What does it take to build a skincare brand that not only survives but thrives for over two decades in one of the most competitive markets? In this powerful episode, Stefan Kalu, CEO and owner of Dr. Brandt Skincare, shares the remarkable journey of how a dermatologist's vision became a $100M+ beauty empire that pioneered the "doctor skincare" category. From surviving the tragic loss of their founder to navigating COVID-19 and a complete brand revamp, Stefan reveals the strategies, mindset, and bold decisions that kept Dr. Brandt at the forefront of innovation while staying true to their core mission: "Take the doctor home with you."

Key Topics & Insights:

• The Power of Product Positioning - How Dr. Brandt created an entirely new category by bridging clinical authority with accessible pricing, and why their "needles no more" philosophy resonates with customers 25 years later
• Surviving Without Your Founder - Stefan's incredible story of becoming CEO, then owner after Dr. Brandt's unexpected passing, plus how they evolved from a dermatology brand to "integrative dermatology" without losing their identity
• Retention & Loyalty Mastery - Inside their $49 Glowgetters membership program and how they've built products so effective that customers become "addicted" (their microdermabrasion hasn't changed formulas in 25 years!)
• R&D Innovation Secrets - How they work with University of Miami and their "Dr. B Experts" network across dermatology, nutrition, and psychology to create breakthrough products (including a micro-needle mimicking cream launching soon)
• Digital Transformation Under Pressure - How COVID forced them to pivot from 35% to 65% digital sales while executing a complete brand revamp, and their strategies for competing in today's content-saturated landscape
• Purpose-Driven Business - Why Stefan created the Dr. Brandt Foundation focusing on mental health and self-care before it was mainstream, turning tragedy into meaningful impact

Chapters

(00:00) Introduction to Dr. Brandt Skincare

(03:27) The Unique Aspect of Dr. Brandt Products

(07:10) Notes on Product Positioning 

(09:31) Balancing Clinical Authority and Accesibility

(12:21) Longevity and Staying Relevant in the Skincare Market

(16:16) Strategies for Customer Retention and Loyalty Programs

(21:21) Innovative Research and Development Practices

(26:55) Attracting Customers & Storytelling in Marketing

(30:59) Stephane’s Journey to CEO

(36:14) Mental Health Advocacy and The Dr. Brandt Foundation

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Stephane Colleu:

It's so important when you bring new people, they need to understand the history of the brand. They need to understand the DNA and what's really the value. I would say value of the company, yes, but the value can evolve, depend on the years, but the value of the brand.

Brett Curry:

Well, hello and welcome to another edition of the E-Commerce Evolution podcast. I'm your host, Brett Curry, CEO of OMG commerce. And today we are exploring the longevity, the growth, the innovation, the storytelling of Dr Brandt skincare. I love this brand, I love this category. You are going to learn a lot as we explore the story of how this brand has stayed relevant offline, online for multiple decades. And so lots to unpack. We're going to talk about product positioning. We're going to talk about r and d, we're going to talk about storytelling. We're going to talk about all kinds of ways to connect with consumers and how to increase loyalty and retention. It's going to be a fun conversation and so I'm delighted to welcome to the show, the CEO Dr. Stephane Colleu. And he's got an amazing story, just a charming individual. I can't wait to dive in. And so with that, Stephane, welcome to the show and how's it going?

Stephane Colleu:

Thank you Brett. Thank you for having me. I'm very delighted to be there and to be able to speak about our story and our journey and especially mine with Dr Brandt because I've been with the company for 23 years.

Brett Curry:

23 years. It's amazing. And yeah, you guys have stayed relevant for so long. I'm a huge fan. I've loved the skincare, haircare, personal care. I've loved those categories from a marketing and business standpoint. And so excited to unpack your story. But tell us, for those that don't know who Dr. Brandt is or what products you sell, give us a little bit of the background. What do you guys sell? What makes you unique?

