – which has been in the market since the 1970s – it is much more
difficult to establish territory, and to continue to exist.
“The distribution has less patience, less time and less space to give to you
because there are so many launches. In the 70s there were maybe two a year,
now you have 100. So there is less time to express yourself, and that is not
to the advantage of the those traditional brands, who still have loyal
customers.”
Roos continues: “Van Cleef does meaningful business in countries such as
France and Italy; Boucheron is still very popular in the US and France; Oscar
de la Renta is important for the US, Canada and South America.

“They aren’t global brands, let’s be realistic. And you can’t force the
distribution – it’s always better to be in demand. But neither can you
address everything simultaneously unless you’re a huge name like Chanel, so
then you need to be more tactical.”
And Roos’ tactics, for those brands at least, revolve around the
regional. “With certain brands that is our strategy, but that’s increasingly
the case even within the YSL portfolio,” she notes. “Think of Baby Doll. You
wouldn’t consider it for Europe, but it is very strong in Asia, particularly
in Japan, and we take care to promote and animate it in the appropriate Asian
style.” (...)

cd... - w tym o planowanym meskim YSL

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"(...)More haste, less speed seems to be the credo. “I like to grow brands step
by step,” underlines Roos. “Stella McCartney is in around 5,000 doors
worldwide – compared with about 16,000 for YSL – but it is in doors that appeal
to its customers.
“Take Sephora in the US, for example. Compared with department stores, it is
young and trendy. Since Stella was launched we have always been in its top 10,
and more recently its top eight. So younger customers are driving us to think
about different types of distribution.”
Roos enthuses: “We have a fabulous programme behind (Stella) because it’s a
brand that can be really strong. Stella herself is young and famous in her own
right. She is well known for her beliefs and is a big personality.
“We have a lot of plans I can’t yet reveal, but I’m sure you can imagine that
we could do everything with Stella in the world of beauty, it’s just one of
those brands. What I will say is it has the potential for cosmetics and even
for skincare.”

In addition to Stella, Roos will be focusing her attention on another important
market segment this year – men.
“In the second half there will be a major men’s fragrance launch from Yves
Saint Laurent,” she reveals. “With Cinéma we have worked hard on women, and
indeed that’s where we have always been strongest.
“But now it is time to work on men, because we are still living on Kouros,
which was launched 25 years ago.”
Given the way the sector is growing, does Roos also have designs on the men’s
skincare market too? “That’s still a very small, marginal market,” she
responds. “And unless you have real credibility in the men’s market, and also
in skincare, there’s no point.
“You also have to invest a lot in such launches,” Roos continues. “For YSL, we
have other things to do before we consider that. We have to really re-establish
ourselves on the men’s [fragrance] market first, because frankly we are a
little bit out of it…Kouros is still our number one men’s line for example, but
in most countries you will not see it anywhere in the top 20.
“Opium for Men and M7 are also small numbers. So we have to make a successful
re-entry into the men’s arena, because we have been absent for too long.”

Another area where YSL Beauté is conspicuous by its absence is the celebrity
fragrance sector – although in this instance, it is by choice, not chance.
“It is not something that we are considering,” says Roos firmly. “I am not
excited by celebrity launches, to tell you the truth. Every time there’s a new
one, the previous one is -65%. I look [at what’s out there], but it doesn’t
influence me.” She shrugs: “Maybe it should.
“I applaud the way Chanel has revived No 5 with Nicole Kidman. It was well
done, and sales were up +25% in the US last year. But they have always had
famous faces, such as Catherine Deneuve, Carole Bouquet or Vanessa Paradis. And
it’s still Chanel No 5, not a Nicole Kidman fragrance, which is an important
difference.”
She continues: “It frightens me that the celebrity would become more popular
than the fragrance itself. And who knows whether such scents will last any
longer than the celebrity’s career, which is often quite short nowadays.”
But Roos accepts that one size does not fit all. “Some people are doing [the
celebrity thing] quite well,” she concedes. “They are not building a brand for
ever, it’s all about the moment. It’s about promoting a product for now or next
year, and then starting again with a new one. It is another way of doing
fragrance.
“But we have such strong names: Yves Saint Laurent, Stella McCartney, even
McQueen, and their goal is to remain in the world of fashion, to become a part
of its history,” she explains. “Therefore our goal with fragrance is to help
perpetuate the name for as long as we can, at the highest level of creativity.
It is much more long-term. We want to create new classics.”

