“We haven’t had an opportunity as an industry to really come together across all of our segments in a thought leader and influencer way and address some of the issues that are impacting our mutual interests in this industry. For us it’s all about a growing, thriving professional beauty industry and that benefits everyone. The competitive issues will always be in front of us but what we are seeing now is something very different, from states trying to deregulate licensing hair dressers to what’s happening on the tax front with salon owners to ingredient issues that are impacting a lot of manufacturers.”

 

Former CNN Anchor and NBC Correspondent, Gene Randall, gave a keynote, in which he not only joked about the various global associations that share PBA’s letters (the Professional Bowlers Association and the Polar Bear Association, to name a few) but on a more serious note, praised PBA for its charity work on ending domestic abuse and its training program devised to teach salon professionals how to pick up on the signs of domestic abuse.

“This association’s activism I believe can serve as a model for any industry or business with a social conscious. It should not take the reprehensible actions of professional athletes to drive home the point that domestic violence is an epidemic.”

Jane Buckingham kicked off the speaker series for the day with her session What Gen Y & Millennials Want from Your Brand, highlighting for the audience how politics, pop culture, technological advances and home life situations have molded and influenced the Baby Boomer, Gen X, Gen Y and Gen Z demographics, and in turn how they consume products and make the decisions to consume them.

“The targeted consumer groups I thought was fascinating, and just the multi-generations that we are marketing to and interacting with on a day-to-day basis in our profession, I think I really gained some insights on that,” said Mary van Praag, General Manager of OPI Products.

Carrie Mellage, Vice President, Consumer Products at Kline Group, revealed the results of a revolutionary, first-of-its kind comprehensive study, Kline PRO, produced in collaboration with PBA. Her presentation provided trends, as well as exclusive data harnessed from transactional sources including salon software providers, distributors and beauty supply stores and salon chains that will be valuable in identifying trends, benchmarking performance and evaluating competitive beauty related sectors. Here, a Top 10 of the results yielded from Kline PRO:

1. The global beauty market is valued at $250 billion at the manufacturer level with the U.S. accounting for 17% of that

2. Luxury and direct sales outlets have been gaining share of beauty sales, with salons accounting for 7% of beauty sales, specialty stores 10%, direct sales 11%, food stores 12%, department stores 13%, drug stores 17% and mass 29%

3. Technology is impacting the professional industry with companies such as StyleSeat, Loxa Beauty and eSalon entering the realm.

4. Dollar share of the following categories based on sell through (register rings) in chain salons: kits/promotions 7.9%; shampoo 21.2%; hair styling products and sprays 40.7% and conditioners 30.3%.

5. Dollar sales of the above mentioned categories based on sell through in chain salons was down 7.85% vs. same quarter YAG overall.

6. The top five master bands in chain salons based on sell through for hair styling/sprays: Paul Mitchell 26.02%, Redken 12.77%, Sexy Hair 9.79%, Kenra 9.77%, Matrix 6.96%.

7. Sales of men’s products are on the rise with shampoo and kits driving growth. In the Texturizing segment with American Crew Foaming Cream, Paul Mitchell Mitch Reformer Strong Hold Texturizer and Paul Mitchell Mitch Clean Cut Medium Hold Styling Cream take the top spots.

8. Dry shampoo sales saw a 9% sales spike in the first half of 2014 in independent salons. Dollar share is as follows for the category: Kerastase Powder Bluff (13.5%), TIGI Matte Dry Shampoo (7%), Bumble and bumble Brown Hair Powder (6.5%).

9. Items set to win in Holiday based on Q3 promos purchased include Matrix Biolage Fortetherapy Trio, Paul Micthell Mitch, Shaper Plus Duo, Paul Mitchell Tingle.

10. Dollar share of anti-aging hair products have slipped to 1.6% in Q2 2014 compared to 2.3% in Q1 2013. Meanwhile, Thermal Care has gained share in the styling category with TIGI Flat Iron Shine spray (6.8%), Redken Pillow Proof Blow Dry Express Primer (5.2%) and Kenra Platinum Hot Spray (4%) ranking with top share in the segment.

Steven Johnson rounded out the individual presentations with his session Where Good Ideas Come From, which discussed what environments foster ideas and how to encourage creativity and grow business in the beauty industry. He highlighted on history’s innovators and how their great sense of curiosity ultimately lead to the future as we know it.

The event concluded with an intimate Q&A session with all three speakers, moderated by Gene Randall, which reinforced the theme of the event that technology and social connections are shaping marketing and communication within the beauty industry and how flexible marketing toward all generations can excel your brand.

For additional information about the PBA Executive Summit, please click here.