SABON · Category strategy

Six products. No clear reason to choose one.

Role: Brand-to-Market Strategy Lead
Result: +49% category growth across 12 markets
Scope: Category diagnosis · Portfolio architecture · 360° activation · Global-to-local

Owned strategy → market, 12 markets

Body by SABON · Global category repositioning

Six products. No clear reason to choose one.

Repositioning a declining global category by giving every texture a distinct role, then carrying that clarity across every touchpoint and twelve markets.

In brief

Situation
SABON's body-care flagship anchored the business. It was losing ground year over year. Six products, no reason to choose one.
Task
Give every product a role, and make the category choosable again.
Action
Rebuilt the range customer-first (texture for the skin, fragrance for you) and carried it across every touchpoint and 12 markets.
Result
+49% category growth across 12 markets.

+49%Global campaign growthCategory revenue across 12 participating markets, campaign period
+117%Repair Body CreamFlagship SKU recovery, reversing a −20% baseline decline
+35%Japan regional liftCategory turnaround in the largest market, reversing −15% YTD
€30.2MCategory baselineThe body-moisturizer category, 31% of Body Care (2023)

Diagnosis

The category was losing to itself.

Cannibalization

−15%

The body-moisturizer category, year to date 2024

−20%

Repair Body Cream, its former hero, over the prior year

31% of the Body Care business · €30.2M in 2023

Choice friction

Shoppers could feel six textures, but nothing told them which one was theirs. With no way to match a texture to their own skin, the decision fell back on price, habit or scent, and the category stopped recruiting.

They weren't losing to the competition. They were losing to each other.

An architecture problem, not a product one.

Re-architected category

Six textures. Eight fragrances. One clear reason to choose.

Each texture was given a role only it could hold, so the functional choice became obvious. Eight signature fragrances kept the personal choice, so clarity never cost preference.

Texturethe skin need

Fragrancepersonal preference

Dual selection: choose a texture for your skin, a fragrance for yourself. Every texture is available across all eight signature scents.

Fragrancepersonal preference

Patchouli Lavender Vanilla · Iconic signature

Swipe the range →

01 / 06 · Texture
The winter hero
Repair Body Cream
Texture
Rich, non-greasy repairing cream
Skin
Very dry, uncomfortable skin
When
When cold and heating have stripped it
The heaviest texture in the range, and the only one built to rebuild.
Available inPatchouli Lavender Vanillaand 7 more scents
02 / 06 · Texture
The everyday baseline
Body Lotion
Texture
Light, cocooning milk
Skin
Normal to dry skin
When
The daily gesture, morning and night
The default a routine is built around, never the one it reaches for in a crisis.
Available inPatchouli Lavender Vanillaand 7 more scents
03 / 06 · Texture
The fast one
Silky Body Milk
Texture
Fluid, silk-finish cream
Skin
All skin types
When
When there is no time to wait for it to sink in
Absorbed before you have reached for your clothes, and nothing left behind.
Available inPatchouli Lavender Vanillaand 7 more scents
04 / 06 · Texture
The summer alternative
Body Gelée
Texture
Cooling water-gel
Skin
Normal to dry skin, in the heat
When
When cream suddenly feels like too much
The only texture in the range that cools instead of comforts.
Available inPatchouli Lavender Vanillaand 7 more scents
05 / 06 · Texture
The reassurance
CICA Cream
Texture
Soothing centella cream
Skin
Sensitive, reactive skin
When
When skin is irritated and needs protecting
The one you reach for when nothing else feels safe on the skin.
Available inPatchouli Lavender Vanillaand 7 more scents
06 / 06 · Texture
The transformation
Cream to Oil
Texture
A cream that melts into oil
Skin
Dull, tired skin
When
The evening ritual, for glow
The only one that changes state on contact, cream becoming oil.
Available inPatchouli Lavender Vanillaand 7 more scents

The idea, in market

One clear choice, carried into every room the customer meets it.

SABON's mission never changed: joy in the small moments of the everyday. The category's real problem was friction, the opposite of joy. So the work was not to invent a platform. It was to connect one the customer could act on.

The creative platform

SABON Fantasy Fair

A funfair-inspired world where each texture is its own attraction with a single purpose: one product, one skin need. Originated as a creative concept in May 2024 and carried, in spirit, into the live January 2025 campaign.

The same choice, translated for every touchpoint.

In digital

The whole online experience was rebuilt around the choice: product pages rewritten skin-need first, a dedicated campaign landing page, a full CRM newsletter flow and paid media, and a scent finder that walked each shopper to their texture and their scent.

ReadClose

In retail

In store, the architecture went past the shelf: signage that gave each texture its own role, branded pop-ups, and VIP invitations to in-store evening events, turning the range from a display into an occasion.

ReadClose

In the consultation

Beauty advisors were trained on a texture-to-skin method, including an advanced scent-layering technique, turning the counter into a guided choice rather than a scent test.

ReadClose

Beauty advisors were trained on a texture-to-skin method, including an advanced scent-layering technique, turning the counter into a guided choice rather than a scent test.

In market

Japan ran the full mechanic: sampling by need, gift-with-purchase, market-tailored kits and in-store testing stations, so the architecture was something to try, not just something to read.

ReadClose

Japan ran the full mechanic: sampling by need, gift-with-purchase, market-tailored kits and in-store testing stations, so the architecture was something to try, not just something to read.

The whole system was packaged as a governed global toolbox and localised for market, so local teams could run the season without reinventing it.

PDF · 29 pages

360° Global Activation Toolbox

Campaign strategy, retail, education, customer experience and worldwide deployment.

View Download

PDF · 47 pages

Digital Activation Toolbox

Homepage, landing pages, CRM, paid media, influencer assets, newsletters and rollout.

View Download

Brand-to-Market development, led end to end.

Validated commercial outcomes

From −15% decline to +49% growth.

One system, twelve markets.

The last test of an architecture is whether people can act on it.

In the campaign content, the choice reads exactly as intended: creators picking a texture for the skin, a scent for themselves.

What changed was not the number of products. It was the clarity of the choice.

The products never became more different. Their differences finally became legible.

Here, the value was there all along, only waiting to be organised. The next company had value too, and no one could see it at all.

Make the invisible legible.

Commercial impact

The category was losing to itself.

Six textures. Eight fragrances. One clear reason to choose.

One clear choice, carried into every room the customer meets it.

SABON Fantasy Fair

In digital

In retail

In the consultation

In market

360° Global Activation Toolbox

Digital Activation Toolbox

From −15% decline to +49% growth.

See the résumé, or start a conversation.