Looking Fit 03/2004: A Girl Named Zoë

A Girl Named Zoë
Mix-And-Match Line Captures Hot New Trends

by Matt Morgan

Zoë is flirty, playful and mysterious. There’s no way around it. She wants her tanning lotions to be as unique as her moods, so now she’s got her own line—one that lets her layer products to her heart’s content to create an ideal tanning temperament. Borrowing the mix-and-match trend sweeping the cosmetics and fragrance industries, California Tan, Inc. has created Zoë Girl™, which features seven different formulas that can be used alone or combined for unique blends.

Other industries recently have adopted the idea of mixing and matching, believing that products can and should be swapped to fit a consumer’s mood or particular situation.

“Depending where you’re going, who you’re seeing, how you’re feeling that day, you may use any different product, or you may use a combination of products at one time,” says Sarah Galusha, vice president of marketing for California Tan, Inc. and Zoë Girl.

Since young women continue to be popular targets in cosmetics and fragrance markets as well as tanning, California Tan was quick on the uptake and launched a nearly 2-year process to create Zoë Girl.

“The woman who is 15 to 34 is trendy,” Galusha says. “She’s fashion-conscious. She’s typically a shopaholic. Although there are products in other Cal Tan lines that certainly appeal to that woman, we’ve never had a line that has been specifically for her.”

Not until now, that is. The new brand debuted with seven products—six accelerators and one after-tan lotion, each featuring firming and slimming ingredients—at the ITA World Expo in November. California Tan’s manufacturing facility barely can keep up with demand.

Mixing It Up

While some tanners have experimented with mixing in the past, they risked clashing the fragrances or formulations because the products were not designed for combination. All of that is put to rest with Zoë Girl—the new formulations literally are made for each other.

An outside fragrance company helped California Tan develop an exclusive scent for each product. “They’re different from each other but they can be mixed together and they still smell good,” Galusha says.

Feeling Lucky™, a crème gel, and Pushing the Limits™, a classic lotion with hemp, are the base accelerators in the line. The mix-and-match candidates are Stretching the Truth™, a bronzer; Flirting with Fire™, a hot-action product; Playing it Cool™, a cooling agent; and On the Prowl™, a shimmer accelerator. Baring it All™ is Zoë Girl’s tan extender.

Each product name completes the sentence “Zoë is—.” “We felt that every name had to capture the benefit of the product but also describe a mood that someone may be in when they’re using that product,” Galusha says. The names capture the personalities of the products and portray Zoë’s enviable lifestyle.

“We spent a lot of time looking outside of our category saying, ‘Who is speaking to these women and how are they doing it? Who’s reaching her really well and what are the trends?’” she says. “And then we tried to bring that to the tanning industry.”

The Image

Zoë has her own line but she also has her own image— an appealing cartoon that embodies what young women want from their tanning products. Illustrations are a departure from the traditional shots of glamorous real-life models but are in keeping, again, with what’s fashionable in marketing these days.

“There’s definitely a trend in advertising and consumer packaged goods to use illustrated characters,” Galusha explains. “It’s a little retro. It seems to be very popular right now, so we felt that was something we wanted to do.”

The showy marketing support is right in line with Zoë’s concept, too. The company offers a rotating counter display with interchangeable cards that explains the mix-and-match possibilities and reinforces the idea of buying multiple products at once. “It’s very eye-catching and fun to read,” she says. “It draws the customer in. It’s a great tool for employees to start up a conversation and get into selling mode.”

Customers also will find an origami-like point-of-purchase selling card when they check in. Similar to a counter card or brochure, the Mix Match Play counter card can be flipped, folded and rotated to reveal different bits of information about the Zoë Girl product line.

In addition, to get samples into tanners’ hands, Zoë Girl introduces a packette purse that features a combination of several packettes designed for a particular event or mood.

Product combinations and groundbreaking marketing moves are paying off in a big way for Zoë Girl, if early returns are any indication.

“The reaction has been tremendous,” Galusha says. “We have been playing catch-up on production since the day we started shipping. We’ve way oversold our projections, which is a good problem to have.”