US beauty conglomerate Coty has unveiled a new long-term growth strategy, in which it will reposition key consumer brands, build on its Prestige and skin care businesses and accelerate operations in China.
Coty said at an investor event on Friday that it will strengthen its consumer brand performance by “rejuvenating and repositioning” several areas of its portfolio.
CoverGirl, Sally Hansen, Rimmel, MaxFactor and Adidas are among the brands via which Coty is hoping to capture better growth, which it will achieve by shifting its focus on brand equity, key trends, clear consumer targets and product innovation.
CoverGirl in particular will see a change in brand strategy by using its heritage as a beauty leader, and supporting launches to appeal to a broader US customer base.
This will be supported by the introduction of a new major marketing campaign for the 60-year-old brand.
The ‘Simply Ageless’ project will see the return of Niki Taylor, who was a CoverGirl ambassador for the brand in the 90s, and is expected to air next week.
Beyond its make-up brands, Coty is building on its skin care portfolio by adding a fourth brand, Skkn by Kim, the skin care brand of beauty mogul and billionaire Kim Kardashian, to its line-up.
Kardashian, who filed for a trademark of the brand in March this year, covering skin care, hair care, nail products, perfumes and candles, is expected to launch her new beauty venture in fiscal 2022.
Coty is also capitalising on trends in regenerative medicine and creating greener beauty products for its current skin care businesses Lancaster and Philosophy.
The group intends to reimagine Lancaster, a traditional sun care brand, to a leader in skin care; and Philosophy is expected to move from a wellbeing beauty brand to a leader in green ‘ceutical’ skin care.
Coty also said it sees an opportunity to extend its designer and consumer brands into the skin care arena.
Promise from Prestige
Elsewhere in the business, Sue Nabi, Coty’s CEO, wants to boost the performance of its Prestige business and triple its market share in lucrative China.
Doubling down on its luxury fragrance, Coty, with three of the top ten female fragrance brands and two of the top ten male fragrances of 2020 in its portfolio, is expected to bring more fragrances to market and expand its artisanal fragrance presence.
Meanwhile, in terms of boosting its other Prestige categories, by 2025, Coty expects to increase its skin care presence from 6% to more than 10% and cosmetics to around 3%.
With the pandemic still affecting the way many consumers shop, the beauty owner will also accelerate its e-commerce and direct-to-consumer growth through a new digital strategy.
Building on the momentum of its 40% e-commerce sales growth in Q2 2021, Coty will integrate social listening and social commerce to other areas of its business.
“Coty is ideally positioned to accelerate sales and profit through our six strategic priorities, that will reposition and expand our portfolio to meet the great opportunities ahead,” said Nabi.
“We anticipate a rebound in demand for beauty products as pandemic restrictions ease, led by luxury beauty, clean beauty, China and skin care.
“Our performance will be supported by a purpose-led and highly focused portfolio: anchored in luxury with highly desirable brands and delivered through innovative omnichannel activations.”
She continued: “We intend to use this strategy to build Coty into a truly global beauty powerhouse.”
