1. WINTER 2014HENKEL LIFE / NORTH AMERICA
4 Henkel Life
When Henkel acquired Schwarzkopf Profes-
sional in the U.S. in 2011, the company had a
minimal presence in social media. Lacking
the big advertising budgets of its competi-
tors, General Manager George Broder, now
responsible for the Hair Professional USA
business after successfully running the
Canadian business for more than 20 years,
quickly identified social media as a core
requirement for the organization. Today,
social media has become the backbone of
building brand awareness, conversation and
engagement in the digital sphere.
“Especially in the U.S., you cannot afford not
to be in the social media area,” said Broder.
Within the last two years, Schwarzkopf has
experienced explosive growth on its four
major social media channels – Facebook,
Instagram, Pinterest, and Twitter.
Each platform serves a specific purpose in
helping Schwarzkopf reach its target audi-
ence of hairdressers and consumers. Face-
book has grown 700 percent in the past year
and on average has three times the engage-
ment than its top competitors, Wella, Gold-
well, L’Oreal Professionnel, and Paul Mitch-
ell. Facebook has become Schwarzkopf’s
main vehicle for sharing inspirational photos
and videos, hosting contests and interacting
with followers throughout the U.S. In addi-
tion, the “Salon Locator” tab connects con-
sumers to their nearest Schwarzkopf salon.
In 2013, Schwarzkopf joined the photo-shar-
ing application Instagram with a unique
Valentine’s Day campaign, which entailed
a special chocolate delivery to top magazine
beauty editors and influential bloggers. The
recipients then posted filtered photos of their
sweet treats, which resulted in thousands
of “likes” and generated an incredible fol-
lowing for Schwarzkopf. Since its launch,
Schwarzkopf Instagram has grown 3,800 per-
cent. Schwarzkopf continues to garner new
followers and build engagement by giving
fans backstage access to exclusive product
launches and behind-the-scenes coverage at
New York Fashion Week.
Schwarzkopf’s Pinterest page has rapidly
gained over 1,100 loyal followers with new
fans every day since April 2013. Pinterest, a
digital inspiration board, allows users to cre-
ate image collections based on their interests
and style. It has proven to be a great tool for
sharing inspiring hair looks and promoting
Schwarzkopf’s newest hair color offerings.
Creating Buzz
Social media has given Schwarzkopf Professional a voice in the digital sphere
Schwarzkopf Professional uses social media
to give fans backstage access at New York
Fashion Week.
Schwarzkopf Professional
uses Instagram (above) to
share inspiring hair looks.
Schwarzkopf partnered with
designers Phillip Lim (below)
and Prabal Gurung
(right) at New York
Fashion Week.

2. Twitter is considered Schwarzkopf’s mega-
phone for direct communication with its
fans and has grown over 1,000 percent since
its inception. Schwarzkopf uses Twitter to
broadcast up-to-the-minute news about
upcoming events as well as live updates
during iconic events. Schwarzkopf also uses
Twitter to participate in Beauty High’s
weekly #BeautyChat, a major industry forum
held every Friday where consumers get all
their questions answered by beauty guru
Rachel Adler and other experts.
Schwarzkopf held a contest on Pinterest
called “Wish It, Pin It, Win It” to promote the
new OSiS+ ®
Gelastic Ultra-Strong Flex Gel
and Rough Rubber®
Paste. Prizes included
the new OSiS+ products, along with other
fabulous offerings such as a trip for two to
New York Fashion Week, a Macbook Air,
and Marc Jacobs boots. To enter, fans were
asked to re-pin the five prize images they
wanted to win. All prize images strategically
incorporated a Schwarzkopf Professional
background to promote Schwarzkopf when
fans re-pinned the images. Additionally,
the contest was promoted on Facebook and
through beauty bloggers, which resulted in
a 68 percent increase in followers on Pinter-
est and 1,800 new likes on Facebook.
Schwarzkopf’s most successful promotion
to date was an Influenster campaign for
OSiS+ products. This online community of
social media-savvy consumers tries new
products and shares their experiences by
posting reviews. Last spring, Influensters
received a box of product samples that
included new OSiS+ offerings, resulting
in more than 5,000 shares on Facebook,
4,800 Tweets, 900 Instagram photos, 800
YouTube videos, and 550 product reviews
on Influenster. The number of offline con-
versations generated for OSiS+ was esti-
mated at more than one million
impressions. This program suc-
cessfully sampled a new product
into the U.S. market and
created an incredible buzz
for the brand on a variety
of digital platforms.
“Social media has done so
much for us at a fraction
of the cost of traditional
advertising or PR,” said
Sonya Latreille, PR and
Media Relations Manager
at Schwarzkopf. “We look
forward to seeing what
the New Year will bring
and discovering new
ways we can further engage
with our followers.”
WINTER 2014 HENKEL LIFE / NORTH AMERICA
A working computer on a new employee’s first
day? That used to be a challenge – even with the
required notice. But not any more. “We heard
your complaints loud and clear,” said Ellen Eich-
horn, Vice President, Integrated Business Solu-
tions North America. Starting November 1, she
and her team introduced a program called “ITD1!”
– meaning IT (equipment) Day One.
“Basically, we have made the process for hiring
managers to order IT equipment for new employ-
ees easier and more efficient. We still need notice
-- this is not ‘IT in one day’ -- but with two weeks’
time, we guarantee you will have the equipment
up and running,” said Peter Nakamura, Vendor
& Service Management, who chaired the project.
How does it work? When a new hire has accepted
Henkel’s offer of employment, all the hiring man-
ager has to do is fill out a simplified ITD1! form
and submit it via email to US-NHA-IT-DAY-1@
henkel.com. Afterwards, the newly created ITD1!
team will contact the submitter to ensure every-
thing is filled out correctly to have the new
employee’s equipment set up and delivered on
time.
To achieve this simple process, three changes
had to be implemented. “First of all, the global
employee number in SAP is created earlier in the
process, when the new hire accepts Henkel’s
employment offer, instead of waiting for other
administrative checks,” said Ellen. The employee
number is a compliance requirement necessary
to order equipment – and the delay in creating it
was one of the main reasons for the slow process.
Second, the business heads agreed to fund a
working inventory of computer equipment, so
now IT has resources in stock. And third, Ellen
appointed two process specialists – one on the
east coast and one on the west coast of the coun-
try – who take care of all the requests and make
sure all appropriate entries have been made.
Eventually, the process will become even simpler
and the Word form that has to be mailed in will
be replaced by a Lotus Notes database.
To guarantee the success of the project and
ensure continuous improvement, the team will
follow up with their business partners – the
new employees and their hiring managers –
beginning in January 2014. “We are committed
to continued improvement of IT services to our
North American business partners. This program
– along with others – will further our commit-
ment to a faster, simplified delivery of services,”
Ellen said.
Now Available: IT Equipment on Day One
Follow Schwarzkopf Professional at:
facebook.com/SchwarzkopfProfessionalUSA
twitter.com/SchwarzkopfUSA
pinterest.com/Schwarzkopfusa
instagram.com/Schwarzkopfusa
In the past two years, Schwarzkopf Professional
has seen tremendous growth in its Pinterest and
Facebook sites.
Henkel Life 5