street marketing

Hostesses distributing samples on Brazilian beaches, a traveling Fructis-colored bus: that’s street marketing. Garnier’s new communications campaign goes directly to the streets to meet young people.

Street Marketing:

An Original Way to Communicate
In an effort to reach the strategic, hard-to-please youth market, Garnier’s Fructis brand launched the first European street marketing campaigns in 1998. Street marketing is a way of communing with youth culture. To do this, we have to understand their lifestyle, take into account their particular ambitions and buying patterns and identify their interests (music, sports, fashion, media and new technology). Whereas mass media often sends young people a one-sided message, this new kind of marketing establishes a real dialogue. Communications campaigns like these are completely new and original and they establish direct contact with 18 to 35-year old customers where they work, live, play or buy. The goal is to allow consumers to discover new products outside of stores, in a fun atmosphere.

Fructis Campaigns

The first buses decorated with Fructis shampoo colors appeared in 1998. Designed to be traveling hair salons, they visited the major cities of France, Belgium and the UK in order to develop a personal relationship between the brand and its young consumers. Sample distribution, hair styling advice and makeovers in very unusual surroundings were among the events held as part of this campaign. Street marketing was used again in 2001 to launch Fructis Style styling products. Along with the Fructis bus that traveled around France, this campaign also included a hairstyle booth at Berlin You Messe (Love Parade), partnerships with UK nightclubs, posters coupled with roller-blade sample distribution in the streets of Rio de Janeiro, on Copacabana beaches, on ski slopes at the Canadian snowboard championships...and more. These methods are totally in keeping with Garnier’s amusing, informative and fun market positioning.

Rethinking and Adaptation for Asia

In Asia, where Garnier is growing, street marketing took on more of a teaching mission. To launch Natéa/Nutrisse, the company had to demonstrate how simple it is to color your hair. In China, hair coloring is not as widespread as in the U.S. or in Europe. Beginning in 2002, Garnier set up itinerant and permanent Educational Centers in important shopping centers. Beauty Advisors trained by Garnier introduce the brand to visitors and use such teaching tools as video, explanatory posters, brochures and on-site hair coloring demonstrations to explain home coloring techniques.
In Thailand, for the very first time, street marketing was used to promote skin care products. Here, campaigns take place in the streets and on university campuses. Fun activities, visual aids, hostesses, talk shows on beauty and skincare featuring local personalities and a bus full of hair dressers and skin care professionals who offer personalized advice introduce consumers to the world of Garnier.

Street marketing establishes contact with consumers in their own surroundings, in places where they feel more relaxed and receptive. As well, they are more likely to appreciate a product when it is presented in a fun way. Campaigns like these can be held in a wide variety of environments and they can easily reach many different kinds of consumers. The high visibility of street marketing also makes each product launch a real media event.