Package Design - November/December 2014 - 10

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PA N E L

Beauty and Italy

Cosmopack Symposium celebrates Italy's influence on the beauty industry.

new event from BolognaFiere Group,
Cosmopack Symposium, aims to
strengthen ties between American
beauty brands and Italian packaging suppliers. Core to the event, which was held at a
luxury hotel in the SoHo district of New York,
were networking opportunities that enabled
attendees to learn about the most recent
technological advances directly from representatives of Italian suppliers to the health
and beauty market.
BolognaFiere Group reports more than
240 meetings have been organized with the 50
most active buyers, such as those from wellknown brands as Estée Lauder and L'Oréal, in
global markets, especially America.
"The Symposium has been a great success," said Duccio Campagnoli, president of
BolognaFiere, "and it confirms us that it is
worth proceeding in the project to build a
new Cosmoprof event in the United States,
promoting the meeting of the technological
capabilities of the Made in Italy and Made in
Europe with the most important American
manufacturers. After this success, we are
ready to prepare the event that next year will
double our presence in the U.S."
The Symposium in New York opened with
the presentation of a study commissioned by
Cosmopack and completed by Euromonitor
International entitled "Opportunities for
growth in the North-American market." The
market investigation took a look at what was
needed for suppliers to be successful in the
U.S. market, focusing on the peculiarities of
the American market by addressing the
issues on the interaction between companies
and buyers, with the analysis of the winning
tools and the steps to enter this market.
Other sessions included a presentation,
entitled, "Are you ready to do business in the
U.S.?" and a discussion of the history of quality and innovation in northern Italy. During
the Excellence Made in Italy session, Lee Rizzuto, Conair vice president and board member of NABE (partner of Bologna Fiere SpA in

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2014

Akridge stressed the
importance of cross-pollination for innovation, noting
that the Clarisonic facial
cleaning brush was inspired by
the technology used for sonic
toothbrushes. He also noted
that packaging is extremely
important for startups, which
don't yet have the budget for
ads in the major beauty
publications.
Iredale conceded that
packaging had hindered her
beauty brand's initial growth.
"Nobody was buying our
product in the beginning of
our company, 20 years ago,
because of the packaging,"
she said. "It was terrible." The
company was still able to
grow to more than 400,000
SKUs because of her strong
belief in the product and the
Anastasia Soare, founder and CEO of Anastasia Beverly Hills,
transparency of product forspeaks at the Cosmopack Symposium. Her blue-ocean products are resonating with modern consumers, especially those
mulations communication.
on social media. Her brand has more than 2.7 million Instagram
Drell-Szyfer noted that
followers.
the best supplier-partners are
the organization of Cosmoprof North Amerthose that consider the client's brand strategy.
ica), noted that "Americans look to Italy for
"I know that many suppliers come to us talkluxury goods" and remarked that not every
ing about their innovation," she said, "but I
American wants a Ferrari in their garage but
think that's a little bit of the tail wagging the
you'd be hard pressed to find an American
dog. To become valuable to companies like us,
who didn't want that Ferrari-like style and
you need to get involved in the brand strategy."
quality as part of their salon experience.
Soare emphasizes the importance of delivThe final general session was a robust
ering on promises to your customers. "My cuspanel of innovators in the beauty industry
tomers, from 13 to 90, all want the best," Soare
and represented a good number of CEOs and
said. "My customer, she trusted me. It's diffifounders of beauty brands. Panelists included cult to deliver my promise if you (the suppliRobb Akridge, vice president and general
ers) don't deliver."
manager of Clarisonic; Elana Drell-Szyfer,
The Cosmopack Symposium is expected
CEO of Laura Geller Beauty; Anastasia Soare,
to return to New York, late next year. The
founder and CEO of Anastasia Beverly Hills;
next Cosmopack will be held in Bologna, I
Jane Iredale, president and founder of Iredale
taly, March 19 to 22, 2015. Attendee registraMineral Cosmetics; and Kian Feyzgiu, CEO of tion for the Italian event is open now at
Gotha Cosmetics.
www.cosmoprof.com. l

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