Subject: Beauty-Products Company Gets a Makeover in Green
Date: Published: 3/13/92 (129 lines)
Source: Wall Street Journal. Copyright Dow Jones & Co. Inc.

    Enterprise:
    Beauty-Products Company Gets a Makeover in Green
    ---
    Sebastian International Prospers by
    Giving Itself an Environmental Accent
    ----
    By David J. Jefferson
    Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal

    WOODLAND HILLS, Calif.  -- Mirror, mirror on the wall,
 who's the greenest of them all?  
    Sebastian International Inc., a trendy beauty-products
 maker, did a complete makeover in hot pursuit of that
 distinction.  It dropped several top-selling hair dyes and
 sprays because they weren't "environmentally friendly."  It
 began to give carpooling employees free shampoo.  It became a
 big supporter of efforts to save the Amazon rain forest.
    The company even built a small replica of the rain forest
 -- hanging vines and all -- in the central atrium of its new,
 pyramid-shaped headquarters here.
    "This is the way we see the consumer moving in the '90s.
 They're going to buy based on what the company stands for,"
 says John Sebastian Cusenza, the company's 55-year-old
 founder and president.  Indeed, Sebastian's sales have doubled
 to about $100 million in the last five years -- largely due
 to its new green image, Mr. Cusenza says.
    Nowadays, many small consumer-goods producers find that
 painting their products green helps them stick out on
 overcrowded store shelves.  The trick:  convincing shoppers
 that they should shell out extra money for environmentally
 conscious wares.
    But few small companies have jumped on the environmental
 bandwagon as enthusiastically as Sebastian, a concern that
 long has prospered from spotting trends.  Among its many
 products was the crimping iron for full hairstyles popular in
 the mid-1970s.  More recently, it introduced Molding Mud, a
 gooey styling cream aimed at trend-conscious consumers
 seeking that "unkempt, unwashed" look.
    Sebastian's decision to go green came as recession-weary
 consumers turned away from pricey salon brands like its
 hair-care products, which sell for between $4 and $15 each.
 Three years ago, the company began hearing from hairdressers
 that consumers were making fewer salon visits.  That was
 particularly bad news for Sebastian, whose hair products
 aren't sold anywhere else.  "If I want you to come back to the
 salon and buy my brand, then I've got to go a step beyond,"
 Mr. Cusenza says.
    But Sebastian had to walk a tightrope, wooing the
 eco-conscious set without turning off its style-conscious
 clientele with a message that was too earthy.  "We're not the
 Body Shop," says Mr. Cusenza, referring to the British-based
 beauty-products retailer that's well known for its extensive
 environmental commitment and its use of all-natural
 ingredients.  While Body Shop started with a green commitment,
 Sebastian demonstrates the results that a retooling can
 achieve.
    So far, Sebastian has managed to retain a high-end image.
 "It's not the kind of product where everything in it is au
 naturel, rocks and dirt and branches," says Ed Hibbard, a
 stylist with Hairtech Salon in Los Angeles.  Sebastian still
 uses some chemicals in its products, but says that it has
 dropped environmentally harmful ones.  "When I think of the
 position of Sebastian, I still think of a salon brand first,
 rather than an environmental one," adds Diana K. Temple, a
 Salomon Brothers Inc. analyst in New York.
    For its pet environmental charity, Sebastian picked the
 Rainforest Foundation -- a group supported by numerous
 celebrities, including rock star Sting.  Mr. Cusenza says that
 he had wanted to get involved in rain forest preservation
 efforts ever since the late 1960s, when his brother Jimmy
 directed the Peace Corps in Brazil.
    Last year, Jimmy Cusenza, now the company's vice president
 of international sales, led an expedition of 35 hairdressers
 to the Amazon -- as an unusual sales-incentive trip.  Shortly
 before the trip, the company began to pay for a medical barge
 that plies the Amazon, supplying medical services to local
 tribes.
    The company also formed a foundation called Club UNITE
 (Unity Now Is a Tomorrow for Everyone).  The club collects $10
 donations from salon customers.  Consumers direct their
 donations to one of seven charities, such as the Rainforest
 Foundation and the Humane Society of the U. S. In exchange,
 customers receive $15 of Sebastian products and discounts for
 another $65 worth.
    "It's a way to bring business back to the salon and to
 build a big retail base," says Reny Salamon, owner of trendy
 Estilo Salon in Los Angeles, and part of a team of
 hairdressers that helps John Cusenza's wife Geri try out new
 products.
    Many consumers are sold on the company's environmental
 message, too.  "It makes me feel better about using it," says
 actor Jesse Henecke, who has been buying Sebastian products
 for several years.
    John Cusenza says he fully realizes that an environmental
 marketing campaign can be construed as a cheap marketing ploy
 unless the entire company is on board.  That's why the new
 Sebastian headquarters are equipped with motion-sensitive
 lights that turn on only when someone is in the room, and why
 employees type correspondence on both sides of the paper.
    Mr. Cusenza encourages his workers to participate in the
 save-the-planet drive as well.  Each month, he hands out an
 open-ended "eco-question."  This month's entry asks:  "We as a
 company and individually can make a better world for our
 children if we...."  Staff members write their responses on
 recycled butcher-paper scrolls hung around the office.
    Now, Mr. Cusenza is looking to recruit the next generation
 of environmentally friendly Sebastian primpers with Little
 Green, an environmental arts competition for children whose
 spokeswoman is pop singer Paula Abdul.  Kids are vying for the
 chance to accompany Sebastian hairdressers down the Amazon
 and take home a $5,000 savings bond.  The myriad Crayola
 entries adorning the walls of Sebastian's headquarters
 include 11-year-old Mina Iwasa's drawing of weeping trees and
 a buzzsaw with a circle and slash through it.
    Mr. Cusenza also is broadening his do-gooder
 consciousness.  Club UNITE recently donated $1 million to
 sponsor "An Event In Three Acts," a musical show on national
 tour to raise money and recruit volunteers for AIDS service
 groups.
    "Pursuit of the dollar is not the end-all," Mr. Cusenza
 says.

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