Glossier taps L'Oréal exec for VP of brand

Dive Brief:

As Glossier looks to further its growth, the DTC brand has named a new vice president of brand, Kleo Mack, according to a blog post by Senior Vice President of Marketing Ali Weiss. Mack will start April 19, and arrives from beauty powerhouse L'Oréal.
Mack will be responsible for growing Glossier's brand globally, including overseeing brand marketing and strategy, as well as consumer insights and social media teams.
Prior to Glossier, Mack led company-wide marketing strategies as vice president of Corporate Strategic Marketing at L'Oréal, and also helped IT Cosmetics launch in Europe and held marketing roles at Tarte Cosmetics and Pureology.

Dive Insight:

With DTC darling Glossier on the hunt for its next phase of growth, the beauty brand is bringing on a marketing exec from one of the biggest players in the space: L'Oréal.

In a blog post on the announcement, current marketing exec Weiss noted that Mack shares Glossier's philosophy on beauty, that the category "is first and foremost about a feeling," and that Mack shares a passion for building brands that matter to consumers' everyday lives. Her position is new to Glossier, and it comes at a time when the role has "never been more exciting or important," according to Weiss.

"Kleo's creativity and appetite for scale make her an ideal leader as we become an increasingly global company and bring new offline and digital experiences to life this year and in years to come," Weiss said.

The company has millions of customers across seven countries, according to the release, and is on a mission to grow its customer base further. In the U.S., two in five women aged 18 to 34 have heard of Glossier, according to Weiss.

It's been a turbulent year for Glossier. In August, the company laid off all of its retail employees after deciding to keep its stores shuttered for most of 2020 due to the pandemic. Its store locations have previously been a core part of creating hype around the brand, with locations that include testing stations and Instagrammable design features, and often draw long lines of visitors.

2020 struggles aside, Glossier is a favorite in the DTC space and has had success in the past few years growing its business. The company brought in $100 million in new funding in 2019 and also partnered with Nordstrom for seven pop-ups at the department store to showcase its fragrance, Glossier You.

But, as Weiss highlighted in the company's blog post, things have changed since Glossier launched.

"The landscape couldn't be more different than the one Glossier was born into — there's no shortage of new, independent beauty brands for consumers to pick from, e-commerce has experienced a multi-year acceleration in the space of a year, and the role of social media is changing as new formats for self expression emerge," Weiss said.

While Weiss said that these trends favor Glossier's DTC model and focus on community, it doesn't hurt to bring on an industry veteran to help push the brand to bigger growth. As more DTC brands look to expand beyond their early startup days, industry veterans are increasingly joining the ranks to help them scale.