Introducing Fiona Glen – Head of Projects at The Red Tree

Events and Initiatives

18/03/2019 by The Red Tree

We are delighted to welcome Fiona Glen to The Red Tree as our Head of Projects. With a wealth of experience in the beauty industry, Fiona is an outstanding addition to the team. We sat down with Fiona to explore her career so far, thoughts on the beauty industry and find out more about what her role will entail. The Red Tree is a leading international beauty brand consultancy with a proven track record in building businesses, brands and people. We develop and steer your ideas, challenge your thinking and deliver results.

Tell us a bit about your career prior to joining The Red Tree.

I have worked in health and beauty retail for almost 10 years now. Most recently I have held various senior buyer positions for one of the biggest beauty retailers in the UK. I’ve managed a huge range of product development projects from concept to launch as well as working on growing existing brands through effective category management. Within my career, all of my roles have involved international elements, working with retailers and suppliers worldwide which will stand me in good stead as 70% of our clients at The Red Tree are international.

What trends do you think we can expect to see in 2019?

I think that the natural trend is going from strength to strength and will continue to grow as products on the market increase in efficacy in line with growing consumer expectations. On top of that I’m really interested to see what’s next from an experiential perspective as retailers are constantly having to challenge themselves to give consumers a reason to visit stores rather than shopping online and I’m sure the beauty segment will continue to evolve in this way with events and services.

Any piece of advice for a beauty brand entering the UK market?

Have a clear idea of what your brand stands for and who your target customer is. It’s the first question a buyer will ask you and I’m constantly amazed at how many struggle to answer that question succinctly. If you don’t know enough about your customer – find out – even if it’s just a case of doing a questionnaire to your mailing list or a focus group.

What are your favourite beauty brands and why?

There are too many to name and my overflowing bathroom cabinet is testament to that. Pixi is a great brand; it looks lovely, communicates well and the products really work. I am also a big fan of Philip Kingsley which is a great example of a true British heritage brand and the elasticiser is a real hero product. Finally, in my opinion Glamglow are the best face masks on the market and were a disruptor to the category, I try to do one at least once a week.

What skill set will you bring to your role?

I’ve been lucky enough to work on almost every category in beauty so I’m looking forward to applying my experience of those categories to the wide range of projects that we work on at The Red Tree. Working as a buyer is very fast paced, you’re required to spin lots of plates at the same time so that’s obviously a skill that will come in really useful at The Red Tree. Lastly, having a retail and customer perspective will allow me to advise brands from a viewpoint that unfortunately doesn’t always feature as front of mind to brand owners and can really help in executing our retail strategy advice.

What are you most looking forward to experiencing at The Red Tree?

I’m so excited to be part of the fantastic team at The Red Tree. There are over 70 years of experience between us and it really feels like a beauty powerhouse. As a result of that, the calibre of clients is fantastic and there are some truly exciting projects that I can’t wait to see hit the market.

The Red Tree is the UK’s leading international beauty brand consultancy and a powerhouse of ideas, insight and inspiration. For an informal discussion on how we might help you, please contact us.