After buying hair care brand Mielle in January 2023, P&G had a big job: Assuring customers their beloved products — like Mielle’s famous Rosemary Mint Scalp & Hair Strengthening Oil — would stay true to its reputation. That pledge is key for a consumer base whose devotion to the brand runs deep.
“We really want to preserve what makes Mielle special and unique, but then also add the P&G benefits that will make Mielle truly a disproportionate game changing brand in the industry,” says Mielle President Omar Goff.
Goff’s charge is to not only bring Mielle into the P&G family but also elevate the customer experience. These will come from what Goff calls “mic drop moments,” such as a new partnership featuring Mielle at the 2024 Olympic Games.
“We need to delight consumers in ways they haven’t seen before, continue to set new standards of excellence, and raise the bar because we know the competition is watching,” he says.
Hear more from Goff in the video below or read our lightly edited conversation.
TRANSCRIPT
I am obsessed with culture, cultural moments and really entertainment, staying at the forefront of what’s hot and that’s really at the epitome of what this brand stands for.
I am Omar Goff and I’ve been with Procter and Gamble for 19 years. And I’m currently serving as the President of Mielle Organics and the overall P&G transition leader for the brand.
Mielle is a texture haircare brand, rooted in the power of ingredients and how ingredients can help manifest great haircare benefits. The brand is rooted on really helping women and men celebrate their natural hair texture, enhancing your natural hair texture and celebrating textured hair and all the beauty that it possesses.
We know that the future of haircare resides in our ability to win in textured hair. Fine hair is no longer the dominant hair type and will not be the dominant hair type for years to come. It is critically important that P&G’s portfolio satisfies and delights texture hair. While we have brands that are serving that need today, we did not have a leadership brand that really was at the forefront of both innovation and actually resonating with consumers in the way that we needed to. Mielle has been the fastest-growing brand in the category for the past two years. I’m sure that is why it was on the radar of our acquisition and divestitures team. It was a brand that just really spoke to us as a company rooted in science, ingredients and scent as a superiority of a point of differentiation. I mean, it really was a match, where so many things just connected for us.
We’re beginning our journey, and what it takes is the foundation of trust, and so we have been working very closely with the Mielle leadership team, the Mielle organization to really establish trust and to showcase the power of the partnership: Why joining P&G is truly a one plus one equals three equation for Mielle and P&G. We have many examples where we’re demonstrating that and so the power of the partnership is very believable. I will not marginalize the fear that exists with the unknown. This is where we’re holding hands together. We’re going to be very collaborative and the approach is we don’t want to just make Mielle a P&G clone. We really want to preserve what makes Mielle special and unique, but then also add the P&G benefits that will make Mielle truly a disproportionate game changing brand in the industry.
I think the first “Wow” moment or the first mic drop is when we signed Angel Reese coming straight off of the win for the National Women’s Basketball Championship. One of the hottest NIL athletes in the game. We hired her as a brand ambassador. I think it got everyone’s attention. Then we became the very first textured haircare brand partner of the WNBA which had such a significance to the players, and really showcased and shined a new light on this league from inclusive beauty standards and showcased that these women are beautiful, and they will be elevated through the voice of brands like Mielle and other beauty brands and so they will be a force to be reckoned with. Also the way we enter events I mean the lines at Essence Festival for the Mielle experience was through the roof. We had to be shut down at least 10 times over the course of three days for crowd control. It was the hottest booth at the experience and we just really captured and delighted our consumers like never before. We know that we have to bring it this upcoming July and we are up for the challenge.
I’m learning patience. I’m learning to listen more. I’m learning to stew the soup a little longer to get it just right, so that we can have maximum impact. I would say take the time to learn, come with a growth mindset, really interrogate processes to understand what is really important and working about what you currently do and how it can be amplified by bringing both trains of thought together to create a more improved output.
I’m very excited about the Olympics. For the first time Mielle be featured in the Olympics. We’re joining the P&G Beauty Experience at the Olympics. It will be the most inclusive beauty salon that we’ve ever had in the Olympic village and a brand like Mielle is going to truly delight all the textured hair athletes and family members, as they know that they can credibly get their hair done with products that are going to work. I’m super excited and proud of that moment as truly a mic drop moment in the history for Mielle to the Olympics. That would be what I would say is what I’m most looking forward to. We’re also going to be celebrating 10 years of our existence. On May 23, 2024 Mielle turns 10, so expect a full year of celebration and more mic drop moments throughout the year.
