Martial Vivot Grooming Line For Hair
Martial Vivot opened up Martial Vivot Salon Pour Hommes – New York’s first high-end men’s salon – in July 2008. In 2012 Martial joined forces with beauty R and D genius Melissa Jochim - famous for creating major natural beauty brands such as Juice Beauty - to formulate a line of hair products for men in order to expand his now famous brand. The product line would range between $28 for a small bottle of styling creme to $200 for a large conditioner.
Nutter Media was hired to brand the product line before the launch of the PR campaign.
Nutter Media's solution: The Martial Vivot Grooming Line For Hair.
“Grooming” is green room code for men’s hair and makeup. “Grooming” is an industry term that connotes masculinity without saying it and that also steers clear of “beauty”, while also suggesting it. Basing the product line on Vivot's name allowed the product line to ride on his now powerful brand equity in the media; and the use of the construction "Grooming Line For Hair" allowed for the product line's growth into other categories, such as "Grooming Line For Skin" or "Grooming Line For Beard."
In terms of the brand copy, Nutter Media’s solution was to avoid cliché’s like “luxury”, or putting the focus on the all-natural ingredients for the sake of being all-natural, which much less expensive brands have already cornered the market on.
Rather, the focus was put on effectiveness, ie. that the all-natural element to the product line made hair styling easier because the hair was much healthier, and that the universal hair-type aspect to the product line works for busy successful men who don’t have time to experiment with hair products.
The branding of the product line and positioning within the market helped catapult it onto the pages of T Style and Vanity Fair, into the Golden Globes Gift Bag for Men two years in a row, and into Barneys New York stores nationwide. Nutter Media's branding copy was also used in a national advertising campaign for the product line in GQ magazine.
