Yahoo Finance Behind the brand: Lush, the storytelling cosmetics retailer
The stories you don't know about some of the world's best and little-known brands
Annabelle Baker, Lush’s global brand director, is recalling the time over two decades ago when her mother, who owned a florists on King’s Road in Chelsea, told her about a community meeting she had attended on a “strange brand” which had just opened.
“She came home with yellow counter bags with white pots in them. Mum said not to eat them and I was confused why they were in the fridge,” says Baker. “They were fresh face masks which only lasted 21 days. At the time I was working in Jane Asher’s cake shop but she said I should try and get a job in Lush. The rest is history.”
Baker started as a sales assistant 25 years ago in the cosmetic chain’s King’s Road outlet, then the company’s London hub, while its headquarters in Poole, Dorset is still the main driver of product invention after six co-founders — including husband and wife Mark and Mo Constantine — launched the business in 1995.
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Baker was not only able to witness Lush’s leadership from close quarters but also accessibility towards their customers, which included Mark responding to every message right up until the company's decision to switch off social media channels in November 2021. The anti-social policy has had little impact on sales, with Lush’s total brand turnover amassing £836.3m last year.
Baker has since been at the forefront of pioneering new ways of consumer interaction. From Lush innovating the first bath bomb in 1989, Baker is now tackling subjects on cutting spending with big tech companies, open-source software and extolling the virtues of collaborations with SpongeBob SquarePants, Barbie or Super Mario Bros.
“We wanted to channel some of that energy into ‘what are we doing next?’, 'what’s the change that we want to see?' and to get those conversations moving,” Baker says of the social media switch off.
Lush has tied up with conference and festival SWSX in Austin, Texas where the beauty brand discussed the latest tech innovations, with panel discussions on human rights in the digital age to digital divestment.
“Tech is one innovation which is a big part of our brand but we wanted to show up there with a house of positivity,” says Baker on the sidelines of November’s Web Summit in Lisbon. “We go against the status quo, we don’t follow anyone else and we follow our own path.”
The challenge of being off social media, adds Baker, is how to connect with its customers. Take Super Mario brothers and the retailer’s collaboration with Universal. “It was huge for us and it’s been great fun,” says Baker. “They had never looked at collaborations in beauty for the film industry.”
Lush gamified the experience, launching a Question Block bath bomb which had a question inside and consumers able to scan the whole collection to access a special product.
“We’ve always had big characterisation of our products, but Snow Fairy was the first one,” adds Baker, who had harboured dreams of working for the UN. “It is such a big identity to the brand that it is now promoted by third parties independently as if Snow Fairy exists outside of Lush. People are now tattooing Snow Fairies on their bodies.
“We still get community love on social [Snow Fairy content has amassed over 100 million views on TikTok], while we are developing the app and rewarding the consumer. We are a word of mouth brand and never built on advertorial.
“There are so many innovative thoughts in the businesses and Jack [Constantine, Lush’s chief digital officer] has great vision in how Lush should show up digitally. We are a brand of storytellers and making those products come to life for people is an engaging way to tell that story differently to how we’ve done it historically.”
Two years ago, the brand, which has around 13,000 staff globally, purchased the North American side of the business back into the Lush group. The US is currently Lush’s largest global market.
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“The opportunity we have there is huge,” admits Baker. “The challenge is the geography and distribution. We have 201 shops there but it doesn’t even scratch the surface.
“We want better fulfilment and the freshest, fastest delivery in the US in 24 hours — that's the goal.”
Meanwhile back in the UK, it has just opened its first eco-friendly hair salon in Brighton, Lush’s green hub in Poole takes ownership of all waste and plastic, while customers can return plastic packaging from any Lush product in exchange for a 50p deposit to spend in-store.
“People ask if I miss the small niche brand of when I first started, that’s now a big company. I say, ‘No, I don’t’,” says Baker.
“The Lush I joined when I started [part-time aged 16] didn’t have 100% post-consumer recycled plastic, didn’t have the same things we do today in ethical sourcing, because we weren’t perfect then and still aren't today.
“But we are making every day lusher and better. That’s why the progress in the company is exciting, why you stay with it and keep moving forward.”
Behind the brand: Annabelle Baker on…
Her first sales assistant role
“It was finding the right product for the customer. It wasn't a hard sell or that I was on commission. One customer said she felt Lush was 'an oasis of kindness'. I think we work really hard on that. It’s not an explicit thing, inherently we’ve always been a care in the community brand, but you’d be surprised how many times people ate soap.”
On Lush leadership
“Lush has been built on the store management structure. You are taught how to be a business leader in your store, form marketing, numbers, how to train and develop staff. It’s all instilled in the manager and then to the staff. Pretty much from my first day at work, I saw that form of leadership in the business.”
Watch: Lush Cosmetics makes vibrant, eco-friendly bath bombs
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