With a footprint of over 450+ salons across 160 cities, Lakmé Salon has a deep understanding of the beauty industry. The brand offers customers a distinct portfolio of services and backstage rituals presented in a unique Runway Secrets menu.

Despite having a strong digital presence via its websites and social channels, the company upped the ante at the onset of the pandemic to ensure it could continue meeting its customer's needs. Post pandemic, Lakmé has stepped up on innovation, and today innovation contributes to about one-fourth of the brand’s revenue.

Also, in terms of expansion, the company continued to expand its footprint across Tier I, II, and III cities in India through its franchising model.

In an interaction, Pushkaraj Shenai, Chief Executive Officer and Wholetime Director, Lakmé Lever Pvt Ltd, spilled the beans about the brand’s D2C strategy, new product launches, technological innovations, etc.

Business Model

The brand follows a neighborhood catchment format. To make a Lakmé salon viable and commercially successful, the brand needs a catchment of about 10,000 households. This model could work in a corporate catchment, retail destination, and residential high-street market as well.

“45 percent of our overall revenue comes from Tier II and beyond markets,” Shenai stated.

Lakmé follows the FOFO model largely and currently, more than 150 entrepreneurs have partnered with Lakmé Lever as franchisees to own Lakmé Salons across the country.

“We look for franchisees who want to make a career in the beauty industry. Many of our franchisees actually come with a wealth of professional experience like chartered accountants, IT professionals, MBAs, and they feel beauty is an exciting industry to enter into,” he asserted.

“Backed by a comprehensive franchisee support model, expansion is one of the key focus areas for us. At present, we open 2 salons a week, and plan to go forward with the same rate,” Shenai further added.

Additionally, in 2015, Lakmé Lever formalized a strategic alliance with Aptech, a global leader in vocational training to set up beauty academies to train aspiring stylists across India and equip them to start their careers in the beauty industry. Lakmé Academy powered by Aptech is present in 115 locations across the country and offers foundation and advanced-level courses in skin, hair, and make-up.

D2C Strategy

The D2C industry has ramped up across the board since the onset of the pandemic, as more people are spending time at home and are getting a chance to take care of themselves and D2C has always been an integral part of the brand’s business strategy. Lakmé Salon wants to be able to cater to its consumers’ needs across various touchpoints, be it in a salon or online, by providing them with the products they need for their skin, hair, and beauty.

The brand has a Lakmé Salon Webshop, wherein consumers can browse its products and services, book services, and book virtual consultations for hair, skin, or makeup with any of its National Creative Directors or experts, post which they home deliver the recommended products for their at-home care, etc. This is created to cater to the demand that is created by delivering an excellent ritual or treatment in the salon. For instance, the consumer will come to the salon to take the services, but they will want the products to be delivered to their home. Hence, consumers can order products online and the brand will get them delivered to them.

“Our D2C website helps in a seamless beauty journey for the consumer,” Shenai noted.

“We are also in the process of renovating our app, and will introduce an enhanced version of our app by the early part of next year,” he added.

New Product Launches

Lakmé Salon has tapped into indigenous Indian ingredients with its new luxe line of facial, manicure, pedicure, and hair spa services - Beauty Sutra. Beauty Sutra strengthens Lakmé Salon’s Pro portfolio, which already offers services such as Perfect Radiance Illuminate facial, Youth Infinity Sculpting facial and the Morroccanoil Argan hair treatment, among others.

Apart from skin, hair, hands, and feet services, Beauty Sutra has recently launched full body services to provide customers with a head-to-toe lavish, indulgent yet effective experience.

Additionally, Lakmé Salon has also launched a new range of free-spirited hair colors to encourage customers to embrace their individuality. The new hair colors in the Free Spirit collection offer 12 distinctive and unique semi-permanent hues, ranging from Emerald Green, Sapphire Navy, and Amethyst Plum to Moonstone Grey and many more.

“Our private label products portfolio contributes around 35-40 percent of our total sales,” Pushkaraj said.

Integrating Technology

Lakmé Salon’s experts use an app called Pragati to understand customers better. It is an internal mobile application that can be used by a Lakmé  Salon expert in a Lakmé  Salon to track his/her performance, check on his/her customers, stay updated about his/her appointments, predict his/her incentives, share creative references with Lakmé  Salon expert community, etc.

The brand is also experimenting with Augmented Reality (AR) to let consumers do try-ons for hair, skin diagnostics, etc.

“In the salon, we will soon have a magic mirror to help consumers make the right decisions. Our constant endeavor is to go one step higher and leverage technology to provide customized solutions to our clients across hair, skin, and makeup categories,” he explained.

Focus on the Wedding Season

Lakmé Salon has recently launched its bridal collection in Delhi NCR, Uttar Pradesh, in a first-ever multi-city bridal tour. The brand launched Queentessential, a timeless, regal, and iconic bridal hair and makeup collection guaranteed to excite brides-to-be from across the country, at Lakmé Fashion Week 2022.

The collection was launched in association with ace designer Varun. In the first leg of the tour, these looks have been recreated and customized on real women, brides-to-be, and content creators in the capital city.

“Lakmé Salon has been the trusted ally of Indian brides, setting trends for and with them, for over 40 years – from the run-up to her wedding, the series of bridal events, and the runway of life from the wedding. This year, we have a compelling portfolio of prep-style-finish offerings to delight our bridal queens,” he concluded.