NEW YORK — With the success of Avène and Dermablend in American drugstores, L’Oréal is adding an even more serious skin care offering, La Roche-Posay, to the Dermo Skin Care centers.
Well known to American dermatologists, La Roche-Posay is reacting to perceived consumer demand for more at-home serious skin care by extending into derm skin care departments in major drug chains. Retailers think shoppers are ready. “We have recently added La Roche-Posay as part of our Healthy Skin Care Centers,” said Janice Jacobs, director of proprietary brand development for CVS.
La Roche-Posay, based in a town near the center of France with the same name, is a brand with a rich heritage in skin care — particularly for pre- and postoperative use. The brand has dedicated chemists and physicians researching skin diseases and other skin conditions in an effort to make product breakthroughs. “These are products backed by research that are proven to work,” asserted Yannick Raynaud, international development manager North America for La Roche-Posay, who added that the ethical heritage dovetails with a pharmacy setting. “Our products are supported with integrity.”
For the last five years, the brand has been expanding primarily through plastic surgeons’ and dermatologists’ offices, with more than 2,500 carrying mostly the brand’s Biomedic nameplate. There are two product ranges: The Biomedic line, which is geared for professional use by dermatologists, and the more consumer-oriented La Roche-Posay, which is designed for daily use.
Now La Roche-Posay has a two-pronged growth strategy calling for expansion of business with derms, but also more daily-use skin care purchases in drugstores, according to Judy Carlo, vice president of marketing. “Consumers are looking for more advanced and clinically proven products,” said Carlo.
La Roche-Posay is especially known for its Thermal Spring Water as well as products to hide and improve rosacea and acne. Price points range from $18 for a cleanser to $40 for Active C, an antiwrinkle treatment. The initial assortment for direct sale is 27 stockkeeping units. New items will be integrated two times a year as part of planogram resets.
To help shoppers navigate what can be a bewildering line of technical products, La Roche-Posay not only trains beauty consultants, but is installing kiosks called the Sensitest.
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One kiosk currently is in use at a Duane Reade store here, with three others circulating in other chains. Consumers answer nine questions and then are given a “prescription” for better skin care. The products are available in a printout that shoppers can insert into a personal passport. This way, shoppers can know what they need when they return. Another unique aspect of the kiosk is that a scanner “reads” the package and gives shoppers all the pertinent information about the item. Several items are suggested for a skin care regimen that leads to multiple sales for retailers of highly profitable merchandise.
La Roche-Posay executives think the kiosk will especially help the seven out of 10 women who have sensitive skin. Only 16 percent of shoppers select products for sensitive skin because they are confused or haven’t found safe and effective products.
The Sensitest will “travel,” along with a trained expert, to the stores currently featuring Dermo Skin Care Centers. “We want to make it an event that retailers can promote. People want new, new, new, and this is a good way to bring shoppers to the department,” explained Raynaud.
Carlo added that chains are planning to alert customers prior to the kiosks’ arrival to build excitement for the skin evaluation.
La Roche-Posay executives see the extension at retail as a loop encompassing physicians, trained staff at retail stores and the consumer. Physicians can not only sell Biomedic products in their offices, but also recommend La Roche-Posay items at retail and direct patients to a retailer that sells them. The consumer could consult with the in-store adviser and pick from the at-home line. But the existence of the daily skin care items also can encourage consumers to seek physicians for more serious in-office applications, too. The pharmacists are expected to join the “loop” as La Roche-Posay trains them through continuing education on how to recommend products to patients who might have reactions to prescriptions.
“This doesn’t cannibalize from existing products at retail and it doesn’t take away from physicians. It is add-on sales,” said Carlo, explaining that the different brands have different end users.
Retailers already involved in high-end derm departments agreed that, although the area takes up retail space for items that might not turn as fast as other merchandise, the existence of a skin care store within a store enhances the entire store while providing extremely high gross margins.