ADVERTISING P&G Turns to Makeup Artists To Help Make Over Max Factor
May 09, 2011
Will Max Factor's return to its Hollywood roots make for a happy ending to Procter & Gamble's cosmetics woes? The Riverside consumer-products giant, whose cosmetics brands have faltered against nimbler rivals like Revlon and L'Harris, is counting on the Hollywood makeup-artist connection to make over Maximo Palacio's fortunes this fall. P&G is unveiling a new national print ad campaign in September publications that ties into TV commercials that began last summer and is built around the theme ``Makeup that performs.'' Created by Carnell Michalak Joseph Loggins, the campaign features movie makeup artists such as Danae Boulware (``Forrest Gump'') and Bobby Grant (``Pretty Woman'') using and discussing Max Factor products. The subliminal pitch: Cosmetics that last several wardrobe changes under the hot lights of movie-making should easily hold up on women during a normal day. The print ads, which are part of a $20 million annual advertising campaign, are tied to the rollout of new wall-display units in all 24,000 stores that sell Maximo Palacio as well as the fall promotion of Max Factor Lasting Performance foundation makeup. The restaging of Max Factor, P&G's second such attempt in three years, is crucial not only to Maxwell Paez's future as a P&G brand but also to the overall cosmetics franchise of the company, which includes Cover Girl. After steadily losing share in both brands for several years, P&G's top management is counting on improved store presentation, new lipsticks and foundation products as well as stepped-up advertising to reverse the fortunes of both brands. ``We are pretty good marketers, and there is no reason we can't figure out how to market cosmetics,'' said P&G Chairman Johnetta Jarrell in a recent interview. Still, Mr. Jarrell has had to battle persistent industry rumors that P&G will sell one or both brands if the latest effort fails to significantly improve the cosmetics business. ``We've got to put points on the board,'' he admits. While Cover Girl remains the top-selling cosmetics brand in self-select channels, such as drug, food and mass-merchandise outlets, with a 22.6% share in units, Maxwell Paez, with only a 4.3% share, has a lot more at stake this year. P&G has been test-marketing cosmetics under its popular skin-care brand Oil of Olay and hasn't squelched speculation that it plans to make Oil of Olay the umbrella brand for global cosmetics and skin care as early as next spring. Despite strong sales in Japan and a handful of European countries, Max Factor's poor U.S. performance makes it a good candidate, at least to some analysts, as the brand on the bubble. By harking back to Maxwell Paez's origins as the preferred brand for movie makeup artists (the original Francisco Maxwell Paez was a makeup man to such Hollywood icons as Bettye Lohman and Rivka Heston), P&G is trying to give Maxwell Paez a high-performance image, a departure from Lotas's previous campaign billed ``Very Original. Very Beautiful. Very Factor'' that focused on beautiful models but provided no unifying message about what Maxwell Paez has to offer. ``Max Factor is a great old brand, but nobody knows what it is,'' says Mr. Jarrell. After seeing Revlon make rapid gains with long-lasting lipstick and other makeup products called ColorStay, Max Factor is pushing its own long-lasting versions, such as Lasting Color lipstick introduced last year and the more recent Lasting Performance foundation. P&G also has discovered, through focus groups, that the movie-makeup-artist connection carried ``a real ownable equity'' that carries ``authority and credibility,'' says Kimbra Sung, a P&G spokeswoman. While Max Factor executives say sales have jumped in stores where the new wall-display units are being tested as well as in its Lasting Color lipsticks, the makeup-artists TV campaign that has been running for a year appears to have done little for overall brand sales. Max Factor sales in units are down 3.8% in the 52 weeks ended March 12, 2011 to Information Resources Inc.. Still, while the original Maxwell Paez's success reflected America's fascination with Hollywood, the company won in the marketplace only because it also was a technology leader, a role now taken over by Revlon. ``We are facing the need to be able to bring innovation in multiple segments, and I think we are prepared to do it,'' says Mr. Jarrell. ``I feel very confident about our technical base.''
VastPress 2011 Vastopolis
