showcase day 1
LARA Invites Vice President of Marketing at Tom Ford Beauty for Showcase Week
-Tom Ford Panel Coverage
by Dee Kwong
*The following interview has been edited and condensed for tone and clarity.
A TRANSLATOR'S JOB IS A HARD ONE, as it involves conveying and interpreting nuanced expressions across cultures. Lauren Laffort, Vice President of Marketing at Tom Ford Beauty, translates at a global scale.
Laffort sits in front of LARA's first panel on a Monday afternoon, kicking off showcase week, where industry changemakers talk to the next generation of innovators. Her shoulders are relaxed, emphasized by her slouchy blazer in muted brown. Yet, the rest of Laffort's body remains poised.
Laffort has had a strong start in the luxury industry; immediately, L'Oreal recruited her on the floor at a career fair. Yet, she finds herself constantly on the go, from the sunny Californian skies to the cobblestone streets of France and from the bustling economy of China to the vibrant cities of Mexico and Argentina in South America. Laffort’s roster of luxury brands she has worked with rivals her list of countries traveled: Dior, Balenciaga, Armani, YSL, McQueen, and now, Tom Ford.
She shares her first secret: luxury fashion brands, deciding to enter the beauty industry, often opt to license their copyright materials to third-party companies like L'Oreal, Coty, Puig, Shiseido and Interparfums. After all, the beauty industry has its own rules for regulations, distribution, and formulations.
"It's an interesting exercise to take a code from fashion and to translate that effectively," Laffort said. "It's completely intangible and can be interpreted differently.”
However, recently, we've witnessed a convergence of these two industries. In April of 2023, Estée Lauder finalized its acquisition of the Tom Ford brand, valued at a staggering $2.8 billion. Estée Lauder's bold move marked its first entry into the fashion realm, a development that has captured the industry's attention.
"We are more closely integrated; I have found over the course of the last year or so, it has been really helpful for working more closely together, understanding the fashion vision, making sure that everything we do is very closely tied together," Laffort said.
Notably, there are distinct differences in marketing approaches between the fashion and beauty industries. For Laffort, marketing in fashion is a supportive role, bolstering the creative design and director's team. In contrast, marketing in cosmetics takes center stage, driving the creation process of fragrance products like Vanilla Sex—Laffort's most recent project at Tom Ford.
Coming in a cloud-like formula, Vanilla Sex is warm and contains hints of almond, spicy vanilla, and sandalwood. Every detail has its purpose. “Vanilla is the most universally loved scent across the world. So we knew that we had an opportunity to reach various people through this scent,” Laffort said.
However, understanding which opportune moments to seize is a constant risk Laffort undertakes. “It takes several years to develop a product,” Laffort said. “I’m kind of living in the future.”
Yet, how do we overcome our fast-paced world? Trends’ lifespans grow shorter and shorter—coquette, quiet luxury, and the clean girl aesthetic are from a distant past. People’s perceptions will be very different four years from now.
“Listen to the data,” Laffort said. “Use what has evolved in the past to tell you how things could evolve in the future, but also listen to your intuition. As long as whatever you launch is in line with your brand values, then it will make sense to the consumer even four years from now.”
Even then, Laffort doesn’t sit idly waiting for the right trend to come; she creates opportunities. Dubbing them “white spaces,” Laffort and her team look in areas no one plays in. Now, if you Google leather perfumes, you'll find hundreds of high-end options competing for your attention. However, a decade ago, leather notes weren’t a thing. “Ombre Leather, as a fragrance today, is nearly 30 times what it was when we originally launched it,” Laffort said. “It was an olfactive white space in the market segment when we were looking to launch.”
Ombre Leather and Vanilla Sex are only a fraction of what Laffort has launched during her career. However, her ongoing challenge lies in translating the Tom Ford brand and its narratives across diverse markets, navigating customs and censorship issues. Many countries found Vanilla Sex to be provocative, prompting Laffort and her team to reconsider their global strategy after encountering resistance. In the end, Tom Ford barred ‘sex’ with a red line. Interestingly, the Tom Ford team has found that the Chinese market has taken the uncensored version of Vanilla Sex as a status symbol, amplifying its demand.
"As a global marketer, you're looking to understand the story," Laffort concludes. “It comes together in a circular experience.”
QUICK QUESTIONS:
Q: What do you read?
A: Business of Fashion, WWD, literature
Q: What book do you recommend?
A: The Company I Keep: My Life in Beauty
Q: Two people every individual interested in your field should know?
A: Estée Lauder and Leonard A. Lauder