Brush with success
Paris Presents — maker of the Real Techniques brand of beauty tools — has been in business for more than 60 years, and in the past five years has begun building retailer-owned brands and its own brands to deliver on beauty consumer needs. Drug Store News caught up with Bob Wiltz, chief customer officer at the Gunree, Ill.-based company, to talk about where the company has been and where it’s headed.
Drug Store News: Tell us about Paris Presents.
Bob Wiltz: We are proud to be the No. 1 player in cosmetic and bath accessories globally, with distribution in more than 70 countries. Our global makeup brush brand, Real Techniques, is the fastest-growing brush brand and No. 1 in the United Kingdom and No. 2 in the United States. Combined with our global brand Ecotools makeup brush brand, we are No. 1 globally in the category.
We were humbled by being recognized as the fastest-growing health and beauty accessory company by BCG and IRI in 2014, top 10 growth award in Europe in 2015 and 2017, and named to Inc. 5000’s fastest-growing private companies for the third consecutive year in 2017, most recently jumping 438 spots. Our team leverages their diverse backgrounds from mainstream beauty to world-renowned consumer products companies, building an entrepreneurial culture committed to accelerating business growth for our retailers.
DSN: What’s your mission, and how does it impact retailers?
BW: We believe in creating meaningful brands — whether they are ours or retailer owned — that empower women and enhance their everyday beauty routine. Our highly successful mission of increasing the cosmetic and bath accessory categories for our retailers have been grounded on increasing household penetration with consumer-tested and preferred innovation.
DSN: What do retailers need to do to maximize sales from your product and the specific categories?
BW: We see our retailers, specific to cosmetic accessories and specifically makeup brushes, being most successful when merchandising our brushes as close as possible to color cosmetics. We see this trend increasing at a rapid pace globally. We have observed incremental consumption beyond 50% throughout our testing periods.
DSN: What is Paris Presents doing to help its retail partners?
BW: At Paris Presents, we are proud of our agility to leverage our assets to the benefit of our retailers — whether that is with offering fixturing, unique insights or proprietary data — and doing it at the right speed. As an example, our 360-degree digital connection and expertise for inspirational education with Sam and Nic Chapman, the highly acclaimed influential leaders on social media, connect directly with our retailers to build our retailers’ brand in a co-creation environment.
DSN: Let’s discuss the future. What is coming down the pike?
BW: We pride ourselves on building brands with true and unique innovation, leveraging global beauty trends and consumer insights with meaningful and relevant points of differentiation. In short, we are obsessed with trends, consumer knowledge and the marketplace where we compete, and we bring this all to the retailers.
As examples, some of our 2018 Real Techniques innovation was inspired in prestige to provide channel-shifting into food, drug and mass with such sub-branding as Blend and Blur and Powder Bleu makeup brushes. It expands the brush care routine with our patent-pending technology, as well as our organizers and cleaning systems. Other innovation includes expanding impulse sales with limited edition sets and winning occasion during the holidays, as well as taking advantage of trends like our Brush Crush — iridescent and unicorn trend — designs.
With our branded Ecotools, the 2018 innovation stream follows our highly successful 2017 superiority claim and restage, along with new ecoFoam technology in our perfect blending and contouring and color sponges, or our facial mask sponges. Advertising in magazines will drive product sales at retail.
Bob Wiltz is the chief customer officer at Paris Presents.
Drug Store News: Tell us about Paris Presents.
Bob Wiltz: We are proud to be the No. 1 player in cosmetic and bath accessories globally, with distribution in more than 70 countries. Our global makeup brush brand, Real Techniques, is the fastest-growing brush brand and No. 1 in the United Kingdom and No. 2 in the United States. Combined with our global brand Ecotools makeup brush brand, we are No. 1 globally in the category.
We were humbled by being recognized as the fastest-growing health and beauty accessory company by BCG and IRI in 2014, top 10 growth award in Europe in 2015 and 2017, and named to Inc. 5000’s fastest-growing private companies for the third consecutive year in 2017, most recently jumping 438 spots. Our team leverages their diverse backgrounds from mainstream beauty to world-renowned consumer products companies, building an entrepreneurial culture committed to accelerating business growth for our retailers.
DSN: What’s your mission, and how does it impact retailers?
BW: We believe in creating meaningful brands — whether they are ours or retailer owned — that empower women and enhance their everyday beauty routine. Our highly successful mission of increasing the cosmetic and bath accessory categories for our retailers have been grounded on increasing household penetration with consumer-tested and preferred innovation.
DSN: What do retailers need to do to maximize sales from your product and the specific categories?
BW: We see our retailers, specific to cosmetic accessories and specifically makeup brushes, being most successful when merchandising our brushes as close as possible to color cosmetics. We see this trend increasing at a rapid pace globally. We have observed incremental consumption beyond 50% throughout our testing periods.
DSN: What is Paris Presents doing to help its retail partners?
BW: At Paris Presents, we are proud of our agility to leverage our assets to the benefit of our retailers — whether that is with offering fixturing, unique insights or proprietary data — and doing it at the right speed. As an example, our 360-degree digital connection and expertise for inspirational education with Sam and Nic Chapman, the highly acclaimed influential leaders on social media, connect directly with our retailers to build our retailers’ brand in a co-creation environment.
DSN: Let’s discuss the future. What is coming down the pike?
BW: We pride ourselves on building brands with true and unique innovation, leveraging global beauty trends and consumer insights with meaningful and relevant points of differentiation. In short, we are obsessed with trends, consumer knowledge and the marketplace where we compete, and we bring this all to the retailers.
As examples, some of our 2018 Real Techniques innovation was inspired in prestige to provide channel-shifting into food, drug and mass with such sub-branding as Blend and Blur and Powder Bleu makeup brushes. It expands the brush care routine with our patent-pending technology, as well as our organizers and cleaning systems. Other innovation includes expanding impulse sales with limited edition sets and winning occasion during the holidays, as well as taking advantage of trends like our Brush Crush — iridescent and unicorn trend — designs.
With our branded Ecotools, the 2018 innovation stream follows our highly successful 2017 superiority claim and restage, along with new ecoFoam technology in our perfect blending and contouring and color sponges, or our facial mask sponges. Advertising in magazines will drive product sales at retail.
Bob Wiltz is the chief customer officer at Paris Presents.