When L’Oréal first acquired YSL Beauté from PPR in May for $1.8bn, it closed local doors in Asia to regain control over distribution. In 2011 these doors were reopened, paving the way for representation in Asian airports.

 

“Travellers are usually already aware of the brand when they see it on TR counters, but for us it was a challenge, at first, because the brand was still largely unknown,” says Marie Keurinck, L’Oreal Luxe Travel Retail Asia Pacific, Marketing Manager for Yves Saint Laurent Beauté.

 

But now, only a relatively short time after reintroducing YSL to local markets, sales already appear to be taking off. “We recently launched the brand in Korea [September 2012] and now both on travel retail and the local market it has really become a success.”

 

Keurinck has also been tasked with changing Asian consumers’ perception of the YSL brand; no easy feat. She has also personally forged a new business model for the brand in Asia [one that she is reluctant to talk about in too much detail].

 

 

[Above: YSL’s new fragrance pillar, fronted by Oscar-nominated actress Jessica Chastain, Manifesto.]

 

FIGHTING AGAINST BOREDOM

With a new image and strapline ‘Fight against Boredom’ YSL is gradually changing attitudes towards a brand, which historically appealed to a mature audience. “The brand is a lot more trendy now and particularly the Vernis à Lèvres range [pictured top] has struck a chord with the fashion conscious youth in Korea.”

 

In its marketing materials L’Oréal describes the product as  “a genuine revolution in the field of lip colour; the answer to women who want it all: colour, gloss, long-wear, results.” According to YSL, the result is a deep penetrating colour and a long-lasting wet look gloss.

 

YSL is listed with both Lotte and Shilla travel retailers at Incheon Airport where its pop-up activations have driven sales for the whole brand. “We started one outpost – which focused on the Vernis à Lèvres range – in November which was so successful that it doubled the sales of the whole range in just one week.”

 

In terms of fragrance YSL’s new fragrance pillar, fronted by Oscar-nominated actress Jessica Chastain, Manifesto, is performing well at Kuala Lumpur and Thailand Airports.

 

 

‘A FUN FASHION BRAND’

“Our retail partners say that we are the only really fun French fashion brand that can play with colour; we are a French fashion brand, but we are neither serious nor boring. We are unique in that sense and we don’t have a direct competitor,” adds Keurinck.

 

Last year YSL launched its Teint Touche Eclat foundation; a sister product of the enormously successful Touche Eclat concealer pen (pictured left).

 

According to the brand, it excels by ‘integrating the magic light of Touche Eclat into foundation makeup’. “When this product was designed in Paris, the formulas were tested on Asian skin, so now we are confident that this range will appeal to the consumers in Asia-Pacific too,” says Keurinck.

 

Keurinck told The Business that YSL planned to open at the Japanese Isetan department store in Shanghai on 16 May. “We don’t know what to expect from this new opening because, for now, we are not well-known by the Chinese consumer. We will use our tried and tested business model and hope that we enjoy the same success as we have done in Korea.”