Roos also wants to strengthen the group’s presence within skincare. “Today
skincare represents about 10% of our total volume on Yves Saint Laurent,” she
notes. “In Asia it’s much more and in certain countries it’s less – so this
definitely has to grow.
“Developing skincare takes longer than anything else, because you need a lot of
R&D. [Since my return] we have created more specific products for Asian
markets, and in the past two or three years we have started to address
different skincare categories. We began with the basics, and now we are
building with more advanced and specialised items.”
Selling skincare requires more time and effort relative to fragrance or make-
up, and dedicated consultants are crucial. “It is so much easier when you have
your own girls,” agrees Roos. “It can be really difficult to train people in a
perfumery environment, versus a department store counter or even an airport…But
everything with skincare takes time because you have to build regularly your
credibility.”
She continues: “We know our priorities. It seems easy to say but for Yves Saint
Laurent we must maintain the growth we have generated within make-up – which
will also pull the skincare with it.
“We also have the ensure that the success of Cinéma continues, together with
that of Opium, and to successfully introduce our new men’s fragrance.
Basically, in addition to executing new launches, we have to try to maintain
our classic lines too, which as I’ve already mentioned is complicated in the
world of today.”
Looking ahead, what is likely to excite Roos this year, in terms of fellow
supplier or retail developments?
“I see everything,” she laughs. “But [last year] I don’t think I was excited by
anything.” However, Roos pays generous tribute to former Gucci Group colleague
Tom Ford, poised to unveil his own beauty range, in conjunction with The Estée
Lauder Companies, this spring (The Moodie Report.com, 12 April 2005).
“With Tom nothing surprises me; he is very talented,” she remarks. “He could do
anything he wants to do. He has always had his own vision of everything…and
what he has done in the past with Gucci is just spectacular.”
On the retail front, Roos singles out the revamp of Gatwick North, in addition
to the opening of Heathrow’s new T5. “What is so great about travel retail is
that the people are so dynamic,” she observes. “Before [intra-EU abolition],
all they relied on was the tax free factor. Now that has changed, they are
constantly exploring other options.
“It’s very exciting – much more so sometimes than the High Street. You can’t
change things so easily there, but in an airport you can, and so there is
regular improvement, particularly in the major locations."
Roos concludes: “Travel retailers are constantly questioning themselves about
how to improve their stores and better service the passengers. I like that very
much.” "

kolejny wywiad z Roos- o rynku travel value

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"Chantal Roos and travel retail have always had a very special relationship,
and yet YSL Beauté’s Chairman and CEO has always resisted the temptation to
create a travel retail exclusive fragrance, as so many of her competitors have.
But last October Roos did take YSL’s exclusive offering to another level, with
the introduction of a limited-edition version of the brand’s Paris feminine
fragrance, created especially for French retailer Aelia.
“We created a special presentation, with different packaging,” Roos
explains. "We put the [original] fragrance in a pouch that is black and pink,
with a little bow. And there was a gold-coloured Eiffel Tower charm, which
could be attached to a bag or mobile phone.
“It was very nicely designed, and such an obvious product to co-operate on, I
wondered why we had never thought of it before…And given the name and the
background, it is completely coherent, which nobody can reproach. As a product,
it didn’t arrive from the middle of nowhere just to please an operator.”
While Roos declares herself pleased with the numbers for the Paris Collector’s
Edition, it is unlikely to herald the dawn of too many more.
“I am not convinced that I should make specific fragrances for each operator
around the world,” comments Roos. “Where do you then draw the line - do I do
something with Big Ben for WDF? But this sort of product for Aelia, and the way
we do Baby Doll in Asia, that type of thing I think works well.”
She continues: “People get bored if they see the same thing all the time. In
travel retail today, like everywhere else, you have to animate more and more
frequently, because it is mostly the same people doing most of the travelling.
“But that doesn’t mean you have to always create new products – new activities
are just as important. It’s just as valid to create a new way to apply, to mix,
to wear something that already exists.”
Which is where YSL’s travel retail selection comes in. “For this, we play on
our best-sellers,” explains Roos. “For example, take Touche Eclat. We have
created a successful animation called Eye Must Have, which features not only
Touche Eclat but also our Mascara Volume Effet Faux Cils and Contour Expert
Special Eyes.
“We have created a story around key items, so that when a person comes to buy
one of these best-sellers, there is something which prompts them to buy
something more.” "

Zdjecie Chantal Roos:
www.moodiereport.com/images/ysl_roos_1.jpg
Bardzo podoba mi sie jej punkt widzenia dotyczacy celow grupy. Sporo tu znanych
wiadomosci- slabe wyniki Kingdom- wiadomo, meskie zapachy YSL sprzedaja sie
kiepsko, Baby Doll zdobywa Azje, sukces Cinema- no nie jest to arcydzielo, ale
bezpieczny, bardzo komercyjny zapach.