Shiseido Case Study
Challenge:
- To relaunch an existing skincare range – Pureness - aimed at 18-25 year olds
- To develop innovative communications to refresh and revitalise the parent brand, historically only known for being Japanese
- To generate high levels of media coverage amongst key target young female titles, and ensure saturation coverage even though one title, Company Magazine, would have an exclusive a month before everyone else
- To position Shiseido as leading edge in this market
Strategy:
- The relaunch of an existing brand was not a sufficient news story in itself, so we went about creating one which would sit alongside it, which would tap into the leisure pursuits and preoccupations of our target audience
- Recognise that for the beauty media, where and how you launch is as important as what you launch
Tactics:
- The creation of PURETEXT, a text-based service offering skincare advice and tips,and free samples to women. Consumers would simply text the word PURE , and receive advice on Friday afternoons, setting them up for the round of weekend socialising
- Launch of Puretext, to mark the relaunch of Pureness, to all target press at an intriguing and relevant event – the futuristic Nutopia in London’s Covent Garden
- Arranged an exclusive press trip for Company magazine to Shiseido’s headquarters in Japan, to give her an idea of the scale of the company, reflected in her subsequent feature
Results:
- 5% response rate to Puretext service - compared to an industry average of just 0.1%
- Over 14,000 consumers joined Puretext , creating an invaluable, tightly targeted database for future marketing campaigns
- 5 beauty editors attended launch, breaking all records for press attendance of Shiseido UK launches
- Coverage on Pureness and Puretext achieved in 90% of attending media, including all women’s monthlies and national press
- Company Magazine ran a pre launch exclusive and substantial post-launch coverage
- Sales of new Pureness for first 4 weeks of the campaign were double Pureness sales for 2001
- Pureness sales as a contribution to total Shiseido UK sales for 2002 showed increase in weight of business of 260% over 2001
“The Puretext campaign has made a direct contribution to sales success” Emily Muffett ,Marketing Manager,
Shiseido UK
