Moroccanoil skyrockets global growth, predicting a 180% increase with BLEND’s help
Executive Summary
Global haircare and beauty brand Moroccanoil sells luxury hair products distributed in hundreds of salons around the globe. The company’s beloved products, based on Morrocco’s all-natural moisture infusing Argan oil, are loved by the likes of celebrity actresses Hilary Swank, Eva Mendez, Jennifer Lopez, and more. With more than 50 hair products and 10 shower products available in 40 languages, they truly are a luxury beauty empire.
When we first met them back in 2017 however, the company’s primary business lay in the US and Canada, and their European presence was limited. One of the major hurdles Moroccanoil faced in scaling their international growth was the localization of their products. Here’s how BLEND got involved, helping take Moroccanoil’s global presence to new heights.
The Challenge:
Luxury branding consistency
Dror Tene first joined the Moroccanoil team in 2017 as a graphic designer. At the time, the company’s graphics team was using the placement of sticky notes on PDF files to indicate the need for product and packaging translations.
The problem, however, was that the process was inefficient and slow. It required collecting the texts from various project designs, placing them in an Excel file, and emailing back and forth with translation vendors.
What’s more, the company often had issues with inconsistent translations due to the multiple translation vendors they were working with at the time. Translated texts were often returned with inconsistent terminology between projects and languages. Moroccanoil’s localization process lacked cohesion, and the company’s global brand image was suffering.
“Our international distribution partners would call us complaining about the quality and consistency of our translations,” explained Tene.
Moroccanoil has a very specific brand language that reflects the high-end quality of our products. Our product translations need to consistently reflect that luxury product experience, no matter the language.
Dror Tene, Multilingual Coordinator
Selecting a Vendor
Small project, ultra-fast turnaround
BLEND was one of four translation companies that Moroccanoil was working with when Tene joined. He realized that to ensure brand consistency, it would be easiest for them to work with one localization provider. The question was – which one?
BLEND was shortlisted together with another large translation company that they were working with, as Morrocanoil knew they needed a company that could handle a wide range of languages, as well as the occasional bulk translations with a fast turnaround. The other provider, however, failed to deliver the consistent quality Morrocanoil required.
“It was a disaster,” Dror explained. Morrocanoil had translated a product user manual into 25 languages for their Amazon resellers, and the item was riddled with translation mistakes. The hair care company’s global network of resellers came back to them complaining that the new product manual was inconsistently translated and did not reflect the high-end brand language Morrocanoil’s consumers seek.
That’s when Dror turned to Ira Kay, Business Development Director at BLEND.
BLEND already was offering the translation quality and brand consistency Morraocanoil desired. But there was another issue that needed settling before BLEND became Morrocanoil’s sole translation provider, and that was minimum project size, and thus, turnaround time.
The European Union was adding increased regulatory legislation to their product import laws. And with the addition of Brexit, a whole other set of regulatory compliance rules entered the picture. The haircare company found itself scrambling to update its product labels in compliance with the fast-changing laws. They needed a localization company that could provide ultra-fast turnaround times on short regulatory texts, without requiring minimum project fees.
The Localization Process:
A custom ‘badged’ team of Moroccanoil translators
Ira listened to the challenges Dror was facing as Moroccanoil continued to globally expand, and then suggested a customized localization solution to suit their growing needs.
- Badged translators – BLEND coalesced a team of Moroccanoil ‘badged translators,’ familiar with the world of luxury beauty care. BLEND Account Manager Emanuel Dumitrache then worked together with Moroccanoil Alan Cane Sr. Director of International Education, to set up specialized training sessions for the newly badged translator team.
- Direct access to MyTeam – Long gone are the days of manual sticky notes and PDFs. Today, when Moroccanoil needs a new project translated, they simply upload it onto MyTeams, BLEND’s easy to use customer interface. Dror or another member of his team simply enters their text and selects their desired language for translation. A new translation project is then triggered in BLEND’s system and automatically routed to a Moroccanoil badged translator for immediate translation – no project wait times included. The projects are often returned in just a number of hours!
- No minimum project fees – Unlike with some of the previous vendors Moroccanoil was working with, BLEND translation projects are priced by the word only. There is no minimum project size or fee attached. This means Moroccanoil no longer needs to bulk together differing projects to cut costs, or worse, wait till they have enough texts to meet the minimum translation threshold.
- Ongoing translator meetings – Moroccanoil continues to update Emanuel with all the latest product manuals and guides for stylistic and language reference. Emanuel then holds monthly meetings with the BLEND translation team to make sure their product and branding knowledge is up to date.
Joint training sessions with the Moroccanoil team really helped solidify the BLEND translators’ understanding of the company’s many products, and how to best highlight their varying ingredients and beauty benefits.
Emanuel Dumitrache, BLEND Account Manager
Success!
Luxury brand appeal in 40 languages
In the last couple of years, Moroccanoil’s global brand presence has skyrocketed. The luxury haircare company now has Hundreds of salons all over Europe and Asia, with their products translated to Norwegian, Icelandic, Finish, Korean and more.
This year, together with BLEND, they translated 60 products into 40 languages!
Dror is no longer just a graphic designer, he now serves as Morrocanoil’s Multilingual Coordinator as well. Translation projects now flow smoothly with minimal back and forth. Branding rules are adhered to, and the company’s packaging and marketing materials truly reflect the brand’s luxury image – no matter what language they appear in.
Furthermore, as Europe’s product regulations fluctuate, the Morrocanoil team knows that they can quickly upload edited label texts into MyTeam, and the texts will be translated and waiting for them later that day.
And without any minimum project fees, the pricing couldn’t be better!
Dror now receives positive feedback from the company’s global distribution partners on the quality of the products accompanying materials- and he couldn’t be happier to hear it.
As per Dror’s predictions for MoroccanOil’s relationship with BLEND:
“In 2022 we will be adding additional beauty products and expanding to new foreign markets. Our target goal is a 180% increase in global growth, and our successful working relationship with BLEND is an integral part of what allows us to have such ambitious global business goals.”
Dror Tene, Multilingual Coordinator
Bonus!
2021 official Eurovision Sponsor
In 2021, Morrocanoil was named the official sponsor of Eurovision, dolling out free hair care products to the competition’s contestants, and running exciting social events and contests for the internationally attended music festival’s many social followers.
While Moroccanoil served as the official sponsor of the iconic contest, BLEND was there to accompany and translate their many materials, every step of the way.
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