In the 1970's I enjoyed the great good fortune to begin my business career in the cosmetic industry. This was an electric time for the beauty industry with great entrepreneurs, amazing promotions, sizzling product launches and progressive retailers all combining to energize the business and drive unprecedented growth and excitement. As the decade unwound, I found myself in a fortunate place at a most fortunate moment: I became sales manager for Vidal Sassoon Hair Care Products. It was an invaluable learning experience.
Vidal Sassoon is the very definition of a "renaissance man". Born into poverty in London during the depression, he apprenticed in the beauty salon of the famous Raymond of Mayfair. In 1948 he fought as a "sabra" in the Israeli war for independence. This experience triggered a lifelong devotion to philanthropy, education and activism that would benefit the Israeli nation and people everywhere and continues to this day.
The emergence of the 1960's counter-culture, inspired in large part by the international popularity of the Beatles music and fashion, was a boon to Mr. Sassoon. His first salon on London's Bond Street became a Mecca for hip, young trend setters seeking to replicate the bob-cut, geometric hair styles popularized by the "Fab Four" and perfected by Sassoon. Along with fashion designer Mary Quant, and Yardley Cosmetics, Vidal Sassoon became part of the beauty and style tour that accompanied Beatles concert tours. This greatly enhanced the consuming public's awareness of the new techniques in hair design being crafted by this visionary talent.
The Vidal Sassoon salon concept was very different from the typical beauty salon of that time. The architecture, music, modernistic uniforms and styling techniques utilized in the "Sassoon Way" were standardized and taught in the new international chain of Vidal Sassoon Training Schools. The initial London salon was soon expanded into a vast group of Vida Sassoon upscale salons sprinkled around the globe. New York, Tokyo, Beverly Hills and Frankfurt were only a few of the cities that came to host Mr. Sassoon's eponymous shops. These salons always occupied the best addresses, such as Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills and The Water Tower in Chicago.
This visibility lead to the introduction of a line of hair care products principally sold in beauty salons. The professional products enjoyed great initial success, but Mr. Sassoon, and the executives that had been brought in to manage the rapid expansion of the Vidal Sassoon brand recognized a much larger opportunity: there was no consumer hair care line that offered a professional, designer provenance and Sassoon had the opportunity to seize this market space.
Always a visionary, the Vidal Sassoon Hair Care brand broke molds, yet resonated easily with consumers. Before the introduction of the Sassoon product line, hair care was a simple commodity business. Prell, Breck and Suave were the major brands of the day and their products were basically soapy cleansers for hair, inexpensive, elemental. Sassoon products differed in three major ways: they were packaged in solid color, starkly minimalist containers, they were marketed to be used in a 3-step regimen and they utilized a revolutionary high fashion branding statement. This was the first targeted, designer hair care program.
Rather than a simple hair cleaning product Vidal Sassoon pioneered cleansing, moisturizing and conditioning the hair follicle with three specific formulae. As the public responded ever more positively to this innovative system of hair care new, highly targeted, specifically marketed treatments and styling products were introduced. The sleek, understated packaging of the line in itself became a powerful generator of brand awareness for Vidal Sassoon Hair Care products.
Owing to the fame and legend that was attached to Mr. Sassoon, the Company did everything possible to link him and the products together as one in the public's mind. Each commercial and print advertisement ended with the most famous beauty industry branding statement of the 1970's and 1980's, spoken by Vidal Sassoon, "We don't look good, if you don't look good". American and worldwide product distribution channels became flush with demand for these hair care products that consumers everywhere were demanding.
Mr. Sassoon, and his actress wife Beverly Adams, became media darlings of that era. They appeared as regular guests on the most popular television talk shows of the time and gained a huge following for their views on healthy lifestyles. They co-authored several best-selling books on diet, exercise and beauty.
The demand for products that could leverage the solid gold name of Vidal Sassoon would soon lead to licensing. A number of very successful licensing contracts enabled manufacturers to brand styling tools, small electrics, hair ornaments and salon equipment with the Vidal Sassoon name. Many of these products sell successfully to this day.
As the brand and business interests of Vidal Sassoon expanded exponentially, the Company was regularly approached with offers to be purchased. This was a period when large, multi-national consumer product houses sought to build portfolios of brands across a spectrum of categories. Richardson-Vick Pharmaceuticals purchased the Vidal Sassoon Hair Care product business and they were subsequently absorbed into Proctor & Gamble.
Vidal Sassoon is recognized as one of the great beauty and fashion innovators of all time. He almost single handedly created the celebrity, fashion hair care treatment industry. From schools, to salons, to products, to licensing and as a media presence, Mr. Sassoon has pioneered the branding of himself, and his related products, as an intertwined, world- wide recognizable brand. He has been just as active and productive in the good works and causes he actively supports.