Stephane Colleu:

Absolutely. So first and foremost, we've been one of the pioneering doctors skincare line in the beauty industry. It was early in 2000 that we can see the first doctor skincare line. And we were one of them. And it was very innovative at this time because for people who maybe don't remember, it was very basic. You used to be the mass and the prestige and that's it. And then suddenly there was this doctor skincare line that came out that provide very efficient with instant efficient products. And also the price point was quite a very good starting point for the consumer side. And this is where we start having our own success. And lucky enough, we have been scouting at this time early by Sephora that gave us a huge visibility and being distributed with Seron. And that's where the story started on the commercial side because initially the concept started with Dr. Brandts himself, with his own medical office, 1996, he starts selling his own products and knowing that he didn't want to recommend certain product, that he don't feel he was efficient enough. And then when he saw the potential, this is why he created a concept which was very revolutionary. Take the doctor on with you. So very simple. What I do, I'm trying to mimic what I do the best in dermatological procedures and take the doctor home with you, with Dr. Brian. It was the beginning of the advent for early in 2000.

Brett Curry:

I love that. Take the doctor home with you. We'll unpack that a little bit, but do your products, you kind have like a Botox alternative or compliment, microderm abrasion some of those things. Can you describe the products just a little bit and what makes them unique?

Stephane Colleu:

Yeah, really, and I think I should maybe highlight this point. We're still a private company today, which is pretty exceptional. Meaning that we, what we want, and I think in Amir for that to protect that we try to sell products that we believe in that truly deliver the promise inside of products. And Dr. Ba was so visionary, it became one of the most well-known dermatologists in the world. Why? Because it was the first dermatologist to use as anesthetic side, the Botox of the fillers. And he became the masters and started being part of the board of the biggest pharmaceutical company and tried to develop new ingredients and laser, new technique of injection. And he became the king of Botox. Having big celebrities now become Evangela. Everyone used to go in his medical office. We used to have two medical office, one in Miami and one in New York.

But also we used to do r and d with the biggest pharmaceutical company, which was for me very interesting because we were working on potentially new laser new ingredients, new delivery system that will be approved by the FDA, which is the food drug administration. And just because of that, we can see the future potentially before even the big corporation. And it was very inspiring for me and the team to dig in and to find news, idea new concepts, new innovation in terms of products. And Dr. Brian, like to get back to your question, was the first kit care line to bring your Microderm vision. And if you have told anyone early in 2000, you would do your own Microderm vision in your own bathroom, people would tell you it's crazy. No

Brett Curry:

Way. Yeah.

Stephane Colleu:

And Dr. Ben, I think what he was very smart and wise what he did, he used the same pharmaceutical, great crystal using his own medical office and these products became a masterpiece, became an iconic bestsellers. And as of today, this product is still sold after 25 years without changing any ingredients. That's amazing because they work and people is addicted because when a product course why you would change. And that was the beginning of the venture having the micro, and of course Dr. Van was one of the first in Caroline to invent Botox like products. Obviously it was the one we inject the most Botox in the world, but we wanted to create something for people first cannot afford an ejection, but we love to minimize expression lines. So also we try to be very truthful with our promise. We're not saying that every wrinkles will disappear, especially their wrinkle cannot disappear.

But expression lines, we have the technology in the delivery system to minimize expression lines. And that's why we created the release was our first Botox. And then a lot of Botox like products has been duplicated in the market, but we were one of the first to provide this new innovation and to be the trend, et cetera, in terms of Botox like products. And it came from Dr Brandt and that was the proper of the Brandt. Take the doctor home with you so you can have your own Botox like products that could be a continuity of what you do in a medical office and use that to minimize expression lines during the day. And for people who doesn't like the needles does the wrong process or cannot afford it, you can use a similar products that give you also the kind of similar effects. And that's why we try to provide to our customers, our patients and to the skincare market.

Brett Curry:

Yeah, it's so good man. And one of the things that I'm a firm believer in as a long time marketer, a long time entrepreneur is that product positioning and brand positioning means so much. And my favorite definition of positioning is what a product does and who it's for. But really bringing that to life in a visual way, a way you can really hold onto. And so this idea of bringing the doctor home with you, it's awesome, right? It communicates, hey, these aren't just standard results. This is not just your over the counter moisturizer, this is doctor grade stuff, the stuff you'd have to pay big money for in a doctor's office, but you get to do it at home. And so how do you guys think about positioning? How do you think about that line and how that influences other products? How do you guys view product positioning?

