Premium Beauty News - Another “great” moment for all marketing and Research teams of the Group!
Philippe Thuvien - We hope so; that was the goal!, Don’t forget that the founding principle of CherryPack - launched three years ago - is to address all the brands of the Group and to provide innovations to the Marketing and Research teams, for their future launches. An operation that has enabled to put on the market over the past two years more than thirty products with novel packaging solutions and exclusive innovations to the L’Oréal Group. This initiative was jointly managed by the Group’s Purchasing and Packaging & Development Departments, and aims, in the background, to always better anticipate consumer expectations, and this for all areas in the world.
Premium Beauty News - Can you give us some examples of new products that emerged from previous CherryPacks?
Philippe Thuvien - Yes of course! There is in particular the self-loading dropper of Lancôme’s Génifique developed in partnership with Yonwoo; the Revitalift Laser X3 tube with a zamac head or Quad Pro Star Secrets the make-up palette for L’Oréal Paris; Cellu Destock Expert, Vichy’s “triball” tube or the “encre gonflante” décor for YSL’s Touche Eclat.
Premium Beauty News - An operation that surely requires a great deal of preparation?
Philippe Thuvien - The preparation is actually essential to fully capture the expectations of our Brands and better respond to them; this is the role of Development Teams with their Marketings. The CherryPack required eight months of preparation with several dozens of suppliers who were presented before an Evaluation Committee, and to have in the final phase, ten of them selected. Six packaging suppliers, three subcontractors and a manufacturer of POS material. These companies are Alpla, Aptar, Crystal, Edelman, Intercos, Majrani, Shya Hsin, Spatz, Tokiwa and Yonwoo. Emphasis was placed this year on-time-to market with over 50% of projects available in a time period of less than 18 months. For this year we also wanted a very internationally focused CherryPack since we welcomed suppliers from Asia, Europe and America. Finally, and this is also very new, within the selection criteria, we included the concept of intellectual property, that is to say, that innovations presented were previously the subject of a priority research to guarantee that they me freely exploited.
Premium Beauty News - Innovation was also part of the organization of the CherryPack itself?
Philippe Thuvien - To facilitate the conduct of these two days and the hosting of our eight hundred guests, we distributed to each of them an iPad to enable them to scan the QR code attached to each highlighted product and thus to get real-time information on the product (description, cost & delays). Each Group member also had the possibility to give a mark to each product listed. This enabled us to have parallel a feedback on the interest shown by our visitors and thus, analyze the individual needs. To note that 90% of products were scanned during these two days.
Premium Beauty News - Overall, the activity of the different teams in packaging & development, you are in charge of, has been particularly tonic?
Philippe Thuvien - That’s right! And it is quite natural since, I remind you, we must support our Businesses in the quest for a billion new consumers. In terms of major launches, we can mention:
– Spray Cream hair colouring with “Préférence mousse absolue” of L’Oréal Paris which won the European Aerosol Federation (FEA) Special Jury Prize.
– A new so-called temporary hair colouring, “Hair Chalk” by L’Oréal Professionnel.
– The “L’Infinie Platine” by L’Oréal Professionnel which now comes in the form of a 500 g. sachet of a discolouration powder in replacement of a jar, for which we just received an Oscar de l’Emballage in the environment category.
– “Armani Si” the new Giorgio Armani perfume, which has a massive hood without any parting line and a very fine “snap collar”.
– The Baccarat edition of “Lancôme Absolute” whose jar is made of black faceted crystal.
Premium Beauty News - a dynamics in packaging innovation, which is boosted by the reinforcement of teams?
Philippe Thuvien - The Group actually decided to allocate more resources this year to Packaging Innovation and Functional Design, two essential components of product innovation. Hence, we reinforced the “Innovation” teams, set up a “Functional Design” structure (in charge of finding new gestures, more ergonomics and a greater ease of restitution, sensoriality...) and establish “Packaging Innovation” teams in North America and Asia; the goal being to significantly increase the synergy between the Innovation Department, the Research for new formulas and Packaging Innovation to accelerate a global product innovation offering. Among significant and recent examples of this dynamics, we can mention:
– The deodorant “Deo Caress”, by Narta,
– The “Faux Cils Papillon” mascara by L’Oréal Paris (“Votre Beauté” Award)
– The gloss, Gloss In Love (Oscar de l’Emballage in the “Luxury” category).
Premium Beauty News - The concept of environmental “preservation” is intrinsically present in your approach.
Philippe Thuvien - This is a strategic priority for the Group and as part of the activity of the Packaging & Development teams. We have developed a guide and a tool for the life-cycle analysis to reduce the amount of packaging required for the shipment of our components from our suppliers to our facilities to enable a reduction of packaging waste.
The efforts of the Packaging & Development Community to lighten our components, use recycled materials and reduce the volume of our packaging materials were highlighted by the press through several awards:
– The Eco Emballage Trophy for the Ivy tube of La Roche-Posay
– The Walmart Award for Excellence in Sustainable Development with Garnier U.S.
– The Greener Packaging Award (similar to the Belgian Eco Emballage) to single out the use of PETG thermoformed trays, 50% lighter than PS trays used by the Luxury Division.
Premium Beauty News - What are the objectives of the Packaging and Development Community for the coming months?
Philippe Thuvien - Our objective is to actively participate in the growth of the Group through “affordable innovation”:
– For the Development teams, be real business partners of our Brands by accompanying them still further in the construction of their launch plans, in accelerated innovation and “design- to- cost”.
– For the Packaging teams, share the expertise with robust and standardized designs to accelerate the “time-to-market” and focus on high value-added developments.
And then, of course, packaging with its “3Rs” (Respect, Reduce, Replace) policy, is an integral part of the Group’s ambition for Sustainability, through its 2020 program “Sharing Beauty with all”, presented by our Directorate General last October 23, 2013.
