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Welcome to this episode of the Marketing Vanguard podcast. Today, Jenny Rooney sits down with Katie Gohman, CMO of Olaplex, to discuss Katie’s transition from Marc Jacobs to Olaplex, her approach to resetting the brand, and the new chapter for Olaplex focused on foundational hair health.
Katie shares insights on navigating brand challenges, the differences between fashion and beauty marketing, and how brands can effectively balance social media narrative and brand storytelling.
She explains her approach to elevating Olaplex’s premium positioning while maintaining its technological foundation, repositioning from damage repair to foundational hair health, and connecting with the wellness movement.
The CMO, who led Olaplex’s brand refresh that went live in February 2024, shares how she balances short-term performance with long-term brand building, the importance of C-suite alignment, and reaching multi-generational consumers in the competitive beauty landscape.
Previously, Katie served as CMO at Marc Jacobs and has extensive experience in both the beauty and fashion industries, including ten years at L’Oreal. Her career spans over 20 years across various marketing leadership roles, with a focus on brand stewardship and business growth.
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Key takeaways:
[02:39] Fashion vs. Beauty Marketing — Katie highlights the distinction between marketing in beauty versus fashion: “From a beauty perspective, I think marketing historically is consumer products. Right? So it’s brand management. So it’s a bit more, I’ll say, holistic to the overarching business aspect of the brand. And when you move into fashion, oftentimes from a CMO and from a marketing perspective, you’re very much focused on the communications and you’re focused on the consumer, but there’s a different team that’s running product altogether.” She emphasizes that being back in beauty allows her to be both the brand steward and a business driver.
[04:46] Navigating Brand Challenges — When discussing how she approached Olaplex’s previous challenges, Katie emphasizes the importance of fundamental marketing principles: “The first thing that we did is we went out and talked to people, and we fielded research to understand both quantitatively and qualitatively, like, what are the barriers and what are the issues that we need to overcome? So what’s the perception of the brand? Where do we want to go?” She notes that these principles apply regardless of the industry or situation.
[09:04] Repositioning the Brand — Katie shares the brand’s new chapter unveiled in February 2024: “The bigger thing is really this idea of taking the positioning of the brand, which historically had been rooted in damage repair and this idea that you use Olaplex at certain points of your life when your hair is really damaged to this idea of actually what the product does and what the original product always delivered on is this idea of it actually repairs your hair to make it healthy.” This shift aligns with broader wellness trends and positions the brand for everyday use rather than occasional treatment.
[13:55] The Importance of C-Suite Alignment — On working with marketing-minded leadership: “It’s interesting. I think I underestimated in the best way how important it was to have an ally in that role… what I think is really amazing about what we have here is we have a leader that believes in brand and that understands we need to build innovation and build marketing capabilities for the long term, but we have a group of leaders at the C-suite level that also believe in the same vision.”
[21:25] Targeting the Multi-Generational Consumer — Katie discusses the challenge of targeting in premium haircare: “The target consumer is, let’s call it, 35 to 45 and has a disposable income over a hundred thousand dollars. The reality of who is driving the heat in the beauty market, though, is my 10-year-old daughter and your 16-year-old daughter.” She explains the need to speak to multi-generational consumers through an inclusive visual identity that appeals to diverse audiences.
