Salon Selectives to Renew Old Brand Name with New Formula
Salon Selectives, the line of women’s hair-care products made popular in the 1980s and 1990s by Helene Curtis Inc., has re-launched under new ownership, but with the same bright pink bottles and apple fragrance.
Salon Selectives was the first salon-inspired hair care line made available on mass retail shelves. Unilever bought Helene Curtis in 1996 and dropped the Salon Selectives brand in 2004. Chicago-based River West Brands completed the acquisition of the brand in December 2007.
River West said last week it would bring the product name back under management by SBB LLC, a firm composed of veteran executives from the personal care industry. Among them is Eugene Zeffren, former president of Helene Curtis USA and CEO of SBB.
“The re-introduction of Salon Selectives represents a great opportunity for our company,” Zeffren said in a statement. “Our research shows that the brand still has over 80% awareness among our target consumers.”
Zeffren pointed out that many of the women who recall the brand not only remember the brand name but also can call up positive association—the apple scent, the customized hair-care message and even the commercial jingle.
The Salon Selectives re-launch includes newly updated packaging and new formulas that consumers can mix and match according to their specific hair needs.
A link from http://www.salonselectives.com lets consumers buy the line of four shampoos, five conditioners, two mousses and a hair spray online from http://www.Drugstore.com. The product is expected to be available in retail outlets in the future.
The Web site also incorporates a hair-care wheel for choosing the right combination of Salon Selectives products for every hair type. Visitors can also join a community site or download a “hairometer” widget that offers location-related weather conditions and hair-care recommendations, in either a desktop format or suited for personal pages on Facebook, Yahoo, or iGoogle.
