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Tag: BeautyTech

  • We want to create a culture & community of respect: L’Oréal Paris–India’s Pau Gruart

    We want to create a culture & community of respect: L’Oréal Paris–India’s Pau Gruart

    MUMBAI: L’Oréal Paris launched its global initiative ‘Stand Up Against Street Harassment’ in India in November last year with NGO Breakthrough as its on-ground training partner. The aim was to train one million people in India in bystander intervention to tackle street harassment by 2022. The program, with actor Aditi Rao Hydari as its brand ambassador, applies the global ‘5D’ methodology of Direct, Distract, Delegate, Document, and Delay – to help victims and bystanders to take these actions when faced with harassment in public places. 

    Now, on the occasion of International Anti-Harassment Week, Indiantelevision.com’s Anupama Sajeet spoke to L’Oréal Paris – India general manager Pau Gruart to know more about the beauty conglomerate’s drive against street harassment and what it hopes to accomplish through it. Gruart also shared insights on the long-term impact of Covid2019 on the beauty industry and why he believes the changes brought about by 2020 in consumer behaviour and consumption “are real and here to stay”.

    Edited excerpts:

    On what inspired the global cosmetics giant to take on this initiative.

    Globally, L’Oréal Paris has always stood for women's empowerment. We are committed to addressing the barriers between women and their ambition. An international survey done by L’Oréal Paris-Ipsos showed that sexual harassment is one of the most important issues worldwide. It happens everywhere, every day, and takes away the right of women to feel safe in the public spaces and impacts their sense of self-worth. We felt there was a need to empower people to take action for themselves, and others. Thus, L’Oréal Paris launched a campaign to encourage women and men to intervene safely if they experience or witness street harassment. We partnered with Hollaback! a global, people-powered movement to end harassment in all its forms, and Breakthrough India, an organisation working to make violence and discrimination against women and girls unacceptable, for its launch in India.

    On what the brand hopes to achieve through this initiative.

    We want our program to create awareness about street harassment and let people recognise the issue for what it is. We want to create a culture and community of respect, dignity, and worth by empowering over one million people with the 5D’s methodology, developed by Hollaback – training that can be taken digitally from the standup-india.com site. In India, we are also going on-ground with our partner Breakthrough India. We hope to create a bystander movement that discourages harassers, supports victims, and empowers bystanders to intervene by equipping them with safe methods to do so.

    On the findings of the study conducted by L’Oréal Paris in partnership with Ipsos.

    When we investigated to know the most important issue women face in their daily lives, we discovered that the #1 issue was street harassment. So, we commissioned Ipsos to investigate the scale of sexual harassment in public spaces.  The survey found that 80 per cent of women have experienced sexual harassment in public spaces, at least once in their lives. 76 per cent of people (men and women) have witnessed sexual harassment. While 28 per cent globally said they did not know what to do when asked why they didn’t intervene.

    In India, the survey revealed that 81 per cent of those spoken to feel there is a lack of training on how to intervene to put an end to sexual harassment. At least 54 per cent of Indians said someone helped while witnessing sexual harassment and 79 per cent said it improved the situation when someone did intervene.  

    These stats clearly show there is intent, but people do not have the tools or strategies that can help them change the narrative. So we decided to #StandUp Against Street Harassment and help people become a part of the solution in preventing street harassment. Our program offers people free training in the 5D methodology that gives them five simple, safe strategies to diffuse a situation without endangering themselves or the victim. 

    On the disruption caused by Covid2019 and changes in consumer behaviour.

    Firstly, I don’t think there is going to be any ‘going back to pre-Covid normal’. The changes brought about by 2020 in consumer behaviour and consumption are real and here to stay. Digital has become an extremely important aspect of our strategy. Fortunately, L’Oréal Paris has been leading the field when it comes to digital for years now. We have transformed from a beauty company to a Beauty Tech company. We have been able to ride on this shift in consumer behaviour effectively. We have been delivering a much richer online experience for our consumers, capturing the DIY and digital trend through: 

    -Delivering education (on products) in a virtual way

    -Use VR/AR tools to try the product and see how it looks on you

    – Live sessions and leveraging influencers for consumers to help them on their DIY journeys

    -Access to e-consultants who can further help answer queries 

    L’Oréal Paris Hair Colour, for example, leveraged technology to hold the consumer’s hand ‘virtually’ as she took her first steps into the hair colouring journey at home. We did this by organizing special sessions with our Hair Colour expert to clarify all her questions, having a virtual try-on on our website where you can see how the colour will look on you. So, we educated, demonstrated, and consulted – all virtually.

    On the long-term impact of Covid on the beauty industry.

    Beauty is an eternal requirement, linked to a fundamental need to feel and look good. While we have been in the business for 110 years globally, the desire for beauty has been with humankind for many more years, and that is not going to change. Even if you look at what happened last year during the lockdown with practically no socialising, people still experimented and expressed themselves in different ways with their makeup. Eyes got a lot more focus, even long-stay lipsticks became a mainstay in makeup bags. Like everything else, the market will transform. With Covid2019, it might go through an accelerated phase of transformation in products, consumer use, distribution, etc but as long as we are close to the consumers and thinking of satisfying their needs, the beauty market will be fine.

