Kanebo Lays Out Plan for Global Growth

As a major step on its quest to become a strong global presence, Kanebo Cosmetics has framed a new business vision for the future and drawn up a growth strategy up to 2015. The new strategy clarifies elements of the company’s traditions to be reaffirmed and strengthened while identifying the innovations necessary to meet the challenges of the future.

The new business vision seeks above all to strengthen Kanebo’s position as a unique and globally influential company in the world of beauty and as a provider of satisfaction to both customers and its own employees.

In line with its new business vision, Kanebo Cosmetics has put together a growth strategy for the period up to 2015. The strategy has three main thrusts: strengthening priority brands; strengthening the company’s foundations in Japan; and growing dramatically overseas.

  • Its five priority brands—Sensai, Kanebo (now known as Impress), Lunasol, Kate and Freshel—have been selected to become the main engines for Kanebo Cosmetics’ growth in the global market. The super-prestige brand Sensai will be developed as a global brand with strong presence not only in Europe and America, but also Asia. The brand now known as Impress will be transformed to Kanebo as the company’s forefront prestige skin care brand all over the world. This is expected to enhance the brand value of Kanebo Cosmetics in the realm of prestige skin care. Lunasol will be marketed as a global makeup brand in the prestige segment. Kate and Freshel will be strengthened as strategic brands aimed at the rapidly expanding middle-income markets in Asia.
  • The second thrust of the new strategy will be to strengthen the company’s base within the Japanese home market. The idea here is to create new forms of counseling and to implement management practices committed to the generation of repeat business. In a distribution environment undergoing enormous changes with the advent of online retailing, Kanebo Cosmetics is refocusing on counseling, the starting point of its business, as source of competitive advantage. Within Japan, Kanebo Cosmetics will be concentrating on seven brands carefully shaped for the home market: Twany, Lissage, Coffret d’Or, Milano Collection and Evita, and a counseling skin care brand and counseling hair brand still being developed. The counseling skin care brand will likely be a rebranded ménage of several current brands in the medium price range. For the counseling hair brand, Kanebo Cosmetics will be taking up a cross-category distribution strategy with a focus on comprehensive counseling.
  • The third, and likely most important, thrust of Kanebo’s new strategy is to grow dramatically overseas. A key step to achieving this will be to become a bigger presence in the growth markets, especially in China and other Asian regions.
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