Stephane Colleu:

It's a good point. So when the story started, it was with a uniqueness to differentiate ourself and obviously it was to create this line, which is ours called we used to do today. It's called Needles No More, which is truly instant gratification products,

Brett Curry:

Needles no more. I love that. Yeah,

Stephane Colleu:

That's truly inspired directly from the medical office. That's why we have a Botox, we have a micro patient, we have an oxygenation, we got also no more baggage, which is poof and minimize inflammation around your high products instantly. And these products can be combined with your current skincare regimen even if you don't use DR Brandt's products for the rest of your portfolio. But as we have been evolving as a skincare line obviously was very important to start to create some collection that respond to the needs of oily and combination skin. That's why we got the al line that's focusing on pores for all in combination skin. We got also another line called Bright this way that is more focused on pigmentation and also brightness and uneven skin textures. We got also another one, it's called DTA dare two edge, which is more for mature. We give improved collagen elasticity and firmness the skin. So we got a variety of collection, but also we decided for a good purpose not to have 6,100 skew. We barely have 29 skew

Brett Curry:

Based

Stephane Colleu:

On different collection. So it's still very concise and for the purpose just to really focus on a very strong products assortments that allow us to target the right message with the right audience and not to overwhelm ourself and also the customer

Brett Curry:

Totally makes sense. And it's all about all of those products fit that line of bringing the doctor home with you and so that they all fit. And one thing, I know you guys talk about the tension between balancing clinical authority. So this is scientifically backed stuff, but also being accessible, right? Because we kind of think clinical authority, very expensive, very high price stuff, it's Beverly Hills, is Miami, something like that. So this clinical authority but with an affordable price tag. So how do you keep that tension? How do you view that tension?

Stephane Colleu:

It's a very good value point because obviously when Dr. Boy was there, Dr. Boyn had the philosophy that I'm trying to respect every day since we lost our bill, beloved Dr. Fred brand since April, 2015. And his message was the following one, I think a product should not exceed over than 1 50, 200. And why? Because if you can spend more, you can come to see me and I can give you a laser or whatever and I can fix exactly what you do. Because being more than 23 years on a dermatological field, I'm telling you I'm pretty amazed what the technology and how we've been evolving. Meaning that today if of course you see the right doctors, I can mostly solve any skin disorders or what you're facing because we truly have anything that can improve your skin type or the disorders that you're facing. So if you need to find a complimentary products, because I think obviously it's very important, you need to have your skincare regimen and this is what Dr.

We believe it's the same thing if you go to the dentist, you want to whitening your teeth. Yeah, you can whiten my teeth and I can pay for that, but if I don't clean my teeth day and night, I'm not going to do something very healthy for myself. It's the same thing for the skin. And because of that, we establish a price point that us today, if you look on our website, our price won't go from $35 until one 50. And sometimes our margin could be lower because obviously the DNA of this brand is to provide a very good formula. And I think if we have something that we truly achieve over this year is to have a very good reputation about our quality of other the products. And sometimes we spending little bit too much on a formulation that probably anyone would do it from the business side. But that's our way also to differentiate and that's what we believe as long as we afford, we're still pushing into this direction despite some time might not take a lot of sense if you want to get the best of the margin, but that's not our philosophy and we're trying to keep it like this. It always been since day one and I'm so happy we can still doing that after 25 years.

Brett Curry:

I love that. And the price point resonates obviously with consumers and your focus on not profit maximization, although nothing wrong with that obviously, but you really want to deliver a great product and delight customers. And so let's talk about the longevity for a minute. So been around for 25 years, even longer if you consider Dr. Brandt's clinic starting in 1996. But it's just hard. It's hard to stay relevant. Bands usually only popular for a few years. Products go out of style. What has been the key to your longevity and how do you stay relevant year after year, decade after decade?

