Shiseido CEO Masahiko Uotani on Japanese Beauty Brands Going Global
In 2016, Japan began exporting more makeup than it imports. Masahiko Uotani explains how China and travel retail factor into Shiseido’s success.
Masahiko Uotani. Photo: Jing Daily and shutterstock.com
Masahiko Uotani. Photo: Jing Daily and shutterstock.com
Contents
- Editor’s note
- Uotani-san, it’s been a year since
- we last talked
- . Let’s start with an overview of the beauty industry globally. How are things looking from where you stand?
- Last year, you earmarked the travel retail channel as a global priority
- How far down that road are you?
- That showcase role is very important for you, isn’t it? It’s obviously an important volume and value channel in its own right but it’s also playing a wider role for the group. All those domestic customers flying around the world, seeing Shiseido, hopefully, at your best. That has to have a big knock-on effect on your domestic markets?
- Triangle touch-points? How do you mean?
- So, travel retail as a customer recruitment tool is critical for you?
- Historically, with many companies – not just in beauty – there have been internal tensions as to how travel retail should be run. Should you have a central travel retail division, for example, or run it out of each domestic region?
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