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the group owns the town’s original thermal baths, Les Termes Evian. In a one-off ven- ture in 2004, the group also opened its first day spa in Shanghai’s leisure development Tree on the Bund (see sb04/q1 p52). It wasn’t until a few years ago, however,


that the decision was made to create an evi- anSpa concept suitable for global rollout. Houel explains: “In 2009, the evian brand was relaunched with Roller Babies, a new worldwide campaign which became a mas- sive success – it’s one of the most viewed web advertisement ever with more than 200 mil- lion views on YouTube. For the first time, evian had a real global platform and now we’ve reignited excitement towards the evian brand, it’s the time to deploy it further.” Houel started at evian at the same time as the Roller Babies launch. Having spent his


SPA BUSINESS 4 2012 ©Cybertrek 2012


career working in marketing and business development for FMCG and luxury com- panies such as Procter & Gamble, Coty and LVMH he was ready for a new challenge.


“Evian has a fantastic history and when you come from the luxury business, as in my case, heritage and roots are key. I was very impressed with the brand’s richness, which gives a strong foundation to build on.” His role is to develop evian in “new cat-


egories and services” with a recent project including the MyEvian.com website which enables customers to personalise evian water bottles for special occasions from weddings to business conventions. He’s reluctant to give away details of other confidential areas of expansion – “they’re all very diverse projects and involve other aspects of the brand”. But spa, of course, is another avenue.


TELLING A STORY Testing the waters, so to speak, the first evi- anSpa opened in Japan this May at the luxury Palace Hotel (see Info Panel). Houel says:


“We found a great hotel partner, or rather they found us via Yoriko Soma, a Japanese spa consultant [from Conceptasia Manage- ment & Consultants] acting on their behalf. It offers the utmost in Japanese hospitality and like evian has a long history [originally opening in 1961]. Tis is the second time it’s been completely rebuilt. Also, Japan is one of the most demanding countries in terms of consistency and quality in overall con- sumer experience. If you get it right there, you can get it right anywhere.” Houel is pleased that they’ve created a


robust spa offering. “I think our concept is a compelling one because it tells a story and it


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