Today, the family-owned hair care brand is available across the globe, from its home country of the Netherlands to countries such as Australia, France, Germany, Indonesia, India, and the US.
In Asia, Keune has a relatively modest presence, but the region holds significant growth potential for the brand.
“We started in Indonesia five years ago; India was two years ago. It’s relatively new. You could say Asia is an untapped territory for us,” said Philip Berlijn, chief commercial officer and in-coming chief executive of Keune.
The company’s next step is China, a market it previously avoided due to the country’s animal testing regulations.
“Now that things are different with animal testing, we decided to explore the opportunity,” said Berlijn.
A salon-first strategy
Keune was founded in 1922 and has remained a professional hair care company for 102 years.
“We are a very specialist company. We only do hair, we don’t know anything about skin care, makeup, or other categories. You can say we are an authority on hair because we don’t just sell shampoos for the salons, we also have salon software. Our job is to unburden the hair stylists and designers,” said Berlijn.
The company will likely enter China through cross-border e-commerce channels but the main goal is to penetrate the salon channel.
Berlijn emphasised that Keune has always prioritised its partner salons and this will not change in China.
“Salons are our plan A, B, and C. It has always been for over 100 years, and we are very careful. Even when we started e-commerce, our made sure that every product that we sell, part of the margin goes to the salons. Now with China, with cross-border e-commerce, we want to find a hybrid model and work with salons in China.”
Despite the uncertainty in the Chinese market, Keune sees a gap to fill and believes that its long brand history and values will resonate with local consumers.
“It’s a tough time in China now, but I think the brand that we have, the family we stand for, is something that’s still appealing to the Chinese end-consumer,” said Berlijn.
He elaborated that the brand offers premium quality products that are accessible to a wide audience, positioning itself as a high-end brand for the masses.
“Efficacy is still the most important thing nowadays, right? Prices go up and people have less buying power than before, so they want efficacy. Our brand fits in well with that. You can great quality for the price.”
Berlijn added that consumers today are looking for brands to trust, and a brand like Kuene with over a century of history can gain their trust.
“I’m not saying that we’re here to conquer the market, but I do think that we can add something to the table. Even though the economy in China maybe is cooling down a little bit and there are certain challenges, we do believe that the world, whether it’s China or other countries, is more and more interested in real brands, brands with history, brands with craft.”
