CLINIQUE
AN ICON’S OWN DESTINATION
The care Clinique puts into its formulations, its packaging and how it presents itself to the world is evident in every facet of its brand, product and retail experience. One of the crown jewels of Estee Lauder’s color cosmetics portfolio it is omnipresent in nearly every city, airport, and retail destination. It is a dependable icon, immediately recognizable, and extensively available.
Clinique has never had its own standalone retail where it can let its brand, purpose, product and service shine through in a physical environment.
The “Store of The Future” has many functions; a brand beacon, a full display of the range of products a company offers and finally as a primary place to collect data. Beauty is classically not a stand alone retail category. Few brands can carry that depth of brand experience and deliver the products and service to match. While Clinique has been one of the most durable and standout brands for decades it had never stood on its own as a DTC retail destination.
THE CHALLENGE
While Clinique has been one of the most durable and standout brands for decades it had never stood on its own as a DTC retail destination. In such a large organization alignment was key around the purpose, approach and goals. We began this with extensive workshops to land our concept alongside the architect, a standout team at MAPOS Architecture.
It was important that this store reflected a new vibrant Clinique prepared to welcome new customers to a legacy brand. Digital was used strategically to drive shoppers into the store and get them to directly interact in certain vignettes.
THE SOLUTION
CLINIQUE’s first physical store was a mix of success and learning, as many of the early Stores of The Future were. An exercise in exciting innovation, digital/physical amenities, and large retail technology enterprise. Most of all it highlighted the massive gaps we still have to overcome to create true “extrachannel retail harmony.”
We worked with a standout team at Estée Lauder and MAPOS Architects to think what this distinct experience was. This challenge began with deep organizational alignment having to pull together decades of heritage, a global retail footprint, and international set of brand standards to create an experience that was uniquely CLINIQUE.
The results were of moderate success. As always the brand, product and service stood out. Some of the more ambitious technologies were overextended and quite honestly fell vicim to lack of refreshable content. Another great Store of the Future Project with some great lessons learned.