Shiseido Executes rejuvenation of SHISEIDO Brand Based on Empathy to Establish Itself as a Global Marketing Company from Japan

OCTOBER 2015. Commencing in January 2016, SHISEIDO—currently available in 88 countries and regions* around the world—will undergo a comprehensive brand innovation. To reinforce its role as a global marketing company, the Shiseido group established its mid-to-long-term plan VISION 2020 and is now executing a rebuilding of brand value, in which SHISEIDO holds an integral position. Driven by a belief in beauty as a positive force in the world and with “empathy” serving as a guiding keyword, SHISEIDO is set to renovate its communication and to further expand touch points with its consumers.

Within this brand innovation, Global Travel Retail (GTR) will play a key role in re-establishing Shiseido as one of the world’s leading cosmetic and skincare brands. The company has pledged its commitment to GTR with a promise to focus on exclusive and travel-specific sized products designed to meet the needs of travelling consumers and has recently appointed a dedicated Global Travel Retail team based in Singapore.


Shiseido New Advertising Visual

Concrete innovation actions

To inspire empathy among consumers around the world, SHISEIDO is set for a sequential overhaul of its products, advertising visuals, models, store counters, brand logo and other aspects of communication commencing in January 2016. To express the elements of contemporary Japan fundamental to SHISEIDO from a global perspective, the brand has appointed Ruba Abu-Nimah, who has a diverse background in the global prestige market – including working in New York and Paris and receiving multiple design awards - to serve as its new Creative Director.



Products

To make them more comprehensible to consumers, the respective roles of the brand’s products have been redefined according to four different approaches: Defend, Regenerate, Reveal, and Express. The first stage of this restructuring will be represented by ULTIMUNE (launched full-scale in September 2014), designed to defend the beauty of skin, and a new foundation (set for sequential launch after March 2016), which serves to reveal beauty. Ease of product comprehension is seen as particularly important for the travel retail sector where consumers are often under time pressure and these new approaches are expected to help convert browsers to buyers. Understanding the requirement for exclusive offers in this sector, Shiseido has already created a Jumbo ULTIMUNE and will add a limited edition duo pack next year whilst continuing to develop other presentations specifically aimed at travellers.

Advertising visuals and models

SHISEIDO’s core product ULTIMUNE and the new foundation will mark the first stage of the brand’s renewed advertising visuals that will be used in points of sale, magazines, SNS, brand sites and other platforms including a strong presence within the travel retail trade media and at the forthcoming TFWA World Exhibition. With the purpose of inspiring empathy among consumers on a global scale, SHISEIDO has chosen three new models who embody inner beauty, and the new visuals express a strong message celebrating the diversity of beauty. The model visuals were shot by internationally active photographer Mario Sorrenti.












This is a simulated layout. Actual photograph will be available from 18 October onwards. Please send your request directly through to the travel retail media contact person.



SHISEIDO Travel Retail Counters

New travel retail counters will be introduced to provide consistency with a global new look for the brand’s department store counters. These will feature red lines over a white base, expressing a sense of modern minimalism whilst at the same time as communicating richness and warmth, along with a camellia shaped icon to function as a guiding sign. In addition, special merchandising units for travel retail will be developed to meet varying retail space requirements. Overall, the new look expresses a modern interpretation of the Japanese concept of Ichigo Ichié, which involves treasuring every meeting as it will never recur.

Brand logo

”GINZA” and “TOKYO”, representing the heart of SHISEIDO, have been added to the logo to create a new story and a new future for the brand. Ginza is a popular upscale area of Tokyo, recognized by many as one of the most luxurious shopping districts in the world, with a long history that in many ways reflects the ambition of Shiseido Group to rejuvenate and innovate.

The philosophy and goal of the brand innovation

In the modern age characterized by rapid change, urbanization and globalization, beauty invests people with the strength to deal with a range of issues and becomes the very power to live by, at the same time functioning as a connecting force that joins people together. SHISEIDO believes that empathy is born when people recognize the diversity of beauty, respect the beauty present in one another, and realize the infinite nature of beauty.

Stretching back to the very birth of the brand, SHISEIDO has an extensive history of amalgamating cutting-edge technology with art to bring out the beauty innately present in consumers, and this promise to consumers exists to this day. SHISEIDO believes that the beauty it produces in various forms inspires and enforces empathy, and that it can be a positive force in the world. The brand innovation that lies ahead will involve an amplified communication of this message of beauty.






ABOUT SHISEIDO GROUP AND ITS TRAVEL RETAIL BUSINESS

Shiseido was founded in 1872 as the first Western-style pharmacy in Japan. The business gradually evolved into a cosmetics company, offering people the most advanced technology and the finest aesthetics available in the East or the West.  Now known globally as the premier cosmetics company with roots in Japan, the name Shiseido has come to represent the world’s highest standards of quality.
Shiseido’s global selection of skincare, makeup and fragrance includes a high-performance category for special skincare, and a brightening line. Shiseido also offers body care, suncare and a skincare line for men. Fiercely contemporary and innovative after over 140 years in business, today Shiseido Group brands (including SHISEIDO, Clé de Peau Beauté, NARS, bareEssentials, Auprès, fragrance brands including ISSEY MIYAKE and narciso rodriguez) are now sold in over 120 countries and regions.

In 2015 Shiseido Group has repeatedly underlined its commitment to accelerating multi-brand growth within the travel retail channel. As part of this strategy, the company has divided the world into six regions, with Travel Retail classed as a territory in its own right. The move is associated with the Group’s Vision 2020 plan, spearheaded by President Masahiko Uotani, where this key ‘region’ has established its Global Travel Retail headquarters in Singapore. Under this structure, the company will practice a "Think Global, Act Local" strategy focused on cultivating each brand based on region and market-specific needs, while also accelerating decision-making and production development in its own area.

For more information, please visit www.shiseidogroup.com