Check it out- Christopher Bailey Takes Last Bow for Burberry: Vogue Interview
Stem Cell Scientist Hans Keirstead Battles Crow’s Feet And Vies For A Congressional Seat
ROOT OF SKIN Brand Launching This Month! Check Our 1st Press Piece From The Wonderful Beauty Independent Site and Daily Newsletter. By Rachel Brown.
Hans Keirstead is campaigning for good looks and good government: the first with new skincare brand Root of Skin and the second with a congressional run.
An outgrowth of AiVita Biomedical, the brand is launching after four years of stem cell exploration to help finance the clinical research company’s efforts to develop cancer therapies. Priced from $48 to $57, its three debut products are the 1-oz. Revitalizing Face Serum, .5-oz. Revitalizing Eye Renewal Lotion and 1-oz. Revitalizing Tinted Renew Primer. Formulas rely on the so-called SourceCode Technology combining a cellular communication system with 52 skin-enhancing ingredients.
“The vast majority of skincare on the market is versions of fillers, hydrators and light reflectors. I decided to take an entirely different approach,” says Keirstead. “As a pioneer of the stem cell field, I recognized that all of the stem cell skincare products were marketing ploys rather than reality. We have generated a product that’s a true innovation. Try this stuff. You’ll see the effect.”
As a scientist and biotech entrepreneur, Keirstead is more familiar with a laboratory than skincare marketing. Prior to founding AiVita Biomedical, he was a professor at the UC Irvine School of Medicine and sold the company California Stem Cell for $126 million.
Explaining Root of Skin, Keirstead gets rather technical. He shares, “We took human stem cells and pushed them to become pure populations of human skin precursors. My team is the best in the world at generating pure populations of stem cells. We generate populations that are 99% pure, the next best are 70% pure. That’s a big deal because, if you are generating something that’s 70% pure, you have to ask yourself, what is the other 30%?” He stresses, “We are not adding anything life doesn’t create naturally.”
Root of Skin is far from the only skincare offshoot of a biotech company. The brand Algenist was founded as part of TerraVia, which used to be named Solazyme, and its fellow Sephora offering Biossance is a branch of Amyris. Beauty businesses offer these companies the promise of short-term returns as they chase scientific breakthroughs taking longer to materialize.
“If I make more money than I burn, then I don’t have to raise money,” reasons Keirstead. “The skincare product is projected to generate far more money than I require to run my clinical trials. That’s tens of millions of dollars. Skincare products are very widely used and are high revenue generators, and we are pouring that money back into treating women with cancer.”
To improve its chances in the beauty segment, privately-held AiVita been amassing skincare expertise through a scientific advisory board that includes Michael Gold, Mary Lupo and Zoe Draelos. The company also hired Christine Oddo, formerly of Cristophe Products Inc. and the defunct Kardashian beauty brand PerfectSkin, as chief marketing officer.
Aimed at both men and women, the unscented Root of Skin products will initially be sold online. Medical offices are also potential points of distribution. AiVita has produced a professional edition of Root of Skin that’s pricier than the general retail line and amplifies the active components in the formulas.
AiVita’s skincare business doesn’t rest solely on Root of Skin. The company is promoting its active ingredients broadly to companies for applications in their skincare products. Keirstead divulges AiVita has been in discussions with nine skincare firms considering harnessing the ingredients.
Meanwhile, the budding beauty executive is challenging 18-term Republican Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, a strong supporter of President Trump who has been under scrutiny for close ties to Russia, to represent the 48th district that stretches along the Southern California coastline in Orange County. Keirstead, originally from Canada, argues the time he’s spent in the trenches of scientific discovery and policy gives him an understanding few members of Congress have of healthcare in this country.
“We need field experience in Congress. The vast majority of congressmen are lawyers. The deficits in our society are a direct result of that lack of field experience,” he says, continuing, “Our healthcare system quite frankly is a mess, and I intended to fix that. My mission is to facilitate the development of 1,000 companies like mine and to better everyone’s healthcare. Right now, I’m working on cancer, but I would like to facilitate treatments for multiple human diseases.”
