A Chat with John Moroney

The overwhelming success of the Kao’s first Salon Virtual Experience in 48 hours was refreshing and overwhelmingly successful. John Moroney, Vice President of Creative & Communication shared briefly with H4UFME on Kao’s expansion in the digital realm.

1.  This virtual event is an excellent idea; morphing from the traditional stage show with physical audiences, into a global shout-out to all Kao Salon Division clients. How can this event continue to evolve to benefit hairdressers who are not able to travel in future?

Under the current global conditions, the switch from a live event to the virtual event was necessary.  While a lot of things had to stop or be suspended this year, we were determined that creativity would not stop.  Now that we have taken our first steps into the virtual world, we see the possibility for amplifying our events in the future.  A core live event for the members of our Kao Salon Family and extended out virtually to our salons and stylist partners all over the world. The possibilities are incredible for how we can bring people together in new ways… all we need to do is change our thinking about what is possible!

2.    In this highly competitive digital age, what are some steps that the Kao Salon Division is taking to expand and improve its digital presence?

Like most brands, in all sectors and industries, we are faced with figuring out how we need to change and adapt for the future. For Kao Salon Division, our goal is to support our network through innovation, value creation and most importantly, relationships. So our task now is to bring this into the new reality of our business.  The Kao Salon Virtual Event was a great first step and showed us what we can accomplish. In addition, two weeks into the lockdown in April, we launched Kao Salon Virtual Education which allowed us to provide online seminars in a zoom-type format in every country. We have also started Kao Salon Virtual Academies, where in some countries we are bringing our academy programs to stylists in a virtual format.

3.   It was only a year ago that we had published the 2019 Goldwell Global Zoom report. Barely a few months after, everything seemed to change; communication, education, sales presentation and more. What plans does the Kao Salon Division have to be better equipped to face the unforeseen future?

The most important thing that we can do is to anticipate our Kao Salon Family’s needs and work quickly to deliver solutions. We are currently working across several areas, education, and sales via online webshops and social media to keep our salons and stylists up to date and ready for business.