Stephane Colleu:

This is a very good question and I'm going to try to answer from my own perspective and getting the chance being involved with this brand for now 23 years. I would say first people, I think if you're lucky enough to have people who have the passion and make it pause here, passion could be good and bad on a daily basis, trust me, managing people. But truly speaking, based on all these years that I face, when you have people and you're surrounding people with passion when you need them the most, when there's the most challenging time, you better to be surrounding with people who are passionate and they really believe on everything they do every day. So I think one of the reasons that we've been able to do it's to have this quality of people around this brand. The second aspect, I think after it's how you entertain and you remain truthful with the brand DNA and the identity of the brand.

And for me it's so important when you bring new people, they need to understand the history of the brand, they need to understand the DNA and what's really the value, I would say value of the company, yes, but the value can evolve depending on the years, but the value of the brand and this needs to be very well explained and I learned that. And believe it or not, I was very amazed about Esella order, Esella order. Every time I heard someone speaking about Esella order, they always try to remind themself what Este Lauder should have done if she would sit on my chair. And since I heard that it was 15 years ago, I said, wow, everyone should think like that. What Dr. Ben would think, because Dr. Ben was innovative, Dr. Ben was very bold. Dr. Ben was very cosmetic in a very unique way in so many way a sense of humor who was very known for and all this characteristic needs to be maintain. If you want to make sure the brand can resist on any challenges, you need to remain truthful with ourself, your identity and everything else. And then if I can say the third one, we have been, I would say lucky to be scouted by Sephora. Sephora has been one of the major retailers we're sitting in Alta, well

Brett Curry:

Totally, those two are the top retailers really, right?

Stephane Colleu:

But yes, they sell top on the prestige markets here they are. Otherwise you have Walmart and CVS, which is more the mass, but it's not the case anymore since the COVID happened. But just to give you also some insights working with Phora, you have to do a market week every quarter and every quarter you have to defend yourself. Whatcha going to launch in new innovation. And we were a private owned company and we were not the first year to be launched. So every quarter to do that for more than two decades has been exhausting but also very rewarding as well because one of the reason to answer to your question actually believe getting every quarter and to reinvent yourself, making sure you get the best of the best as being able to keep us in our, despite challenging time and having a high competition and such a congested market environment, it help us to maintain the level of high expectation that we should be able to deliver if we want to be lucky to still sell through all these big retailers channels that we have been selling our brand. Now things change lately with the digital, but getting back to your question, I think for 20 years, having every quarter to have a market tweak when you need to defend, if you go into be able to have co-eds or marketing or support from your own main chain of distribution was a challenge. And I think he helped us also to give our best every day, every year, every quarter.

Brett Curry:

So good. Yeah, there's no free rides. It's not one of those things where once you're in, you're in, you've got a constantly show that you can deliver, that the customer wants your product, that it's innovative, that it's good, all those things. And so again, kudos to you guys for being so relevant for so long. I know part of that goes back to retention of individual customers. So that's something you guys have excelled at getting a customer, retaining them, you've got loyalty programs and I know the Glow getters membership is super interesting to me. So talk a little bit about that. How do you guys view customer retention and loyalty programs and what have you done to increase the LTV and to get customers to stick for longer?

Stephane Colleu:

So it means first you need to understand better how you talk to them. And obviously today with digital, the beauty of it, you can segment and get a better understanding which one you would like to talk with based on what you have to offer or which kind of products you think you'll like to address that fit exactly with the kind of profile. So the beauty of the digital today, you get the data and the data allow you to be more specific and more driven in a way you want to speak and whatever you would like to speak about the products or what will be the offers. So that's not an easy exercise that you need to master. The more you master that, more you please and more you entertain a relationship. On our side, we're doing that today, but still we have a lot of space for, because I want to customize, I want to personalize more and more and this is what the doctor Skin Caroline should do, being able to personalize everything we could offer outside the product itself.

