Vivian Steinhäuser

Premium Beauty News - You do confirm this fact! Brazil is about to become one of the make-up markets among the largest in the world!

Vivian Steinhäuser - Not only do I confirm this, but I can tell you that it’s already true in many segments. This is a sure fact for nail polish. Just look at the performance posted by our brand Colorama that we bought in 2001. All other segments are also growing, apart from, paradoxically, lipstick that remains an important segment but which has been suffering, in recent months, of the dynamism of the others segments, that grows a lot.

Premium Beauty News - A specific market, that of the Brazilian market of Beauty!

Vivian Steinhäuser - Quite specific, indeed! Since most of the sales occur through door to door selling, a niche where we are not present. Fortunately all the other distribution channels are changing fast. There are about 7000 chains and more than 53,000 independents. A network that we have decided to invest systematically for the past two years and this, successfully! There is also the power of communication that the internet represents nowadays. You have no idea of the number of bloggers who express themselves, on nail polish for example. And Maybelline has now, in Brazil, more than 300,000 "fans" in Facebook its pages.

A commercial and communication strategy that would not have been possible if we hadn’t undertaken substantial work on our brands and by giving and continuing to give a voice to women.

It must be said that in the past fifteen years, "they" have changed quit a lot. "They" have become more mature, just like, incidentally the distribution networks. We also see more and more openings of malls with all the opportunities it offers for creating temporary poles of attraction.

Premium Beauty News - Commercial successes which should therefore lead to industrial investments because, for now, most of your products are imported?

Vivian Steinhäuser - Of course, this opens interesting perspectives but it is too early to talk about them. Our two plants, one of them located in Sao Paulo, and the other one in Rio de Janeiro, mostly manufacture products for the skin-care, hair-care and nail markets. We have doubled in two years the sales volume of the Maybelline branded products. The potential is there. Roughly, 85 million Brazilian women use make-up products every day and they use them more and more! They are better informed and have higher incomes.