The beauty of reinventing the wheel
FORGET OLD AND TRADITIONAL: BREAKING STEREOTYPES AND EMBRACING CHANGE IS THE WAY TO ENSURE PRODUCT SUCCESS, ESPECIALLY IN THE MAKE-UP BUSINESS,WRITES
BREAKING stereotypes in the beauty industry is driving growth and making goods usually viewed as luxury purchases virtually recession-proof. This is according to Yasmin Kathoria, creative director of The NWJ Bridal & Beauty Experience. Kathoria was part of the forwardthinking team tasked with not only reinventing this 27-year-old event, but growing its reach.
From bridal master classes, hair and make-up tutorials and brow artistry, to pioneering brand productsampling, live interviews with leading beauty brand ambassadors and make-over shows and competitions, the event had it all.
Forbes estimates the beauty and personal care market to be worth around $445 billion, with a plethora of researchers suggesting growth over the next five years will outstrip broader economic growth, especially in emerging economies.
As a brand-building guru, Kathoria believes this has less to do with growing disposable incomes and more to do with an industry that is shrugging off the domination of controlling multinationals and instead connecting with what have up until now been regarded as the minorities on the beauty landscape.
South Africa, with its significant cultural diversity, is a good mirror for how this is happening, she believes.
Kathoria explains that event organisers Conker Exhibitions realised they had to re-examine the relevance of this event. They had the courage to challenge the most stereotyped of events, the traditional white wedding.
“They told us the bridal industry seemed to be dying because they didn’t understand millennials. They asked us to help them to re-position it,” she says.
The end result – after lots of soul-searching and research into perceptions and buying trends of the very generation who will be tying the knot – showed a need for a different approach, one which mirrors international bridal fairs.
Fashion shows saw black models wearing traditional Indian wedding outfits and white models showing traditionally black marriage attire. It
SHIRLEY LE GUERN
featured gay couples and encouraged men and women to embrace beauty products.
Organisers were encouraged to not only examine trends affecting millennials, but to closely follow a whole new grouping known as the pivotals. Still teens, they are more conservative when it comes to careers and work ethics, as well as more rebellious than their slightly older peers when it comes to race, gender and sexuality.
This is also the generation that recognises they are living in a hyperconnected era but, at the same time, voices an innate human desire to reboot and connect with something real. For them, brands need to be authentic. For them, the beauty and fashion sectors must be about embracing self-expression rather than materialism.
“The business of beauty is booming in South Africa. Historically, it has always been about shopping malls and big brands, about perfection and flawlessness. People are now asking for more, for self-expression,” she says, pointing to the 2017 launch of music and fashion giant Rihanna’s brand, Fenty Beauty.
Young South Africans are seeing the likes of Rihanna and model Kylie Jenner as beauty icons. The launch of Fenty Beauty has filled a void in the beauty industry by providing foundations for skin tones that had never even been on the agenda of make-up houses. The intention was for all women to feel included and to find products that matched their individual appearances and cultures.
This idea of “beauty for everyone” will make or break the beauty industry and its offshoots, Kathoria insists.
Many established businesses and brands still take an ivory-tower approach and are profit-driven. They run their businesses using 1970s models, which hinge on command and control, rather than embracing the diverse humanity of those using their products.
“Many of the established businesses and big brands do not yet understand how the beauty industry is changing. Newer companies coming into the sector are reinventing the business of beauty and driving growth. The inclusion of minorities is a huge issue and will need to be embraced by big brands if they want to move forward.
“Companies who are accepting this are seeing growth because they know beauty is about making someone feel good. Minorities now have access to this. Muslim women, for example, now have a whole new version of beauty open to them,” she says.
Companies need to crack the code and discover what consumers want and then understand and meet these human needs, she adds. This is a perfect match for Kathoria’s own career path and for her official title of “business humaniser”.
She grew up in Durban and finished her education with a degree in psychology and the performing arts followed by an honours degree in gender equality.
She smiles as she explains how her creative side saw her develop a love for fashion while her “business side” told her she needed to earn a living. She joined FMCG giant, Unilever where she worked for 15 years on its big beauty brands. After relocating to London, she worked across six countries – South Africa, India, Indonesia, Brazil, the UK and the US.
“It was intense, I had very little time to myself,” admits this single mother who returned to South Africa with her young son, Mikhail, in January last year.
She had reached a turning point and joined global consultancy
Innate Motion.
Created by an entrepreneur with a strong background in psychology, she says it comprises 45 consultants who form teams of psychologists, anthropologists, brand strategists and design thinkers who have set out to humanise big brands such as Samsung and Coca-cola and helped them to better balance people and profits.
This is an organisation without borders, offices or bosses that has worked in more than 75 different countries. Kathoria travelled abroad 26 times during 2017. But she is also enjoying helping local companies and brands to fight for relevance in a constantly evolving beauty market.
By building on an existing event with a solid foundation, Kathoria says she believes that the NWJ Bridal & Beauty Experience could prove an important catalyst for local beauty influencers, brands, and designers to show off their creativity and shrug off the constraints of the past.