SUCCESS STORY
I understood as a marketer that there was little point in staying on the board of a company that didn’t want to invest in new products. Any marketer will tell you that is a bad idea.” But isn’t he worried at what other potential and existing clients might think of Propaganda when they see the agency effectively working against its old client? He says that was exactly why he stayed out the industry for some time after parting company with GHD. “I specifically did not do a knee-jerk reaction for that reason,” he says. “I certainly didn’t want to hop into bed with Clairol, for
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example, even though they would have jumped at the chance.” He enjoyed marketing an “emotional brand” to women. And that was why in the intervening period he has launched the Illamsaqua make-up brand which he claims is now a multi-million pound business. “But there was a four-year gap in my involvement in ceramic straighteners. Fairly inevitably GHD ended up with a marketing agency in London.” Not quite true, to be fair. The marketing agency GHD chose after Propaganda was actually TBWA/Manchester, although the account moved again three years later to
The technology behind GHD is actually nearly 30 years old, whereas our technology is less than two years old, is more efficient and more effective
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RKCR in London, after a new pitch which TBWA/Manchester went on the record to say it would not take part in. You are more or less forced to ask both men whether they are motivated by another feeling – revenge. Kynaston admits to a bit of this. “I must admit I am getting a buzz out of what we are doing now,” he says. But Powls himself insists he does not have such thoughts. Plans at the moment are all for Cloud Nine’s expansion. “Cho is being careful and is currently running at only 20% of capacity,” he says. “We want to keep production low to increase demand. But Cloud Nine has already gone down incredibly well in Australia, where we have appointed the former managing director of GHD there. We are selling in France, Italy, Spain, Dubai, Australia, Norway and Sweden. Our projection was to sell five million products in the first year, and we are easily in advance of that.” The world of hairdressing, meanwhile will wait to see what happens. n
04/10/2010 16:13