Shiseido Celebrates Love

COMPANY:SHISEIDOEVENT:SHISEIDO WHITE DAY 2013DATE:14 MARCH 2013LOCALE:SINGAPOREEVENT OBJECTIVE:1. To promote Shiseido's whitening products to fans.2. To reach out to new groups of customers.EXECUTION:Shiseido extended invitations to Shiseido members and Shiseido's White Lucent fans via physical invitation cards and also invited readers of Her World and Nuyou magazine via an advertorial invite.The brand used emails and SMSes to also invite selected bloggers to the event.The event was a culmination of celebrations held over 10 days from 8-17 March, in conjunction with its 10th year anniversary of its first global whitening line, White Lucent. It also coincided with White Day 2013, a day where men (in Japan and Korea) express their feelings to women with gifts on 14 March, one month after Valentine's day.Pre-publicity efforts were conducted by Shiseido over a 10-day period, including out-of-home advertising (pillar ads and Tangs departmental stores underpass posters), print (Her Worldand Nuyou magazine, Urban, Today and My Paper) and through social media such as Facebook and Instagram.On Valentine's day, chocolates from Shiseido parlours in Ginza Tokyo were flown in specially to different media houses and a selected group of bloggers. Two weeks prior to the event in March, Shiseido sent exclusive White Day gifts to them.Shiseido also did a daily countdown on its Facebook page to drum up interest for the event.A pop-up store featuring services, samples, gift with purchases, special sets for customers was set up at the Mandarin Gallery walkway over the 10-day period for customers. Daily sampling treats were posted on the Shiseido Facebook page and the brand engaged brand ambassadors to hand out sampling cards to customers along Mandarin Gallery to invite them to its pop-up store.On the actual White Day event, Shiseido invited celebrity Jacelyn Tay to make a guest appearance. It also invited White Lucent users to share their experience on the product range. Shiseido's managing director, Mizuki Hashimoto was also present to give guests insights on the Japan market and the origins of White Day.The event took place at the Mandarin Gallery pop-up store from 6-8.30pm.RESULT:Approximately 100 guests turned up for the event.In the lead up to the event, there were 4-5 posts on Facebook, Instagram and blogs daily, and statistics on Shiseido's Facebook page showed a significant hike in the number of views, especially on 14 March.Shiseido saw media coverage about the launch event including Her World Plus and LOL, a talkshow on Toggle channel.LESSONS LEARNED:Iris Chai, assistant brand manager, prestige business division, Shiseido said a key challenge for the event was the location."It was the first time we are organising a 10-day Shiseido event at an outpost area. Most of our previous events were held indoors within our counters or at hotel ballrooms and restaurants, which gives us tighter crowd and stock control," Chai said.As the brand was also doing sales on-site, ensuring there is sufficient stock given the limited storage and high number of SKUs was also a challenge. "We had to squeeze our entire counter, including stock, manpower, activities space (facials, makeovers, consultations) into the allocated space," Chai added.Shiseido overcame this challenge by having contingency plans in case of bad weather."We wanted to hold the actual White Day event at Mandarin Orchard hotel in case of bad weather. To ensure that there were sufficient stocks, we were also working very closely with Tangs," she said.From this event, the brand sought to forecast sales, inventory level and manage the demands for future events."With this analysis in place, we will be able to improve our space management with lesser allocation to activities and more allocation given to overall space for better customer flow," Chai said.