Education and training have been at the heart of Dermalogica since the brand launched in 1986, and these principles came into sharp focus during the pandemic as businesses were forced to close.

The brand introduced Covid-secure training for staff in spas and salons, and placed staff wellbeing at the heart of its weekly agenda. Advanced education programmes were adapted to suit the digital space and delivered via its D-Stream service to 18,000 professional skin therapists in 2020.

Helping businesses that were closed for extended periods, the brand developed online consultations, guided skin treatments and an affiliate scheme for its partners.

Sales director Louise Lupton explains how Dermalogica has responded to the pandemic through innovation:

How has the pandemic changed the operating landscape for spa and beauty businesses?

Businesses need to have more than one focus so that they can keep going should one area be switched off, such as professional skin treatments.

Using their brand support is key; working to connect and offer services to their customers digitally, setting up their own e-commerce sites and joining affiliate programmes are just a few things they should consider.

How did Dermalogica pivot to digital during the pandemic?

Our CEO, Aurelian Lis, held global live streams for everyone in our industry, not just Dermalogica partners. Our ‘In This Together’ events took place every two weeks and we launched our Clean Touch Guiding Principles course. We also developed a Meaningful Connections course, examining emotional intelligence and encouraging professionals to look after themselves as a priority.

Dermalogica was already in a great position where digital support was concerned, with everything from our education and marketing through to business support available online. We introduced our Digital Partnership Programme, previously known as Affiliate, to enable our partners to benefit from our own web shop sales.

In addition, we added all of our education resources to our online training channel, D-Stream. We also introduced a suite of digital support services to provide financial advice to help business owners and enable
our partners to embrace the ‘new normal’ with their own clients through online consultations, ‘mirror-me’ sessions and masterclasses.

What lessons has the brand learned from this period?

We have all been working throughout the pandemic and we learned quickly that to support our accounts we have to look after our team. Our general manager, Mark Hermann, ensured everyone took regular breaks from their screen work and we introduced yoga and crossfit sessions.

Every day at noon we have a ‘meeting-free’ hour and we also introduced two hours each week of ‘Derm Me Time’ for all employees. On October 9, 2020, the entire global team were given the day off in support of Mental Health Day.

How did you support professional skincare therapists, their businesses and their clients?

As we progressed through 2020, we saw more of our team gain confidence on social media and video calls. This was a great shift, which in turn supported our partners with their own online social activity. After all, when everything was closed, that was all we had.

We held nearly 300 digital events with our partners and their clients across the year, and our team continued to support them throughout, from regular business planning to group networking sessions. We approved over 100 partner web shops and through our Facebook group we saw the introduction of door-step deliveries and letterbox skin treatments.

Will your brand’s now-established online resources inform a ‘blended learning’ approach, online and in person, in the future?

In 2020, we delivered our online D-Streaming to 13,000 more professional skin therapists than the year before, and all 30-plus of our training courses are now offered online.

However, we still have six training centres in the UK and Ireland, and we strongly believe that face-to-face is very important, especially when assessing practical treatments, and more importantly our chemical peel service, Pro Power Peel. A blended approach to learning provides us with a greater reach and more people are completing our training than ever before.

How central are touch and connection to Dermalogica’s approach?

Human touch is one of our three brand pillars, personalisation and education being the other two. Our founder, Jane Wurwand, has spoken many times about the importance of physical contact. Many people in the world are alone, they have no family to kiss and hug, so their professional skin therapist can be a vital way for them to experience human connection.

What new product launches can you tell us about for 2021?

We will be carrying on supporting our partners and are just about to launch our Melting Moisture Masque. We are also very excited about a new addition to our professional peel line, Pro Power Eye Peel.