Created 35 years ago by Bernard Chevilliat to make cosmetic products based on honey from the French Ardèche region, the brand, now part of the L’Occitane group, is the most well-known on the organic cosmetics segment in France and around the world. Its growth reached 21% in 2019.
As the organic and natural market is booming, driven by the post-Covid context and consumers’ demand for clean, transparent products, Melvita aims to convert a larger part of increasingly watchful consumers to organic cosmetics.
“We aim to make organic products accessible to all and support consumers who buy natural products in choosing organic ones, especially young mothers. The first child often encourages people to turn to organic cosmetics,” says Claire Viano, Melvita’s CEO France and Benelux. 92% of Melvita’s consumers are over 30 and 57% have children.
Transparency and commitment
To this aim, Melvita relies on their own basics – Made in France products, expertise in organic formulation, high quality and sensoriality – and strengthens their commitments. Indeed, the brand intends to soon reach excellence in terms of “clean beauty” with irreproachable formulas as regards the skin and the environment. Plus, they have defined different objectives for 2025: 100% excellent notes on Yuka, deciphered INCI lists, and 100% biodegradable rinse-off products.
As regards biodiversity, Melvita is speeding up the development of projects focused on biodiversity and bee protection: they have already set up 1,150 hives in France – the objective is to reach 2,000 over the next five years.
Lastly, as far as packaging ecodesign is concerned, the brand aims to increase the part of recycled plastic in bottles to reach 100% in 2025, while studying refillable solutions for some of their products.
A communication campaign
The brand chose to address their main target, “green and committed” moms, through a TV campaign broadcast last June in France, which targeted women aged 35 and over belonging to better-off families. “This campaign made our brand’s fame increase by 7 points,” claims Claire Viano. Another communication wave, this time on the web, will be launched in September and October on social media: YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram. To this aim, Melvita has launched a major partnership with two star influencers who are both young mothers: @poi.family and @babychoufamily. This action will be combined with a communication plan in points of sale: the training dimension will also be strengthened by the “organic academy”, a dedicated 12-person team in France. “We want to create the Melvita reflex”, explains International Training Manager Didier Thevenin.
Ultimately, a new version of the online store better adapted to mobile phones will be launched.
As a reminder, Melvita is present in 15 countries and very well-established in Asia, in particular in Japan, which counts 32 out of the 82 wholly-owned stores around the world. Apart from this store network, Melvita is available through organic distribution channels, pharmacies and parapharmacies, the selective network (Marionnaud…), and others, which makes 3,700 points of sale in France.
A series of launches over the next few months
With already 180 organic-certified product references covering all cosmetics needs, Melvita proves dynamic and innovative. And they will launch new products and ranges over the next six months.
The brand is relaunching the line of four toothpaste references with new ecodesigned tubes made of recyclable plastic and has removed the cardboard case to save 3.8 tonnes of cardboard per year. The relaxing Roll-On with lavender essential oil will broaden the Relaxessence range. In November, three new Lip Oils with RedLove apple oil will be launched. Next March, it will be the turn of the firming body balm-oil in the L’Or Rose range. And in April, the new Argan Bio Active face range designed for a real organic lifting effect will be released with two lifting creams, Crème en Huile and Fluide, and two targeted skincare products: a Serum and an Eye Contour.