  • Garnier survey showed 90% Indians want to be more sustainable: Zeenia Bastani

    Garnier survey showed 90% Indians want to be more sustainable: Zeenia Bastani

    MUMBAI: With the world waking up to new realities amid the onslaught of the pandemic, the year gone by seems to have accelerated the agenda for a greener and cleaner Earth. Sustainable living and environment-friendly actions are top of the agenda for brands and consumers alike across the globe. A Garnier commissioned international survey found that a substantial proportion of global consumers expect brands to facilitate this.

    Recently, the global beauty brand launched its transformative Green Beauty initiative set to radically reduce its carbon footprints and global environmental impact, while also declaring that all its products are now officially cruelty free. In the wake of the announcement, Garnier India General Manager Zeenia Bastani spoke to IndianTelevision.com’s Anupama Sajeet, where she revealed what inspired the brand to go all-out green, the company’s growing investment in the digital space and takeaways from the past year that it would like to build on in the future.

    Edited excerpts:

    On what the brand hopes to achieve through the Green Beauty initiative.

    Covid2019 has accelerated interest in sustainability conversations and urged consumers for a sustainable transition. While Garnier as a brand has been committed to sustainability for years; producing more natural formulas, using sustainable and fair-trade ingredients, even being the first to bring certified organic products to the mass skincare market, with the launch of its sustainability program Garnier Green Beauty, we want to go further, to shift the way the beauty industry operates and lead the change for all of us.

    The Green Beauty initiative is a complete end-to-end approach to sustainability and through it we aim to achieve the following goals:

    ·         Plastic & Packaging:

    –       By 2025, Garnier will aim to use Zero Virgin Plastic in packaging, saving 37,000 tonnes of plastic every year. 

    –       By 2025 all packaging will also be either reusable, recyclable or compostable.

    ·         Product & Formula:

    –       By 2022, all plant-based and renewable ingredients will be sustainably sourced.

    –       By 2025, 100 per cent of Garnier’s new products will have an improved environmental profile.

    ·         Factories & Manufacturing:

    –       100 per cent carbon neutral industrial sites by 2025, using renewable energy.

    –       The CO2 emissions of industrial sites have already been reduced by 72 per cent.

    ·         Solidarity Sourcing:

    –          By 2025 Garnier will have empowered 800 communities worldwide as part of our solidarity sourcing programme.

    We are also delighted to receive the stamp of approval from the Cruelty Free International Leaping Bunny programme, the leading organisation working to end animal testing and the cruelty free gold standard.

    On the findings of the Garnier commissioned international survey on global consumers.

    Garnier’s One Green Step Report showed how much consumer mindset is progressing when it comes to sustainability. The findings indicated that 2020 was a significant wakeup call for many for the need to take further green steps to protect our planet. While the research looks at eight countries, across four continents, referring to the India statistics – we saw over 90 per cent of those surveyed want to be more sustainable in 2021 whereas 77 per cent cited a reduction in their use of plastic products as their number one green priority in 2021. In addition to this, over 53 per cent feel differently about their actions and behaviours because of this year's pandemic and 51 per cent of those surveyed in India said that Covid2019 had made them re-evaluate their priorities.

    On Garnier’s marketing strategy during and post-Covid.

    Our strategy has always been consumer focused, and that is what we continued to do during the pandemic; paying attention to what the consumer needed and wanted.

    For example, the pandemic has resulted in increased washing of hands, leading to dryness issues, which is why we responded with a hand cream. During the lockdown, since salons were closed, people needed their self-care solutions at home, which is where we emphasized DIY hair colour solutions and sheet masks for a facial like glow in the safety of their homes. With increased screen time and video calls, we understood the need for more attention to eye care and launched our eye masks.

    On the key learnings from the past year.

    However challenging 2020 was, it also taught us a lot. The interlinked trends we see that will continue to deeply influence business in the future are –

    – Digitisation and e-commerce: As we have all witnessed, the need for a low touch economy saw the boom of digitisation and ecommerce. This digital and e-commerce revolution is bringing with it an awareness of global beauty brands and trends. Today, a young India has access to global brands, bypassing the hurdles of traditional distribution.  Online purchasing habits are evolving, presenting new opportunities for brands. 18 per cent of people bought personal care or beauty products online for the first time during this crisis.  

    -BeautyTech: With the fast adoption of digital and tech, came the awareness and development of BeautyTech – beauty augmented by technology. As a beauty tech company committed to digital transformation, we have been focused on deploying new technologies to enhance our products and customer experiences. For example, Garnier ColorMatch is a virtual try-on tool that allows our consumers to virtually try on different hair colour shades to enable her to choose her hair colour.

    -Consumer behaviour/awareness: The last year saw an acceleration in consumer awareness and behaviour, be it for a better brand experience via BeautyTech, more socially and environmentally responsible products, brands with a real purpose or more representation of what beauty stands for.

    Young Indian consumers have made a significant shift to digital media in the last few years. Digital has always been an integral part of our media plans even pre-Covid and will continue to be so.