The Interview in partnership with Industry Beauty: Jacqui Owens, Director, Lifestyle Retail at Google

This article is taken from Industry Beauty.

In this exclusive monthly interview series in partnership with Industry Beauty, they feature one of CEW UK’s executive board members to gain insights into their careers and views on what being a business leader in today’s beauty industry means to them.

As Director, Lifestyle Retail at Google, Jacqui Owens works closely with brands and retailers to help them achieve their business objectives through digital solutions, whilst providing insightful consumer data to support their strategies.

From Charlotte Tilbury and Boots to THG and Gymshark, she leads the platform’s largest commercial partnerships across the categories of fashion, sports, luxury, health and beauty.

In this exclusive interview with TheIndustry.beauty, Owens speaks about the biggest opportunities and challenges in the beauty industry today and the opportunity of AI within the sector, as well as how Google works in partnership with brands and retailers, the top consumer trends in beauty, and more. 

Have you always had an interest in the beauty industry? Why does it appeal to you and why did you want to work across it? 

To be honest, no – I was a late bloomer. My interest in the beauty industry started when I moved to the UK just over eight years ago. I was fortunate to be leading the L’Oreal business at Google and it was originally the innovation of the industry that appealed to me. Specifically, the digital and tech innovation of beauty brands and the opportunity to partner on solutions to drive their business growth.  

Beauty continues to appeal to me, now with a personal love for everything skincare related and the game-changing opportunity we have for this industry in the AI era. AI will play such a crucial role in identifying emerging consumer trends and possibilities, plus be a key enabler in a more personalised experience both virtually and in-store.  

CEW UK promotes the British beauty industry, why is this important? What do you think sets the British beauty industry apart from other markets worldwide?

CEW has been an incredible enabler in supporting businesses and careers in the British beauty industry, which has been unwavering even through the toughest of times. It is so important that we empower, educate and recognise those in the industry, which is the important role in how CEW contributes to the British beauty industry.  

The beauty industry in the UK continues to consistently outpace many retail categories and the UK economy’s growth rate. I really see the UK as the home of innovation in beauty, in addition to e-commerce being a strong enabler of what sets us apart from other markets.  

Why did you join CEW UK? Do you have any highlight moments from being part of this?

There were several key reasons for joining CEW. When I first joined the beauty industry, compared to other categories – there weren’t any events or conferences to obtain industry knowledge or to learn from others. Being new to both the UK and the beauty industry, it was an incredible community to enable me to build my network, which resulted in many valuable industry connections and the opportunity for me to join the CEW Board and then later its Executive Board. In addition, it has been a great platform to scale relevant beauty consumer insights and research to support the education of the membership base – not to mention my own personal education from the valuable events.  

My CEW highlight was collaborating with a couple of CEW Board members to create the Beauty Tech Summit a couple of years ago. A gap we identified in the beauty industry to educate and inspire members of the opportunities within beauty tech, who don’t have the same access as larger businesses. It is really rewarding and exciting to know this is now a key staple annual event on the beauty calendar run by the team at CEW. 

What do you think are the biggest opportunities and challenges in the beauty sector today?

The growing popularity of dupes is a huge challenge for premium brands, who will need to find creative solutions to differentiate against cheaper alternatives. We see 64% of Gen Z’s agree that using product dupes is a good way of saving money (Kantar research), in addition to a 35% increase in ‘dupe’ searches during peak last year.  

In terms of opportunities, two words: Artificial Intelligence. We are at an inflection point, with AI yet to show its full potential and it is completely changing the customer experience to make it easier and effortless. It’s an incredible opportunity for beauty brands and retailers to embrace AI to be better equipped to meet evolving consumer needs and drive greater efficiencies into their business. Brands are not competing with AI but are competing with brands who are using it well (i.e. addressing online shopping painpoints) to differentiate or to enhance the customers experience. 

At Google, we are seeing just how much the advancements in AI are becoming embedded and shaping consumers behaviours and expectations. Every day we see billions of searches on Google, but every day 15% of search queries are completely new – aka, we’ve never seen them before. What this means is that people are continuing to ask new types of questions, which are becoming longer and more complex. And now search can more comprehensively answer questions in ways that were not possible without AI. 

What key skills do you need to have as a leader today, in general and in beauty?

I believe the fundamental skill of a leader today is the ability to lead an inclusive workplace that maximises the talents of each person to drive the vision and mission. This includes integrating diverse perspectives, creating equal opportunities to succeed, and creating a culture that fosters respect and inclusion.  

I don’t believe there are different ‘general’ leadership skills compared to a leader in the beauty industry, but what I look up to in a leader is someone who leads by example, is people-first, empathetic, authentic, a strong communicator, and has a growth mindset.  

What advice do you have for those looking to pursue senior leadership roles in their career?

My advice would be to persevere, ensure a growth mindset, and be very open to receiving and acting on feedback for your growth and development. Having an awareness of your strengths is important for pursuing opportunities where you can leverage them, but equally important is having an awareness of your development areas. Feedback really is a gift – it can be hard to hear or accept at times, but the toughest feedback will normally enable your largest and most rewarding growth moments of your career. It is also important to be clear on your ambitions and to reframe any imposter syndrome from something that might have previously held you back to what drives you forward.

What does your role as Director, Lifestyle Retail at Google entail, particularly in relation to beauty? Leading “Google’s largest commercial partnerships”, how do you work with brands and retailers?

A key part of my role is the responsibility for the advertising sales revenue across Google and YouTube for our largest customers, within what we classify at Google as the ‘lifestyle retail’ categories. These are the categories predominantly across health, beauty, sports, fashion and luxury, where my team and I partner closely with brands and retailers such as Charlotte Tilbury, Nike, Gucci, Boots, THG, Gymshark and Levi’s.  

We are successful if we are able to support the growth of our clients, via digital solutions that are aligned to achieving their business objectives (i.e. market share), revenue, profitability etc. We partner closely with brands and retailers to deeply understand their challenges and/or objectives, along with providing insightful consumer data to support their marketing or business strategies.  

Are there any consumer trends you’re seeing, particularly in relation to beauty?

Absolutely! At Google, we are fortunate to have a wealth of consumer behaviour data to be very close to beauty trends. One of the most underutilised free and publicly available tools is Google Trends, which shows what is trending right now in the UK (or anywhere in the world) and is certainly a great tool for beauty brands and retailers to compare or view search interest spikes or trends. Trending recently has been hydration, bodycare routines, peach fuzz and, of course, a variety of AI enhanced beauty experiences.  

More broadly, within beauty, the trend of ‘hyper-personalisation’ continues to be popular, with consumers increasingly wanting to have products tailored to them, driven up by the heightened expectations of Gen Z consumers.  

AI is certainly going to enable and evolve the way in which beauty brands and retailers can meet the consumer in the right moment, at the right time, and with the right message – at scale and at lightning speed. 

This article is from Industry Beauty