2014-01-08 16:02:59

Packaging ‘Love’

2014-01-08 16:02:59

 By Marie Redding, Associate Editor

eSalon decided on bold red and white bottles with oversized pumps as part of its sassy new image.

eSalon merged the worlds of technology and beauty together to create a new type of at-home hair color, while successfully carving out a brand new market, as an ‘online beauty service.’ 

eSalon’s packaging is key to creating a user-friendly at-home hair coloring experience, which will encourage repeat business – and this is essential to the company’s future success. 

“Our new look – from our branding, our packaging and our website - conveys a flirty, sassy approach to our brand and hair color products. The new packaging and rebranding gives the brand a personality – and conveys our overall message of ‘Mix, Match, Love’,” explains Francisco Gimenez, CEO and Co-Founder of eSalon.

eSalon’s Innovative Strategy

 

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As a DIY hair color product, eSalon’s most direct competition is the boxes of hair color sold in drug stores. At approximately $20 for one color application, eSalon is slightly more expensive than most, but eSalon offers a unique selling point that box brands can’t replicate - custom-mixed colors. 

The company manufactures its own salon quality, individually blended hair color applications, which will completely cover grays, unlike most box brands. Plus - eSalon has automated the color-mixing process, which was traditionally a service that was only performed by hand in salons by professional colorists. And it’s a benefit that box hair color brands don’t come close to replicating. 

eSalon first launched in September 2010, and is based in Culver City, CA. The ecommerce site was founded by Gimenez along with three other tech-savvy entrepreneurs – the same group who created the price comparison website, PriceGrabber. The team recruited eSalon’s Color Director, Estelle Baumhauer, a master colorist with more than twenty years of experience in top salons around the world. 

Initially, the subscription service was only offered to U.S. consumers. Since launching in September 2010, eSalon has expanded to the UK and Canada. In September 2013, the successful startup hit a milestone of 500k color orders. 

eSalon's sales excelled over the past year and the company’s anticipated revenue for 2013 is on track to reach $10 million. “With the company growing rapidly, we knew we needed to focus on creating special packaging to promote the brand,” says Gimenez. 

eSalon's color tool kit, packaged in a bag with a heart.

The Color Creation Process and Design Inspiration

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Clients go to eSalon.com, provide their hair details and upload a photo. Expert colorists use eSalon’s proprietary technology to create a unique, individually blended hair color formula, using professional grade ingredients typically only available in salons. Then it's sent to the client, ready to apply at home at their own convenience – for $19.95, plus shipping. 

Its color products are mixed in a machine that eSalon calls its ‘secret weapon’ – or the ‘Love Machine,’ the hair dye-mixing machine that enables the company to create tens of thousands of custom colors, as well as color-match. 

The goal of eSalon’s rebranding is to help women find their perfect hair color match and was the inspiration for the machine’s humorous nickname, vibrant red-and-white look, and heart logos. “We rebranded our own image to convey that feeling of being gorgeous inside and out – and that the hair coloring process can be fun, flirty, and accessible,” explains Gimenez.

Rebranding to Convey ‘Love’ 
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It’s a given that package design is used to ‘deliver’ an experience – and eSalon’s packaging looks like it was designed to almost replicate, in a way, the personal relationship a woman has with her hair colorist. 

When the client first receives a box of custom color, the packaging instantly conveys the “love” that is sometimes felt when a hair colorist in a salon takes the time to personally create a color formulation by hand – sometimes it even seems as if they’re creating a recipe to bake a cake, just for you. 

eSalon sends customers custom color, personalized with their name printed on the label.

After placing an order online at eSalon.com, clients receive their personal hair color to mix together, in a box – and every bottle has your name printed on the labels, in a hand-written font. This adds that personal touch, to instantly convey a ‘made-with-love’ feeling – and succeeds in conveying the idea that your color was mixed and matched personally for you. 

Directions are included with all the steps clearly illustrated. Reusable color tools are provided for extra $9.95 - plastic gloves, a small plastic mixing bowl, applicator brush, hair clips and a digital timer. 

The word “love” is even literally in the name of two of the brand’s new hair care products, to further ensure the client ‘gets’ the brand’s new flirty personality. 

eSalon’s new customized coloring treatment shampoo, ‘Tinted Love,’ comes in 20 shades to help enhance and keep your hair color vivid for a month. ‘Love Unconditionally’ is its color-safe conditioner formulated to strengthen damaged hair. 

eSalon’s other new products are ‘Heart Lock-It,’ a color-safe shampoo that’s sulfate free; and ‘Shining Armor,’an Argan oil renewing treatment that will hydrate, smooth and strengthen hair.

More Design Details

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eSalon worked with Hatch Beauty in Santa Monica to create its new image, and some of its packaging. “They helped us with the entire rebranding process, as well as all of our specific packaging choices,” says Gimenez. 

eSalon’s new shampoo bottle is red, and the conditioner is white, which makes it simple to tell the difference when you’re in the shower. 

All of the hair care products are in bottles made from MDPE, which are adorned with a silver band around the base of the neck. “We found a mold that had a unique shape, and it matched our brand identity,” explains Gimenez. 

The shampoo and conditioner bottles are decorated with a soft touch finish, and eSalon’s logo is foil-stamped. These products have stylish, oversized pumps, which look modern and are user-friendly. (These are featured in Beauty Packaging’s December issue, in the feature, Deciding on a Dispensing System). 

The team at eSalon feels that the new packaging will be a success. Gimenez says, “Our new look reflects the vision of our brand – we’re thrilled with it.”