Because today you're talking about resilience, I don't want to jump to get back to the first initial products, but the market has been shifting a lot and to answer to new expectation from the customers and from the retailers, we decided to revamp the brand during the COVID, which was a very bold move. And we did that because we know that was the only way to answer to the new expectation from the consumer and the retailers. So getting back to your question, being more digital driven, allow us to segments, bringing some program, getting the loyalty program is one of them, the getters, it's something we want to speak with them because it's a kind of subscription program. And the subscription is very interesting also because people is willing to pay to get obviously a better offer on the long term, but give us the ability now to speak in a very different way than I would say the loyalty program or the current Sierra meeting. So all of that is a great way. Now what you do have also it's when you work with retailers, they do have this database, but unfortunately they're not access to the brand. So it's a question of negotiation. When you can get special VIB, which is the special people who spend the most in Sephora, you can also be part of this kind of program that allows us to have a different way to tackle the communication with this kind of customers.

Brett Curry:

Yeah, man, that's so good. Can you unpack the Glow getters membership? What does that cost roughly? I know that's something that could be changing over time, but how does that work and then how do you get more people to take advantage of that?

Stephane Colleu:

So you pay $49 and you are part of the program of glow getters and it give you a very good way to have a discount of the products itself. So then you can replenish yourself with, I would say a better offer. And at the same time you get direct communication from the brand that allow you to have access or different events or different package of being aware and having a products before anyone else. All these kind of advantages that we try to build that give you something very special and very unique that no one else can have access. That's the purpose of the locators.

Brett Curry:

It's amazing. And then how are you promoting that and then how are you increasing the take rate of the membership?

Stephane Colleu:

So still how we do that, obviously it's to use pay media, pay media to target audiences that we do it. And that's what we do with our agency to target the kind of profile. And sometime what I like the most me is to convert. To convert people already there on data and to convince them to the Gators. That's quite not an easy task to do it, but that's where we're trying to do and to execute because for me it's very valuable when you have a gloated set and it can increase this

Brett Curry:

Community. Yeah, totally makes sense. And I know you made a comment in the beginning that hey, if I'm using a Microderm abrasion product or I'm using this Botox like product and it works, why would I ever stop using it? And you're not constantly jacking up the price, you're still saying within that range Dr. Brant envisioned the products to be in. And so I know that's a big part of customer retention is it's a product that works and it's priced well. And so that makes a ton of sense. How do you then view product r and d? Because you've done a great job of defining your product position, staying true to that as you've launched in new lines, you got products that just absolutely work. How do you view r and d?

Stephane Colleu:

So the r and d, for us, it's definitely being innovative because this is what we've been known for and for that we need to master this piece. So how we do that, there's many way to do it internally, we have a process, obviously first 25 years of expertise that give you a lot of insight that you can use. The second one is we're working directly with the University of Miami since Dr. Brandt is not involved in the brand. And we also working with, we call the Dr B experts. This is a group of experts that we agreed to work with and maybe I should do a step back for the audience to make sure they understand the full journey of the DR Skincare. It could be

Brett Curry:

Great. We love that. We'd love that

Stephane Colleu:

Because we Dr. KinCare for the people who joined the show for 25 years and we were one of the first p Dr. Skin Caroline. And what happened is 2015 tragically we lost our bill, beloved Dr. Frederick Brandts in April, 2015. And it was quite difficult. Imagine a brand that is private owned that depending on his name, and that was obviously the visionary, the leader, and it was quite a difficult way to think how we pursue the best way. We'll have to probably to replace him with another doctors. But as I explained earlier, this guy was a genius, was very unique in so many way. And I don't think you can replace easily a person like this. And at the same time, I know this is what I learned with Dr Brandt, you need to challenge the status quo. And I saw already the holistic wellness approach that was studied on the food industry and also on the dermatological fields.

And this is what I decided that to pursue. And he was part of the philosophy of Dr. Biden already because he always explain your skin, you need to take care of the inside and the how you look good, you feel good and you feel good, you look good, very easy. But he works for everyone at the end of the day. So when we did that, we decided to become more than a dermatologist, Carolina and we call doctor brand. And today if you see our tagline is called Integrative of dermatology and integr of dermatology. For people who does know dermatology, it's a branch medicine that would take care and target skin disorders. And integrative is the tendency to unify separate things. And what that means, it's we're going to combine non-conventional therapy and I think it brings all the different fields of medicine. So today as we're getting back, to get back to your question on NPD, we're taking our inspiration for dermatology but for nutrition, for biology, for psychology, dermatology, and also we have a nonprofit organization focusing on mental health and self care.

