ESTETICA’s Sergi Bancells interviews Miquel García Cotado, Revlon Global Creative & Artistic Director, one of the great gurus of hair fashion in the world today.
Travelling between America, Europe, and Asia, between one shoot and another, behind the scenes of a great show or one of the many educational platforms of Revlon Professional, it is difficult to know where Miquel García is, unless you follow his busy career on social networks. In the end we finally caught up with him in Los Angeles, before a photo shoot with a Revlon Ambassador: Halle Berry! Busier than ever in his dual role for Revlon Professional and Revlon Inc., Miquel talked about his overwhelming passion for hairdressing.
How do you manage to keep up with your role as Artistic/Education director in Revlon Professional and your new role in Revlon Inc.?
“For me it is an enormous challenge. Obviously, I continue to be very intensely involved in the professional world of hairdressing. The mass market sector requires less involvement on my part, given that I participate in the brand strategy and image project, as I don’t have direct contact with clients. On the other hand, being a hairdresser requires lots of training and dedication. The market requires a high level of information and it is a sector where we are asked to renew ourselves constantly. But today the connection between both worlds is stronger than ever: although the images and sales channels are different, we work with the same macro-trends and the same inspiration. We want to be a coherent brand that says the same things to the consumer and the professional.”
Does success come from coherence?
“I’m convinced that it does. When a client sees the same information in fashion magazines, on TV, on runways… and immediately after goes to her salon and the professional gives a similar message, it is easier to recommend our services and professional products. I can’t disassociate the images we create in hairdressing from what is happening in fashion and in the mass market. The more coherent we are with the message, the better it will be for the hairdresser.”
So did the history of Revlon Professional change for the better with the sale of Revlon Inc.?
“Certainly, it’s the best thing that could have happened. On one hand it was like ‘coming home’, while on the other we are experiencing the integration of two truly exciting multinationals. The fact that the new CEO of Revlon Inc. is Lorenzo Delpani, who was our CEO in professional has brought the excellence of both sector’s together, creating a premium brand, that has risen to become the jewel in the crown in both the professional and consumer markets.”
In your opinion, how did the concept of “Revlon woman” evolve?
“The understanding of beauty is not an absolute and we must keep pace with its evolution: we have been working on this point for many years. We gave the “Revlon Woman” an identity that was sufficiently motivating, so that the hairdresser would be inspired to buy our products and participate in the collections… but we also wanted the end consumer, after seeing the same image, to want to try our new services. Succeeding in winning this challenge, or motivating the consumer and at the same time inspiring the hairdresser, I think was an extraordinary test of our mettle, that today represents one of the brand’s greatest successes.”
With this strategy, what role do celeb images like Olivia Wilde and Halle Berry play?
“I believe that one of the ways Revlon has demonstrated its utmost commitment to the professional world was to make the same brand ambassadors that represent the company on the world of the mass market available to the hairdresser. In the first place, it reinforces brand coherency. Moreover, there is no doubt that for the hairdresser it represents a fantastic tool to be able to have a poster of Olivia Wilde or Halle Berry in his or her salon to promote the professional services available to the client.”
Olivia is, more precisely, the image of the latest great launch of Revlon Professional…
“That’s right: Revlonissimo Colorsmetique, the most beautiful color in the world. There are no words to describe the success that the relaunch of this extraordinary hair color had. We knew we had an excellent formula, that we had succeeded in improving and –also thanks to a spectacular marketing campaign– the feedback we obtained from professionals and clients represented an unprecedented success worldwide.”
On a professional level, what was the exact moment when Revlon became an avant-garde cosmetics company in innovations?
“Five years ago with the launch of Orofuido. In a moment like that one, despite there being a total crisis and a depressed market, Orofuido changed everyone’s mentality: suddenly we had a totally innovative products that no one else had, that the hairdresser and client loved, and that succeeded in transforming us into a leader in that category. This intern triggered positive dynamics and was followed by the launch of UniqOne. This all amounted to an astronomical leap forward in quality.”
How was the Style Masters concept born and become a styling range that is now a signature event signed Revlon Professional worldwide?
“It began with an original idea of Lorenzo Delpani, who wanted to launch a brand that had the backing of the best hairdressers in the world; Miguel Ángel López –who today is our International Marketing Director– and I went to Japan to sign up the first of our “masters”, Fumio Kawashima. That’s how it all started. This project gave us the opportunity to work with people that we have always admired, like Robert Lobetta, David Raccuglia, X-Presion, Fumio… With Style Masters, in addition to having created a styling competition that was unique worldwide and a show that is probably the most spectacular annual mega-event of coiffure that exists today, our main objective continues to be one of celebrating the creativity of all the stylists who work with passion and acknowledge the prestige they deserve.”
I don’t know people who love their work as much as hairdressers do.
“Neither do it, nor does anyone. This is why Revlon’s mission to keep pace with the expectations of the professionals and offer them a platform that allows them to continue their training, to grow with us, and launch themselves successfully on the consumer market.”
The road to success
After beginning his career as a free-lance hairdresser and make-up artist, 13 years ago Miquel García set out on his journey with Revlon Professional in the education department. After having succeeded in various important roles –also in sales and marketing– in all the group brands, today he is admired in the sector as one of the leading world gurus specialising in hair fashion and education.
By Sergi Bancells