It’s a rare concept in selling hair color to professional stylists: No glamour girls with long locks dripping in vibrant colors. No swirling heads splaying rivers of hair across print ads. Just the image of a slim paintbrush set on a stark background with a colorful butterfly or blossom bursting from the tip.
That image is featured in an aggressive new multichannel marketing campaign for Clairol Professional. Boosted by an influx of cash and interest from parent Procter & Gamble, the effort features direct mail, e-mail, direct response space advertising and a new magazine.
“The commitment was not as strong as it is today to re-energize the brand,” said Ruth Frantz, director of global marketing for Clairol Professional. “Everybody’s excited again about what Clairol can return to.”
The campaign kicked off last November with print ads in hair color magazines such as Professional Modern Salon and American Salon. These are expected to generate more than 4 million impressions.
In one advertisement, a red dahlia bursts from the tip of an artist’s paintbrush set on a light blue background. The tag line, “A stroke of color genius,” runs along the handle of the brush, accompanied by a line at the bottom of the creative that reads: “The most colorful things happen when passion is reborn.” An 800 number and Web address are used as response mechanisms.
“I think you’d pretty much have to be under a rock not to see this in the salon industry,” Frantz said.
The architect of the campaign, New York-based Wunderman, tried to appeal to stylists’ creativity and re-establish Clairol as a hair color expert.
“They are true artists at heart and Clairol’s products serve as tools to create great art,” said Adrienne Wax, the agency’s senior vice president and group account director.
The print theme has been used in direct mail and e-mail, and in ad space on the sides of buses. It’s also been featured at major beauty shows in New York, Chicago and other cities. The overall campaign, which includes a heavy focus on education, is viewed as the cornerstone of a major CRM program. A magazine, The Colorist, was launched last month to support the effort. It includes tips from experts, information on products and educational classes, and an events calendar.
The first wave of direct mail, which unlike the print ads featured models in its graphics, reached colorists and stylists nationwide last month. That wave of branding messages contained information on educational programs.
It is to be followed by pieces educating stylists on three specific products: Miss Clairol (permanent hair color); Complements (color in a tube); and Kaliedocolors (highlighting). About 300,000 direct mail pieces and e-mail messages had been sent through January.
The eight-page direct mail piece, which reads like a book, includes a mail-in certificate for a $12 rebate on the purchase of 12 bottles of hair color.
The direct mail pieces are being translated into Spanish and will roll out to prospects within the next six months. The Web site (www.clairolpro.com) has also been refreshed to be compatible with the ad campaign, which is expected to run for the next several years.
“This is our positioning now for a nice long time,” Frantz said. “I think we’ve really hit on the nerve of what our campaign should be.”