So we build a different can of skills of expertise that we call the Dr. B experts. That was the nickname of Dr Brandt called Dr B. So we kept it like this and we said the doctor B experts and all these people allow us to find different venue to come up with ideas and direction that will be great for the consumer that allow us to evolve above and be beyond the dermatology brand. So getting back to your point, 25 years is good. We go also on mini show that shows different kind of delivery system, raw materials, but we're working with University of Miami as well. And last but not least, I think today that's the beauty of it. I think we discussed that earlier is the data, the data today, the data, it dictates a little bit what the consumer is looking for. Obviously our data is not as big, so I won't say that the data is dictating me what my NPD is, but I need to take into consideration certain parameters and this is what we do.

But the same day, in order to create uniqueness, we need to come up with things that no one heard about it. When we talk earlier, we said with Microderm vision no one knows what it was and we're one of the first Botox likes we're one of the first. And right now I'm very excited with bringing a new technology that will be launched in September. You will see it's something that will mimic the micro needles. I don't think it has been seen on the retail. It's very unique. You go on the cream and inside the cream you have the micro sponges that will heat your skin and hitch it but in a very uncomfortable but comfortable way at the same time. But the beauty of that, it'll open your pores and you're going to deliver very deeply collagen ingredients that will improve quite drastically in 48 hours. The collagen, the elasticity and the film nests very exciting about this new products coming up.

Brett Curry:

Amazing, amazing. I love that. And man, it really shows also in some of the awards you guys have won. I know in style, allure, travel and leisure, did I see that Oprah, didn't Oprah recognize one of their

Stephane Colleu:

Products many, many times We've been very lucky and fortunate that over these years a lot of people from the industry, despite, I'm going to tell you officially, we cannot afford an advertisement. We never put ads on magazine and anything else. And usually when you put ads it's easier I should say, to get some reports. So we got so many awards over the years just based on the products, on how the quality of the products. And so very happy that also continuing because like I just said, we just launched Rev months ago, we already received four five awards, which I was very surprised to get it so early. So it's very encouraging and also it's the beginning of the journey of this new revamping with our customer.

Brett Curry:

That's great. That's great. What have been your primary vehicles for customer acquisition? So how have you gotten the story of Dr Brandt and your amazing product line? Have you gotten that out there? How are you attracting customers? What's worked the best there?

Stephane Colleu:

Few things. First, when you're lucky to work with retailers, sometime you get access to things that they can give it to you. So they get some data, they can give you end caps inside the stores that showcase the products. And for that you need of course to be recognized, you need to negotiate depending on the terms of the people you're speaking with. On our side as a brand, there is two different way. One is the pay ads. Of course that is very important because you still need to chase new customers and the only way to do it is to have a relevant storytelling with paid media that can resonate. But that's not an easy exercise. It's very congested, it's very competitive. And the cac, which is the click power spanning customer getting more expensive every day.

So that's why we're forced also to make sure the organic side is very important. And for that today, I know I'm sure your auditors knows that, but the streamline it becoming more powerful every day and TikTok is one of them. I know Amazon is already there, but I think it's going to increase significantly how we streamline our products and having our own shopping inside. So that's something we're trying to get much better on a social and organic because we saw the power of streamline and the YouTube. So we try to educate. Educate is very important because I think it's a point of differentiation we can do better than the others. And the second one is to show a bit that system money or before and after that can showcase the quality of the products are delivering. So that's be our mantra that we're trying to push much more than what we have been doing the past few years. And now with this neuro revamping, this is something we're going to accelerate in the next months. That's so good. That's so good.

Brett Curry:

Yeah. And how do you guys view any philosophies to approaches to how do you tell great stories? How do you bring the benefits of the product to life? I know you mentioned before and after and I know you've got the doctor be experts and things like that. But any other thoughts on how do you tell the story in a powerful way?

