L’Oréal Travel Retail
Developing a Differentiated Travel Retail Experience for Kiehl’s Customers On the Go
L’Oréal Travel Retail America wanted to redefine its passenger experience in airport retail locations across the United States to better engage with American passengers. We dug into the data, completed ethnographic research, and uncovered actionable insights, bringing it all together with an omnichannel brand platform concept to activate the Kiehl’s brand and make it relevant to passengers on the go.
Leading insight
Travelling is often exciting, but it can also be stressful. And while travellers seek convenience and ease of access, they’re underserved when it comes to travel wellness in a number of areas from guidance and beauty experiences to inclusivity.
Reframing the challenge
The passenger journey isn’t a traditional customer journey. Travellers are busy going from check-in, to security, to their gate, so the window of opportunity is slim. Our challenge was to key into the right moments, play in the right strategic white spaces, and tap into Kiehl’s known strengths and equity to make the brand the go-to stop for travel wellness and skincare expertise.
Opportunity unlocked
By exploring the unique tensions that travellers contend with, we identified the white space where passenger needs went unmet and developed a concept for the brand’s biggest opportunity in the travel retail space.
Turning a low into a high
After the COVID-19 pandemic hit, travel retail sales were deeply impacted by the drastic drop in international tourism. Because travel was primarily domestic in the U.S., L’Oréal was looking for opportunities to develop its relationship with American travellers and position its Kiehl’s offering to capture and convert this new primary demographic.
How insights take flight
We started by examining Kiehl’s brand perception, the marketplace realities of travel retail, and the cultural conversations in the beauty space. This allowed us to map out the travel beauty landscape, understand the momentum Kiehl’s competitors were building, and situate Kiehl’s current position in the market. From there, we were able to identify 3 core areas with untapped potential.
Meanwhile, we created customer segments based on motivational profiles and travel-specific microcultures in the beauty space. Layering those profiles over the traveller journey, we were able to key into the crucial moments of truth along the traveller journey and determine the top needs and desires for our main customer archetypes.
But we didn’t stop there. After distilling research into insights, we tackled the challenge of turning insight into opportunity.
Welcome aboard Kiehl’s Airways
With deep insight into the travel beauty mindset and a clear demand space to play in, we refocused Kiehl’s value exchange and core messaging for the travel retail space. This became the basis for Kiehl’s Airways, our creative platform concept focused on helping even the savviest of skincare product connoisseurs navigate the ups and downs of travel.
Using an omnichannel approach, the Kiehl’s Airways concept included physical and digital in-market activations – including a digital platform complete with travel destination quiz and associated product recommendations, as well as an in-flight skincare safety video, data-enabled POS materials, curated kits, brand and influencer partnerships, and social content. The concept invited passengers to tackle their travel skincare woes while delighting them all along the way.
Kiehl’s Airways took travellers from going to glowing and gave L’Oréal a clear roadmap and plan for activating a new client base by redefining beauty and skincare on the go.
