U.K. Retailer Holland & Barrett Gets Behind Clean Beauty With Online And Offline Campaign

Holland & Barrett, the U.K.’s largest health and wellness retail chain, is putting its muscle and money into bolstering clean beauty with a new in-store, digital and print campaign.

The centerpiece of the campaign is a video developed by the agency Re: production showing glamorous models appearing to eat shampoo, moisturizer, shower gel and body lotion with the tagline, “Our customers believe what goes on their skin is as important as what goes in their bodies.” Holland & Barrett invested 500,000 pounds or nearly $700,000 in the clean-beauty initiative.

“Our main aim with this campaign is to encourage people to try cleaner beauty products, but we’re also hoping that we can connect with a younger consumer through the activity and create a campaign that our store associates can get behind too,” says Lucy Pottinger, head of beauty at Holland & Barrett. She adds, “While we’ve been committed to cleaner beauty since long before it was fashionable, it’s time for us to really stand up and educate consumers.”

The 800-unit retailer’s clean-beauty effort comes as clean-beauty messaging and inventory is being amplified across the beauty shopping landscape. Starting June 1, Sephora is slapping clean beauty labels on roughly 2,000 stockkeeping units from 50 brands that don’t contain parabens, formaldehyde, phtalates, mineral oils, sodium lauryl sulfate and sodium laureth sulfate. Neiman Marcus, Anthropologie, Free People, CVS, Target, Nordstrom and Barneys New York are among the many retailers that have increased natural beauty assortments.

The stores are responding to rising consumer demand for green products. At Holland & Barrett, natural beauty has become the fastest-growing merchandise category. Pottinger points out that skincare and hair care are particularly on fire within the category, while makeup, sun protection and hair color are climbing as well.

Natural beauty is responsible for around 15% of Holland & Barrett’s total sales. On an annual basis, that percentage equals sales of more than 90 million pounds or $121 million. Holland & Barrett’s clean beauty selection includes 1,900-plus products from brands the likes of Dr Organic, Burt’s Bees, Nails Inc., Weleda and Beauty Kitchen.

In 2011, Holland & Barrett revamped its beauty merchandise to move in a clean beauty direction and was an early leader in prohibiting microbeads from the products on its shelves. The retailer has opted for an ingredient-driven definition of clean beauty, and products under the clean-beauty umbrella in its stores don’t use parabens or sodium lauryl sulfate in their formulas. On top of ingredients, Pottinger notes that organic and sustainable packaging and ingredients are relevant to the clean-beauty repertoire at Holland & Barrett.

“Across the board, we are seeing a trend in customers researching products before they come into store,” she says. “Of course, in beauty, this sits well with the current campaign, and we are seeing some good conversations happening in store between our associates and customers around ingredients.”

Holland & Barrett’s clean-beauty campaign will end in mid-July and is featured in store windows through the duration. According to Campaign Live, it’s greasing the wheels for an anticipated surge in the retailer’s beauty sales that are forecast to jump tenfold over the next few years. Holland & Barrett remains on the hunt for beauty brands to enlarge its clean-beauty collection.

“There is always room for new products at Holland & Barrett both in terms of brand new interesting products, cleaner alternatives and also new types of packaging and delivery methods,” says Pottinger. “Get in touch with us if you think your product could work for us. We have several smaller brands who sell online only, so we can work with people on different scales.”