Stephane Colleu:

Mia? I think I love to show when you can show a drastic result before and after. I think that's the best way because a visual will tell more than anything that we try to tell then after how you can tell the story, which is very interesting is today I would tell you this is what is so unique and the time we're living, I think there are no really rules because you can see a mic whole influencer that is going to resonate with not really a big audiences and she's going to have a better a I than potentially someone who get to million. Why sometime I don't have the explanation to be honest with you. So I think today I think it's to have a good understanding of who can talk about your products and how you're going to select these people. It's not an easy exercise, it's a conversation I'm having every day with the team and then can translate the story that could be customized in the way that where we're going to see the channels because we all know that TikTok request a different kind of content that if you do

Brett Curry:

YouTube it does, YouTube does totally, totally different.

Stephane Colleu:

So it's much more work for the brand nowadays. You need to customize constantly and adapt the content based on YouTube, based on TikTok, based on Instagram, based on the pay ads. And that's an exercise that you need to do mostly every day and build all the content that you should be enough for you to make sure you can capitalize and get the Hawaii. So I think that's the challenge of any brand lately, how you do that, how you push, how far, how much money you spent to make sure that is relevant. At the end of the day, I don't think there's a kind of recipe and I think the more difficulty is when you're not at $100 million company, how you navigate with all this cotton and spinning and that's an difficult task.

Brett Curry:

Yeah, well said. And then I think yes, sometimes it's finding those micro influencers, sometimes it's finding lots of different people to tell the story from their own perspective and that's going to resonate with certain audiences and so you guys are doing a great job of that as well, which is really impressive. So that's great. And then I would love to hear the story, so you've been with the brand for 23 years, you're the CEO been the CEO since 2015, is that right? 12,012. And so talk about that. How did you rise from helping with the European expansion and things like that to now being the CEO and CEO for a long time of the company?

Stephane Colleu:

So here's the true story, 24 years. I joined the company in 2002 and I studied on the US markets, I became market manager and I became pretty fast and been very key to become the national sales director and then a new management came on board. It was a very kind of nice way to ask me, but I took the challenge because international expansion did not exist. It is a true story. And I studied, I came with my small luggage in France and I have no clue what I was doing. And it was the beginning of SE to scouting international brand to bring it back in Europe and I was one of them. I think I was very, very lucky to be French. So I understand the French style and the demands and I can smooth the American branding with how it will fit with the European market.

And it was at the time that Ceara was willing to do anything to push all this more brand. They were doing extremely well in us and this is where jojo started. And I've been very key to expand in 35 countries in three years from 2005, 2008, then after they gave me the far east. So I was still managing all this international expansion from Paris until I became the new president and CEO in 2012. So during this time it was not an easy also for our brand for people to understand who was aware about the skin. Carolina. I went through five different C meaning every two years, two years and a half. Management and president was mostly dismiss. And I survived because I was the cashflow of the company to be honest with you. So when I came it was a big challenge. It was not an easy task and I was very happy to find a way to bring a vision and to explain to Dr.

Boy and you're acting in be like a startup, but you're already a brand and you don't realize that. And I realize how big it was with the two medical office, the RD and the skincare line. And I put all these entities as a trilogy and I put a vision that the vision and from the consumer, the consumer and from the goods and we can go that with the practice. And it was a very virtual positive circle that put us to explore ourselves and our size three times until 2015 and 15. This is where something very unexpected. We lost our bill of founders, Dr in 15. And just to get back and being completely truthful with your audience, because I know this is a question that has been asked for me for so long, I became by coincidence, the owners of the brand and it was the only way to save the company because at this time there was no one, the bank didn't want to backups.

It was a lot of people and a lot of praise. And I think I wanted to keep on what we were doing. It means the legacy of the brand and no one truly cared this time there was no backup, nothing was anticipated. So I decided to figure out how to convince people from the estates and becoming the new owner of the brand. I was lucky that everyone has been backed me up. I mean my team in skincare line, but also the bank. And this is where I became also the owners. And then after a new adventure study for me, I needed to prove the rest of the world that this brand can survive without Dr. Brandts, which I know we do because it's difficult. It's difficult

Brett Curry:

Without the founder and with the name, the namesake of the brand.

