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R+Co has established itself as one of the premier players in salon haircare \u2014 and over the years it\u2019s been slowly expanding. At the same time, the brand takes great pains to stay true to its roots \u2014 and won\u2019t be straying far from its salon partners.<\/p>\n
For example, the brand, which is owned by Luxury Brand Partners, recently launched a hair color line. According to R+Co president Dan Langer, this latest foray was due to feedback from its community of hair stylists and professionals.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to build [the color business] out with the same philosophy of our heritage line, R+Co, which was involving a collective so that every shade of the line could be best in class,\u201d Langer said. \u201cWe\u2019re always in dialogue and conversations with different hairdressers, mainly because they\u2019re our friends \u2014 and they\u2019re part of our own communities.\u201d<\/p>\n
Langer joined the Modern Retail Podcast this week and spoke about the brand\u2019s journey. It first began 10 years ago; \u201cwe wanted to build a brand that was based on a collective perspective,\u201d Langer said.<\/p>\n
So he brought together a group of experts \u2014 the top haircare professionals in the industry \u2014 to form the original line. From there, R+Co has grown mainly via its salon business. That remains the company\u2019s primary business model.<\/p>\n
But over the years, R+Co has expanded into new areas. Beyond the new color brand, it launched a premium haircare line focused on sustainability called R+Co Bleu. Langer described it as the company\u2019s \u201ccouture collection\u2026 really focused on sustainability, performance, and design.\u201d<\/p>\n
With all of these new sub-brands, however, Langer said the core remains the same. R+Co uses its collective of experts to make sure the products are quality \u2014 and then taps them and their networks to get the word out.<\/p>\n
At the end of the day, it\u2019s the salons that remain the biggest evangelists for a brand like R+Co. That business-to-business channel, Langer said, \u201cis a huge part of our marketing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Here are a few highlights from the conversation, which have been lightly edited for clarity.<\/p>\n
How R+Co first began<\/strong> On expanding into hair color<\/strong> Salons are the best marketing<\/strong>
\u201cIt started 10 years ago \u2014 we wanted to build a brand that was based on a collective perspective. Up until that point, most brands in the space in the category were based on a singular perspective \u2014 a single artist \u2014 and we thought \u2018What if we put together the best hairdressers in the world to debate and collaborate on what products and education should be?\u2019 Invariably, you\u2019re going to get this incredible result because you have the best in class or in any category \u2014 whether it\u2019s the best person for editorial, best person for salons, best person for education \u2014 collaborating and debating what product should be like. And that\u2019s what we embarked on doing, and that\u2019s what we do.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been working on hair color for a long time, actually, for over five years, because we want to perfect and we want to do it in an R+Co way. Historically, hair color has been kind of a secret in salons \u2014 most customers don\u2019t know the brand of hair color that\u2019s being used on them. And as a result, we want to leverage the fact that we had great stylist awareness, salon awareness, customer awareness, to make our hair color a little bit different. One of the key tenets of it is actually being requested by end consumers. So we started building out this hair color to be best in class, to be the highest performance.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI think our marketing, is in a big part linked to salons. So our salon aims are really the best salons around the country. We work with the marquee locations in every single zip code. And that\u2019s where the awareness happens. They\u2019ve got customers coming in, they\u2019ve got stylists who are best in class \u2014 and that\u2019s where the awareness comes, for the most part, to the end consumer. Because they\u2019re trying it there. They\u2019re getting exposed to it. They\u2019re seeing the performance of it. They\u2019re living with it for six to eight weeks in between visits. So I think that\u2019s a huge part of our marketing. It doesn\u2019t hurt that the collective also does the top celebrities and influencers in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n