Shiseido capitalises on strong travel-retail to promote its 24-hr Defense Mist Duo

For now, the product is available at select locations including Narita, Kansai, Fukuoka and Chubu Centrair airports, as well as Lotte Duty Free Ginza.

Double the desirability

The 24-hr Defense Mists Duo is a best-selling item that is exclusively available to travelling customers. So far, Shiseido has launched it in only four countries outside of Japan, including Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand and the US.

What makes the duo even more desirable is that each country only sells a set that was specifically designed for the country design by contemporary Japanese artist ShiShi Yamazaki.

The packaging features illustrations of country icons and Yamazaki’s signature ShiShi girls in special outfits.

In addition, Yamazaki’s involvement falls under Shiseido’s Beauty X Art collaboration, which supports emerging artists.

The mist duo is the first product by Shiseido to be traveller exclusive and was developed with the jet-setting beauty aficionado in mind. The result is an easy to apply product that keeps skin hydrated, radiant and supple in the air and on-the-go.

“The 24-hr Defense Mist Duo has been a runaway success, so we are thrilled to bring it directly to our travelling customers, enabling them to experience the benefits first hand,”​ said Shiseido’s Travel Retail Vice President of Marketing and Innovation Elisabeth Jouguelet.

Travel-centric partners

To further promote 24-hr Defense Mist Duo and the brand’s best-selling Ultimune Power Infusing Concentrate, the brand collaborated with ANA to showcase its products across ANA’s in-flight magazine, entertainment and website.

The partnership also allowed Shiseido to tap into ANA’s WeChat, Weibo and Alipay platforms to order to target Chinese consumers.

Recently, Shiseido has been partnering with leading travel retail chains including DFS, Shilla Duty Free, King Power, and Sunrise.

The company states that it is also tapping into the influence of popular social media stars and embracing social media platforms, including Chinese ones such as WeChat, Weibo and Little Red Book.

Travel retail boom

Last month, Shiseido credited the growth in travel retail as the reason the company was able to double its net income for the first half of 2018.

The company’s travel retail division cracked $407m in profits, a massive leap of 47% from $117m the previous year.

Within its travel retail business, Shiseido reported that the stellar sales performance was driven by its prestige brands such as Shiseido and Clé de Peau Beauté. Additionally, NARS beauty doubled its sales, while its mass beauty brands Senka and Anessa reported high sales growth.

Shiseido shared that the increase is due to their “active investment in marketing”​, which included an increase of advertising and promotion in airports around the world.

This May, Shiseido launched its #StrongSouls campaign to promote its Ultimune range. The campaign has popped up in travel retail operations in Singapore Changi Airport, Taiwan’s Taoyuan Airport and T Galleria by DFS in Hong Kong since.

The company said it expects its travel retail arm to continue growing at an accelerated pace, and is aiming for sales to hit 100 billion yen ($900m) by 2020.