Here at Salons Direct, it is our aim to bring you closer to the brands you love and work with everyday. In this edition of our ‘brand spotlight‘ series, we catch up with Schwarzkopf Professional to discover more about their brand strategy and how they are developing their company to cater to the future of professional styling and hair colouring.
Tell us more about how Schwarzkopf began?
Schwarzkopf Professional is celebrating it’s 120th year this year as it was founded in 1898 in Berlin by Hans Schwarzkopf. The first Hans Schwarzkopf drugstore was called The Dye, Drug and Perfumery Store and in 1903 Hans Schwarzkopf created his first product – hair wash powder.
1903 was a busy year for Hans as he also created our ‘cameo’ logo. The idea came from his name Schwarzkopf, which means, literally, ‘black head’. The logo was finalised and trademarked in 1904. Hans Schwarzkopf’s growth never limited his ambition. In fact, his company would one day be proud possessor of over 7,600 patents.
How does Schwarzkopf stay competitive within the industry?
As a company, we have always had a history of firsts, the Schwarzkopf Powder Shampoo was a pioneering water-soluble powder that was far better and cheaper than the harsh soaps and essential oils used at the time. Because of this we have always had this historical attitude to break through products within the industry, after all you’re only as good as your last idea.
What do you think sets Schwarzkopf apart from their competitors within the market?
We showcase real hair, there is no trickery involved in the looks we create and products we market.
How have trends within the business of hair evolved over the years?
Modern beauty is about bringing out the best in someone. There is a far greater percentage of women working who need more practical hair which they can recreate and maintain at home. Women need quicker hair solutions to fit in with their busy schedules and need to know how to maintain their hair at home, when going to the hairdressers they need a cut and colour that will last until their next appointment and a home-care regime that’ll help maintain their hair in between. Modern hair is more loose and relaxed and doesn’t have to look perfect.
What trends do you predict for 2018 and beyond?
We’ve seen a lot of throwbacks to the 1970’s and 1980’s on the catwalks this year, a lot of shoulder pad and power dressing. There have been a lot of bowl and round shapes within hair styling and larger than life blow dries. In terms of Colour we’ll be seeing a lot more dramatic colour, such as dark midnight colours fused with smoky violets, pinks, greens and blues. Image the iridescent effect of a black beetle and petrol oil.
The health and condition of the hair will be paramount, and we’ll see a lot more textures and naturally worn hair. Hair will still be super clean, and super conditioned but hair will have an undone look rather than the polished Hollywood Glamour. Life is for living and hair will reflect this.
What has been the brand’s greatest success? Campaign? Product?
BlondMe has to be one of our most successful product range launches. We were one of the first companies to introduce bonding technology within a blonde colour range.
An even greater success we want to champion is the co-creation effect – co-creating colours with digital influencers. With the rise of social media is it paramount as a company you leverage this. Our current campaign the #RoyalTakeover does exactly this. We have paired a classical colourist with social media colourists, their perspective of colour is quite different but once working together the dynamic is amazing. Using an influencer means we get to talk directly to the audience we want to reach.
What are your best-selling products?
Beside colour, I’d say the OSIS+ and OSIS+ Session Label range. The beauty of these mean you can layer in the products and they won’t damage or saturate the hair with product – the perfect styling range.
How do you innovate as a brand?
What’s sets us apart is we are one of the only corporate brands where the hairdresser is still very much a part of the organisation and process. The role of having a hairdresser involved means they bring the salon relevance to the table. As well as marketing and Research and Development, we have hairdressers work with new developments from day one when the concept is written, write through to the finished product. We also have hairdressers who test the products under salon conditions, so as a brand we are definitely more hairdresser centric than most of our competitors.
How do you see the future of hair care + colour shaping?
Co-creation will be the future in hairdressing.
With colour we will see big changes in market place within the year or so. There will be a whole new dynamic to the world of colour and how we colour hair. There already has been a huge revolution with the introduction of bonding technologies in the colouring process and now within the colour itself. This has to be an industry landmark and has given the power back to the hairdresser. It also allows for the hairdresser to be much more adventurous and creative when colouring, without compromising the health of the hair.
The next thing will be colour direction and technology to shorten the actual development time of the colouring process. We should see an immediate application affect.
What can we expect from Schwarzkopf throughout 2017 and beyond?
We will continue to drive our innovations and launching this Autumn we’ll see more bespoke products. We have developed an in-salon tool called the Salon Lab. This has been formulated to deliver care formulations for individual hair needs for hairdressers to create bespoke services specific to each individual client.
Shop our full range of Schwarzkopf Professional products today!
Want to hear from more of your favourite brands? Discover American Crew | Beauty Pro | Zalon Pro | Balmain UK
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