Christine C. Oddo is the Chief Marketing Officer for ROOT OF SKIN™ cosmetic and skin care products, author of The Christine Report blog and founder of Madison Luxe Group; a beauty and luxury product retail sales and digital strategy agency.
Inquiries to christine@madisonluxegroup.com
Anna Wintour On #NYFW Spring 2018
ANNA CALLS OUT HER FAVES
Launching 1st Truly Gender-Inclusive Clinical Skin Care
Reporting the upcoming October 2017 launch of a clinically based and incredibly exclusive skin care formula.
It is INTENTIONALLY designed for equal & effective use for both MEN & WOMEN.
“As the new Chief Marketing Officer of this amazing new brand,
I am so pleased with the opportunity to be able to share a
truly gender inclusive and effective skin care product.”
Christine C. Oddo
CMO, ROOT of Skin
Our new brand is named
ROOT OF Skin
The product was researched and developed in our private medical grade research facility. We also manufacture the core active ingredient complex-
SourceCode Technology
and it is only available exclusively within our product.
Expect new product applications coming soon in 2018!
Blame Amazon? Not Me. Just Ask Mid-West Department Stores!
It happened a couple months ago. It was one of my typical very early mornings watching CNBC. When I heard that Amazon was buying Whole Foods, yes, I let out the stereotypical huge gasp.
On August 24th, the Federal Trade Commission approved this nearly $14B deal.
Jim Cramer also gasps when he breaks the news that Amazon is buying Whole Foods.
Once I got over my initial early morning caffeine-stoked shock, I came to the same understanding as the rest of the world. OK, this is finally, finally, finally it. Now do we all get it? It really is mobile 1st and digital always from here on out.
But Wait.
Technicolor memories of my retail career then started to ramp up. Growing up in the Mid-West, shopping was everything. There were tons of amazing department stores based in Chicago. Consumer products became my career of choice. Then, all the department stores started to disappear. These were massive stores. They were institutions. One by one, they faded away.
The non-stop disappearance of these amazing department stores started to happen long before Amazon came around. To illustrate the point, all we have to do is look at the biggies that were once the fabric of Chicago’s famous retailing.
Check out the timeline below for the disappearance of some of Mid-West’s biggest retailers:
As you can see this started happening waaaaay before Amazon came around. I loved these stores, but I could see the writing on the wall, even back then. Maybe I am lucky. I always felt I knew digital was the forecast of consumer products. Maybe me and my retail career have been primed all along for this tectonic shift.
“I loved these stores, but I could see the writing on the wall. Sure, we are where we are now because of the Amazon might. However, I argue this a bit differently. I say we are where we are now because the consumer decided it so. “
People vote clearly and loudly with their purchases choices. See the yellow line below in the graph? Look to the far right and you will see the Amazon growth acceleration, especially since September 2015. In all, Amazon’s market share grew 5x since 2013.
If you are in marketing, you know this already- Ultimately, the consumer is always the boss. So, while Amazon is the latest key player, they are not the total reason. It is, as always, all about the consumer.
It’s always been this way and it will always be this way.
Valentino Resort 2018 Socks, Anklets and Dresses?!? AMAZING!
Valentino Resort 2018 Socks, Anklets and Dresses?!? AMAZING!
A great reason for new accessory shopping- socks and anklets.
2 of My Fave Things Karl Lagerfeld & CNBC Tastefully Dishes on Other Designers…
H2H- Are You Experienced? Human to Human – The Digital Promise Delivered
Jimi Hendrix was on the right track in many ways when he asked “Are You Experienced?”
So what exactly is H2H? No, it is not the latest Asian flu. Neither is it water—that is H2O. And its definitely not the latest networking app!
H2H is “Human to Human”
H2H is About Brands & Delivering on Their Digital Promise
Your digital promise is the full delivery of your brand’s experience to your consumer. Sure, its easy to produce slick graphics and fabulous copy on a webpage and in social media. But brands have to really ask themselves if they are also providing the human experience vis-a-vie their digital presentation.
