Oriflame is planning to double its business over the next 3 years: Naveen Anand

Shrugging off the disruptions of the year gone by, businesses and agencies are looking for a strong revival in 2021. Over the next few weeks, Adgully – as part of our annual TRENDING NOW endeavour – will be presenting the strategies and views of a cross-section of industry leaders as they go about reclaiming lost time and market opportunities and build for a stronger future, armed with the lessons of 2020.

Life is good only with loved ones, food, and a strong WiFi connection – that has been a key takeaway for Naveen Anand, Senior Director, Regional Marketing, Oriflame South Asia, from the entire pandemic disruption. In this interaction, Anand speaks about Oriflame’s performance during the pandemic period as well as future growth strategy.

Outlook for 2021

Over the last 25 years, Oriflame has garnered a deep understanding of the Indian market and has introduced products according to the evolving consumer needs and preferences. Extrapolating from our learnings of 2020,  we are looking forward to unleashing the power of social selling, which will be a major growth avenue in 2021. We are, thus, betting big on our strong digital presence and allowing individuals to work from the safety and convenience of their homes. We are seeing beauty brands leverage the popularity of well-established social media influencers across YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram to better connect with young consumers. At Oriflame, too, we will continue to leverage social media to reach new customers, inform them about our products, and also educate them about our strong beliefs and high standards of ethics.

In terms of industry trends, we have seen a growing focus on health and wellness products, as a response to the pandemic. While beauty is at the heart of Oriflame, we are committed to introducing more health and wellness products to meet the burgeoning consumer demand. As we bring Beauty by Sweden to India, we believe that beauty is not just topical, but it is what you eat, how good you feel, and how beautifully you act. This is the holistic idea of beauty that Oriflame always holds dear to it, and which the world is embracing at a rapid pace. Beauty, health, and wellness will, thus, go hand in hand in 2021 and beyond.

Oriflame looks at India as a key strategic market and has made great strides in channeling the immeasurable entrepreneurial drive of Indians, letting them prosper and fulfil their dreams.

Now, the brand has displayed just how beautifully a direct selling brand can transform into a social selling brand. We will continue to empower our brand partners with all the tools they need to thrive as social entrepreneurs: through digital events, online sessions with experts, e-learning courses, and webinars. This affords a chance to network with mentors, connect with customers, and grow as entrepreneurs – all from home. In doing so, the brand will remain relevant by staying informed of the industry trends and remaining agile in its approach to carrying out business.

Great expectations

Oriflame has grown from strength to strength in the past 25 years in India. We just celebrated this huge milestone and things will get even more exciting now. We are planning to double the business over the next three years with new products, enhanced reach, strengthening digital reach and engagement, and the growing network of brand partners. In the long term, we envision Oriflame as the most respected and trusted social selling brand in the country, a goal towards which we will devote all our energies in 2021 and beyond.

Key learnings from 2020

It has been a challenging year for Oriflame, but I feel that when the going gets tough, the tough get going. We are already back to pre-COVID times in terms of sales numbers, but overall the year was tough. But we worked hard and will be even stronger in the future. On a personal level, I learned that the bare necessities are more than enough to live a happy and fulfilling life. Life is good only with loved ones, food, and a strong WiFi connection. On the business front, we have learned to be proactive. COVID-19 forced us to do things that, I believe we could have done even without a pandemic. We could have hosted events to connect people online, we could have adopted digital technologies and platforms like YouTube, Facebook, etc., and we could have started thinking out of the box. I wish we don’t wait for another pandemic to learn lessons and evolve in the future.