Joan Malloy, CEO, Alterna
Q: As an industry veteran, what continues to surprise and inspire you in the beauty business?
A: What never ceases to amaze me is the number of new and emerging brands, products, and technologies that hit the marketplace and become meaningful or successful overnight. Just when you think the market has been inundated and saturated, in comes another successful celebrity fragrance or the next generation of breakthrough ingredients in skin care
And what inspires me? Well that’s quite simple: people! I am inspired by the leaders in the industry — people I have either met or read about — from whom I can continue to learn. The other set of people that inspire me will always be the team around me, with whom I work every day.
Q: What sets Alterna apart from other hair care brands?
A: The secret is in the sauce! Alterna has been developing natural formulas free of harsh chemicals for well over 10 years, way before the industry took hold of this concept. Unfortunately, the company at that time just didn’t name it and claim it. Alterna’s philosophy has been at the forefront of sustainable, eco-friendly, good-for-you beauty products for years — and this credo has been a part of the company’s DNA from the very beginning. In many ways, you can say Alterna has “broken the code” by being able to lead and consistently deliver the most luxurious, efficacious, natural hair care products that are free of parabens, sulfates, phthalates, dyes, DEA, TEA, etc. on the market today.
Q: How do you stay relevant in such a saturated industry, especially with the recent economy?
A: Consumers today want and deserve to get what they pay for. I believe it is a value/quality proposition for them and quality translates to innovation.
Alterna has been the first-to-market for so much innovation in the hair care category; from being the first hair care company to incorporate pure Hemp Seed Oil in our HEMP brand (back in 1997) to being the first to introduce the “Science of Skin Care for Hair” with an anti-aging proposition in our CAVIAR brand.
With the recent launch of our BAMBOO collection, our objective was to offer accessible luxury with state-of-the-art ingredients from around the globe that deliver on the benefit promise. Our objective is to continue to be pioneers of innovation and offer the most efficacious formulas with the most superior results.
Q: Have you noticed trends in what women are buying more or less of?
A: I honestly haven’t witnessed women buying less but rather buying less often. What we do see in the case of professional hair care is that their visits to the salons have been stretched out a bit.
Shopping patterns have definitely changed. Women are shopping across distribution channels very easily and tend to be less loyal to one. From salons to multi-channel stores, websites and iPad applications, consumers shop it all and want accessibility.
Q: Anything we should be looking forward to from Alterna?
A: Absolutely! We like to call it the “NEW Alterna.” We will continue to build and innovate with key market opportunity products within our core brands: Caviar and Bamboo. Additionally, we will round out our portfolio with seasonal products and propositions that hit market trends AND which consumers can have some fun with.
In terms of our distribution, we will contineto grow our salon base and will look to expand into new and emerging international markets including Asia and India.