At first this seems a bit crazy and if nothing else completely contradictory. Isn’t the whole point of digital is that it’s exactly just that-digital? Not exactly. What customers are demanding is the full range of a robust experience that a brand has to offer. What seems to be new here really isn’t. But with digital in the mix, the rules of execution have been forever altered. Marketers know that consumers do not want to simply buy something, they want to fully experience it. This means that brands now have to understand how to seamlessly deliver online and offline–with great humanness.
The rules of brand delivery and execution are forever changed.
Missing the H2H portion of the brand delivery equates to treating your customer like a piece of digital meat!
This is nothing new because as far back as 1998, Joseph Pine and James Gilmore published “Welcome to the Experience Economy” and the phrase was then forever coined. They plotted The Progression of Economic Value graph.
Even then in 1998, customers were demanding experiential immersion with a brand. With digital marketing, they are demanding it even more. Its sort of a paradox. The more brands deliver remotely, the more customers expect to be treated like a human.
“Its sort of a paradox.
The more brands deliver remotely, the more customers expect to be treated like a human.”
Farfetch, the digital platform featuring hundreds of impossible to find boutiques and merchandise, recently announced their “Store of the Future”. Check out this short video from Bloomberg.
Farfetch is setting the standard for digital delivery and human experience.
Farfetch founder, Jose Neves says:
“The next stage in the evolution of the fashion industry is the connected store, which uses technology to enhance the luxury retail experience to become even more customer centric,” he said. “Farfetch is at the crossroads of luxury and technology and is well placed to understand its needs and deliver a tailored solution.”
In their new retail store concept, Farfetch customers will experience the full immersion of humanity wrapped in a digital brand delivery. Farfetch has executed an admirable business benchmark for H2H.
Is your brand ready for H2H? Are you experienced?
Christine C. Oddo is the author of The Christine Report blog and founder of
Madison Luxe Group; a beauty and luxury product retail sales & digital strategy agency.
Inquiries to christine@madisonluxegroup.com
Maximalism vs. Minimalism. What Meme Is Right for Your Brand?
Maximalism versus Minimalism. If you created a campaign using a meme, which way would you go? Which visual style is more representative of your brand?
More than ever before, visual impact takes the lead role in brand presence. Memes are an excellent tool for delivering incredible visuals while identifying with your target consumer. In the not-to-distant-past campaigns relied heavily, and successfully, only on their creative and production capabilities. Our digital media world has changed all that. Creative is no longer perceived and judged just as award-winning art-for-art’s-sake. It now has to be conceived with the notion that it can go viral – and we all know that creating the magic of going viral is the killer hack in digital branding. Now not only does creative have to be flawless and fitting, it must also be able to go into full viral motion.
Memes are a leading way to instantly deliver your brand message.
So, will you go with the Maximalist pow and deliver eye candy straight between the reader’s eyes? Or, is it more fitting for your brand to play it cool and draw them in with a I-couldn’t-care-less-about-how amazing-I-look-‘tude?
Gucci’s latest Watch campaign is obviously continuing their trend in Maximalist fashion.
Check out some of their recent campaign memes. The copy is critical too!
Want to understand how Gucci is utilizing memes into their campaign?
Read Australian Vogue’s article here.
Now that you have experienced Maximalism, let’s see the difference with Minimalism. What Vetements just did is simply way too cool.
Burberry’s Art of The Trench campaign is iconic for its minimalist imagery and impact. They further capitalized on their viral success with a flawlessly linked execution via brick & mortar and engaging user generated content.
What Burberry’s did is extremely important. It illustrates the opportunity for how a brand can lead an entire robust campaign with a single piece of developed creative.
We now know the importance and opportunities of memes. So what will it be- Maximilism or Minimalism?
Christine C. Oddo is the founder of Madison Luxe Group a beauty and luxury product retail sales and digital strategy agency and author of The Christine Report blog.
Inquiries to christine@madisonluxegroup.com
