People of Beauty
Known for its internationally renowned line up of make up and skincare brands, Paul Slavin, Managing Director of Estée Lauder Companies Malaysia makes time to share with us the story behind the brand, his plans for the company and how their brands never fail to give back to society generously.
Congratulations on your appointment as Managing Director of Estée Lauder Companies Malaysia. In broad strokes, what are your plans for the company? Thank you! I have plans to build the business further, to bring in new brands for consumers like Jo Malone and also to recognise that consumer patterns are changing and to make sure our brands are available where our consumers want them to be available.
For the benefit of our readers and shoppers, what is the beauty philosophy of Estée Lauder Companies? Mrs. Lauder founded the company in 1846 with a simple philosophy that ‘every woman can be beautiful.’ I think that’s a fantastic philosophy and it cuts across all our brands and we believe in that till this day. Estée Lauder is about identifying what a woman wants, in terms of make up and skin care regimes, looks, confidence and helping people achieve that and we have been successful across the world for years.
What are your views on the Malaysian market? How does it compare to the rest of Asia? It is a very sophisticated market that is definitely not the same with the rest of Asia. If you look at Northern Asia—China and Korea, make up is a relatively small part of the business than skincare is. In Malaysia, it’s almost about 1/3 all the way whereby make up is almost as important as skincare is. Malaysia has a much more balanced market which makes it interesting that make up brands can really express themselves here. It’s a sophisticated market here with consumers being tech-savvy. A tech savvy population means that people have access to information at their fingertips and are very knowledgeable individuals, which calls for a very different business mix altogether.
As the market leader in the premium beauty segment, how do you intend to maintain your position? What’s fantastic about Estée Lauder is that across the world, and across Asia, we are not just no. 1. We have been no.1 for a significant number of years and we’re extending our market leadership even till today. We are growing fast with the market because we know what our consumers want and meet it with innovation. Innovation is two-fold. It’s not just about retailing new products but making it easier and better.
There are over 20 brands in your portfolio, how do the brands complement each other? In the company, there are 29 brands and in Malaysia, 19 brands. Mrs. Lauder and her son, Mr. Lauder, they have built this fantastic portfolio of brands that are independent to each other in terms of finances, expenses and their own operating funds. However, if you look at our brands and map them out, you will see that they map each other beautifully all the way up, from entry point brands – Clinique, Origins, all the way up to Tom Ford and Jo Malone. We are just all about premium brands and not mass, which is also what sets us apart from other brands. Also, we introduce value driven and cost effective brands to our consumers who have less concerns with their skin, all the way through to super high end, super luxury and very, very luxurious brands. We have brands that are synchronised across levels and I personally think this is a very brilliant strategy our founders have there.
“Estée Lauder is founded on a simple philosophy that every woman can be beautiful. It’s a fantastic philosophy that we believe in till this day.”
Estée Lauder started with samples and personalised service in department stores, how has marketing beauty changed since then especially with the advent of digital technology? The last 10-15 years, women would go into a department store thinking, “I have a party tomorrow, I need a lipstick, I need colour, I need skincare.” They would go from counter to counter, they’d think and then they’d choose. They are now much more knowledgeable because they have access to plenty of noneditor recommendations online. Therefore, we have to change the way we interact with consumers these days. Second to that, marketing beauty today requires a deeper need for authenticity. By implementing e-Commerce across brands, we allow consumers to use our products and upload their comments because everyone knows that another consumer’s comment carries a lot more weight than from someone who is working with the company. So we’re confident enough in our products to say, “Here, use it and upload a comment” because we really look into our products and its quality.
One of your initiatives is to reduce the reliance on paper and to tech-enable the company. How has initiatives like this helped the company? Look at my office! It’s paper free. Well, I’m a very tidy person. That was my principle reason and also, I wanted to cut down the amount of waste we had. We went for paperless meetings whereby managers had to use big screen TVs, and I had wireless put into the office so that we can send each other things without having to print them out. That initiative alone reduced our paper consumption by 16% in a year. It’s good for the environment. It’s good for our suppliers, and also, it’s good for our profit. The other thing we’ve done is to link up with the Malaysian Nature Society, doing something called Recycle, Reduce and we are incredibly proud to be their first corporate sponsor. We’re really trying to look after the environment and be more responsible corporate citizens than we were before. And it helps with our expenditure, and more importantly, helps keep my desk clean.
Estée Lauder is recognised for its support of various causes, such as Earth Month. What other CSR programmes and activities does the company engage in? When I came to Malaysia, what I was very proud about was that Estée Lauder Companies Malaysia team was one of the most active teams in carrying our their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). What we do with our CSR projects is that any money that we raise inside our country will be invested right back into its society. We have to be careful because we get dozens of requests and what we’ve agreed is to support four big themes. Firstly, Breast Cancer Awareness ( BCA) is the company’s main year-round theme that is led and sponsored by the Estée Lauder brand and we are big on it. Next, World Aids Day (WAD), led and sponsored by MAC. Last year in Malaysia alone, we raised RM800,000 for BCA and over RM600,000 for WAD, and that is money that goes back into our society. Then there’s Earth Month - recycling efforts led by Origins for a more sustainable corporate living. We’re very keen on this and we always try to link up with some Malaysian NGO to make it bigger and better. The final CSR theme is World Ocean Day, led by La Mer brand because La Mer is harvested from sea kelp. So basically in a year, we harvest a certain amount of kelp globally and this initiative ensures that the same amount of resources is put back into our ocean and is grown back. What we did this year was to link up with an NGO called Reef Check based in California instead, sponsoring a survey of part of the East Malaysian coastline, Sabah to get a reef check—a health check on the reef.
Can you please tell us about the company’s events for the Breast Cancer Awareness Campaign this year? Two things happened this year; we supported the musical Hairspray on 22 September. We worked with the event manager and bought all the premium seats for that last night of performance, selling them to partners, retailers and vendors. The event management company had been very generous to give us 20% of the takings for that night—definitely a great opportunity to raise money and awareness. Secondly, we were given the green light to light up the Twin Towers in Pink for two days, October 18-19 and we’ve never done that before! The Twin Towers is still the highest twin building in the world and we will be lighting it pink on those dates to raise awareness for BCA. So BCA is a threefold effort - raise funds, raise awareness and raise education about BCA.
Last but not least, currently in 1 Utama Shopping Centre, there are already many of your brands available in three major department stores and you have stand alone stores like Clinique, Bobbi Brown and M.A.C. Will our shoppers be expecting to see new brands launching in the near future? Is there a further expansion plan for the Estée Lauder Brands in 1 Utama Shopping Centre? Well, all I would mention is that there will be more brands to come to 1 Utama quite soon. 1 Utama is one of the few places that have got Aveda, but you’ll get more brands soon. Some nice smelling brands, perhaps.
How do you decide if a brand is ready to be a standalone store? We understand from our consumer studies done that some of our brands are what we call destination brands. You get in your car and you drive to Tom Ford or Jo Malone or Bobbi Brown. Some of our other brands are not destination brands. They need to be inside a department store more than a standalone location. From our conversations with our consumers, we are very clear on which brands work better as standalone stores and which brands work better with department stores. We are constantly looking out for different business models for our different brands.