Stephane Colleu:

And this is where we bring this new vision, the integrity of dermatology, how we should evolve. And I think we'll try to do as best as we can. And then in 1920 the COVID happened, but we're mainly driven by brick and mortars, motor distribution, which was so hard for us. So I'm not going to lie to you. For people who sometimes saw our brand much less, we suffer a lot because of the COVID, because we shut down our brick and mortar and we were not as strong as a digital as we should have been. We knew that we were in a process of building our digital and during this process and the COVID, this is where the study to do the revamping, which was crazy, but I think there was the only way to make sure we the ability to pursue the next 10, 15 years. And I'm so happy because I'm telling you, the past two years we have been shifting. We're mostly driven at digital at 65% now. It's amazing. It's amazing. The Rev thing is it just ending this year? So now we mostly revamped the whole brand and a very happy that we multiply by twice for the past two years, our website, which show me that the consumer has been very well welcoming, this new revamping on top of chasing new customers. So this is where we are, but there's been my journey with the brand.

Brett Curry:

It's an amazing journey from kind of getting pushed out to saying, Hey, okay, I'll help you in France. And then you became the cash cow of the business, five CEOs come and go. Finally you become CEO become owner. And yeah, it's tough to lose the face of the brand for sure. You stepped in there and then COVID for a retail focused brand. Come on. I mean glad you had some digital focus already, but I know that accelerated things and was not a welcome news. And so kudos to you man. Entrepreneurship is hard, running a brand is hard and you guys just seem to answer the challenge no matter what the challenge is. So kudos to you guys for that. And then one thing I want to kind of close with because I know this is near and dear to your heart, and it's a really cool thing you're doing. You guys talk a lot about mental health and mental health. It's popular now or it's acceptable to talk about now. You guys really leaned into mental health before it was popular. So talk briefly about that. Why did you decide to do that and why did you decide to do that at a time when it wasn't all that acceptable?

Stephane Colleu:

But thank you for letting me know to speak about it because it's very close to my hearts. When I lost Dr. Brown, as you can imagine, I was very close with him. He was like a motto, was a friend. He was the godfather of my kids. And I just tried to educate myself and educate, understanding what depression means, and I have no clue. And when I dig in, I realize what people start knowing today. This is a dramatic statistic and I saw how many people are depressed, but no one used to talk about it.

Brett Curry:

And

Stephane Colleu:

At this time I decided I cannot hide how he passed away because internet was already everywhere.

And it was at a time where also company needs to chase. How are you giving back to the community, how you define yourself? And I told everyone, no guys, it's very easy. This is part of our story. We should not be ashamed, but I think we should find a way to embrace it. Let's correct the doctor Brandt, foundation, and we're going to focusing on multi life. And at this time it was very bold because a lot of people told me, and I did my checking, if you look on the beauty industry, you got Mac who did an incredible job about HEV eight on the nonprofit organization is the one who raised more money every year. We got also a state order with the breast cancer and we got over causes that also is discussed. But at this time in 15, no one talk about health and self-care. So I decided to create the Dr. Brenton. Our first action was to do what we knew the best is mostly doing marketing action to s the conversation around health and self-care. And this is what we have been doing. And now we're going to celebrate out 10 years of the Dr. Brand Foundation. This year of 2025, this is where we are. So 10 years that this foundation has been created. Great. So great man. And

Brett Curry:

Yeah, some people could have hid from the story or run from the story or just hope people would forget about it. You guys leaned in and said, no, let's honor the legacy. Let's do something about this. And so he started the foundation and kudos to you guys. So with that, we are out of time, Stephane, but really thoroughly enjoyed this conversation. Thank you for being transparent. Thank you for talking about all the great things you guys have done through the ups downs, the twists and turns of building a brand. And so kudos to you guys and keep up the good work.

Stephane Colleu:

Yeah, thank you. And thank you for having me, Brett. Thank you so much.

Brett Curry:

Bye. Absolutely. And as always, thank you for tuning in. We'd love to hear more from you. If you found this show helpful, powerful, please share it with somebody else. And if you'd like to leave a review on iTunes, that helps other people discover the show. And with that, until next time, thank you for listening.

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