The digital revolution underway in hair salons
Consumers use social networks as a platform to express their passion for hairdressing and hairstyles. These provide an excellent opportunity for the Professional Products Division brands to develop new services and showcase the unique expertise hairdressing professionals have to offer.
Social networks have transformed the way beauty is consumed and showcased. Internet users are expressing their identity through unique hairstyles that set the trends of tomorrow, which spread quickly via digital channels. To stand out, social beautistasx are looking for advice. Firstly, they seek it out among their peers: 87% of women turn to hairdressing tutorials on YouTube, where 700 million beauty videos are watched each monthx. But also, and most importantly, they look to professionals: star hairstylists like Guido Palau, Global Creative Director for Colour at Redken, Jamie Stevens, Luigi Morenu and also Anh CoTran have hundreds of thousands of followers on their Instagram accounts, where their posts receive several hundred comments
Social listening to better understand and advise consumers
To guide consumers, the Professional Products Division has adapted its ways of working and created a social listening tool. L’Oréal Professionnel is the first brand to roll out such a model. It can now reply to 100% of comments and questions asked online and identify trends that appear in posts.
The Division is also rolling out Salon Secret internationally. The pioneering content platform puts customers in touch with experts before, during and after they have visited a salon, to ensure they benefit from the best possible advice and ideas. In Brazil, the website nearly doubled its numbers from 2016 to 2017, jumping from 6.7 to 12 million sessionsx.
Digitalising salons to create memorable experiences
Another salon transformation programme that uses digital technology to strengthen ties between consumers and professionals is Salon E-motion™. This programme provides digitalisation support and enhances salon attractiveness by training personnel and changing salon appearance by including digital displays. Customer experience has improved markedly as a result: sales have gone up 15 to 25% in salons that have adopted the programme.
The Professional Products Division also produces shared online trainings that go viral to reach growing numbers of hairdressers and boost their skills.
Discover the tutorial about L’Oréal Professionnel’s Série Expert range.
Applications to showcase our professional expertise
We have also developed apps to showcase professional expertise in the retail channel. The “K Profile” app by Kérastase allows hairdressers to prescribe routines to be used in salons and at home. In the Travel Retail market, Kérastase experts provide personalised assessments using the “K Camera” or “K Profile”. 92% of participants buy the recommended products after assessmentx. Kérastase now has 23 counters in the world’s biggest airports.
