Lauder last week announced they are closing shop for the brand Prescriptives. For years I have used their star product Line Preventer and the ever fabulously greaseless All You Need SPF 15. I knew that this recession would bring causalities, but Prescriptives? I wasn’t expecting this.
What could Lauder have done to prevent this brand slaughter, to keep Prescriptives alive? Was their buyout of MAC and Bobbi Brown years prior the instant demise for their color business at Prescriptives? One could argue that Origins felt the green clutter when they brought on Aveda and Darphin. For over a decade Prescrptives was the only color-focused brand in their lineup. The consumer print advertising, celebrity endorsements and concept stores never happened for the brand. Over the years it lost its premium cache as its former creative director; Sylvie Chantecaille scooped up the retail space with her own brand Chantecaille Cosmetics in such doors as Neiman Marcus & Bergdorf Goodman.
It makes me wonder, do you keep a brand and develop the people that work for it to help it sustain or do you just let it go and bring on new brands to replace it's revenue, let former employees leave to do their own projects and hope the brand can swim upstream. My professional opinion is that there is more to learn with the Prescriptives situation than just the blame on the recession.
For starters Prescriptives is about the experience, something you can’t sell online or on TV you have to walk into the counter and have the custom blend experience. Doing business at a department store is quite expensive, why not create freestanding stores in b-markets where the stores could engage the consumer without the expense of Fifth Avenue.
Secondly, Lauder knew in the color world what its competition was up to, did they pin them against each other? Was the PR strategy for Prescriptives well thought out or did they just rely on product placement to make the phone ring? Prescriptives is an editor favorite and has earned numerous Allure, Glamour and Good Housekeeping awards over the years, but it is simply not enough. Prescriptives had dermatologists pumping their skin care and celebrity makeup artists pushing their cosmetics, the media advisory board was in place. The brand was sampled to all of the bloggers and every makeup artist could call in and request samples. From an outsiders pov - it was all there and PR is not to blame.
Did the brand not get the legs it needed with the new consumer. For example, today I tweeted; “I will miss my; All You Need SPF 15, Line Preventor and All Clean Face Wash” a very young beauty blogger wrote me and said; “What brand is that?” I sighed! Could Prescriptives done more to reach the Teen Vogue customer?
I pose my final question – why not sell the brand off like Lauder did with Stila or Jane? Why shut the brand down? Will the closing of Prescriptives increase the sales at their other color brands? Please email me your thought to Pierce AT Pierce Mattie DOT com. I would love to hear from you. I am going to go stock up now on my Prescriptives favorites!
Comments (3)
I was absolutely gutted when I heard about Presccriptives. I had tried practically every brand on the market and could not find a suitable foundation for my hyper-pigmented, asian skin so the Custom-blend was a god send! Similarly I had struggled to find a pink lip gloss to suit my skin tone and again custom blend came to the rescue. It may seem a bit ott to say their foundation changed my life, but as my skin was exceptionally bad, it certainly gave me an amount of confidence I had never imagined was possible. It was from there that I started using their skin care products
I just don't think the PX was given enough mainstream exposure as the other brands. PX simply wasn't as visible and there was a disinct lack of promotional offers or free samples. The brand itself did not appear to have as strong an identity as say Mac, with its colour range or Bobbi Brown. The branding wasn't strong enough, and even the consistency of the packaging was questionable.
I don't know what would happen with the IP rights to Custom Blend in the event of a sale but I'm sure it wouldn't look great for Lauder if another company were to make a success of it. Or perhaps they want to transfer the rights to another company in the Lauder group.
Either was I shall definitely be stocking up!
Posted by Tah | September 26, 2009 3:50 AM
Posted on September 26, 2009 03:50
I'm truly sad to hear this news. Prescriptives has been a favorite of mine for years. I think the Mineral Make-up colors blows Bare Minerals ( who I've also tried) out of the water. I hope someone saves this brand or the go DTC (Avon style). Like Jane, a lone entrpreneur with her team of Venture Capitalists where able to keep the cosmetics line going. Perhaps the same savviness can take this brand to the next level (perhaps a group of employees). I will keep the FAITH. In the meantime, I will stock up on my favorite products.
Posted by Cindy Pace | October 1, 2009 10:53 AM
Posted on October 1, 2009 10:53
Of Course...Estee Lauder Executives believe that all these orphan customers will go running to their other brands...For what..They have crappy and or zero choice foundations...What...??? Keep going Estee Lauder...What next. Ford, Crystler and GM???
Posted by Roberta | October 15, 2009 8:34 PM
Posted on October 15, 2009 20:34