NEW YORK — Goldwell is out to get some style.
The professional hair care company this month is launching a styling line, complete with a marketing and merchandising plan designed to reach consumers. Traditionally, Goldwell products have catered to hairstylists rather than to the masses. But new items use consumer-friendly packaging that can be merchandised alongside a Goldwell Look Book, so consumers can see what each styling item has the ability to do.
The new line consists of 20 styling items, which are now entering 8,000 salons. To create the new items, marketers at Goldwell teamed up with the creative group at Rush, London, a salon chain in England. From them, Goldwell found out one main thing: Stylists would like help selling products to their consumers. As a result, five styling segments have been created, one for natural hair, one to volumize hair, one to get hair straight, one to curl hair and one to create wild hair.
Each segment is “clearly identified by a big letter and color-coded containers,” said Angela Williams, associate brand manager for Goldwell Hair Care and Styling. Containers also have product descriptors and hold factors. Three to five products represent each segment.
A popular item in the new lineup is Wild Unlimitor spray wax, Williams said. The item was an existing styler in Goldwell’s Trend styling line, which catered to the hairstylist but now has been updated with new technology (bamboo protein) and new repackaging. Nine other Trend styling items have been updated and are now part of the new line, too.
First-year sales of the line are estimated in the $20 million range, according to industry sources. Goldwell’s tag line has also been reinvented to “Closer to Stylists, Closer to Hair.” The old tag line was “Professional Haircare.”
The older items never would have worked without a face-lift.
“They were not very consumer-friendly, the packaging was dated, products were confusing, and the segmentation did not make sense. It was more for the stylist and was not a big retail line. This new line will take styling for Goldwell to a whole new level,” Williams said.
Prices for products range from $14 for the Nice Balance calming milk to $18 for Move Control curl putty.
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Merchandising has been developed to fit an assortment of salon types. For larger retail areas, products can be displayed on acrylic cubes fashioned with back panels that represent a different segment within the styling line. For smaller retail spaces there are paper cubes with beauty visuals and segment icons.