Interview with Arjen Schouten - 'Asian Cultures'

2017-09-27


Inspired by the wisdom and ancient traditions of Asian cultures, rituals created by extensive collection of luxurious yet affordable products for home and body. The Dutch company started in 2000. Today they run more than 350 stores and present their products in more than 1.000 stores worldwide. Arjen Schouten, COO, Rituals, illust essential of Asian philosophy and other driving forces behind the success of the brand.

Rituals is one of the fastest growing brands within the International Beauty & Lifestyle scene. What are the main driving forces behind the success of Rituals?

Schouten: Rituals is a concept which leans on the ancient beauty traditions and wisdom from the Far East and translates that with Western technology into new modern beauty and lifestyle concepts. These new propositions apparently speak to the hearts of consumers and the great premium quality of the products and fragrances combined with an attractive pricing range make people come back for more. Besides  products  Rituals is offering a total experience which fluently combines on- and offline shopping.

The lines between online and offline retail are starting to blur: How does Rituals link the offline and online world of shopping? And within this context, how important is Social Media for your communication with your customers?

Schouten: Rituals has an inhouse design team and inhouse agency who develop all stores on- and offline and also all communication materials. This ensures that the total brand experience is very well aligned between all sales and communication channels. This also goes for social media, which is also used to inspire the customer to enjoy the moment and to change everyday routines into more meaningful experiences. Inspired by this message we share special content that comprises stories from the categories yoga, home, food, life, spirit, travel or soulcare. Topics like “Breathing exercises for the body & mind”, “Slow Travel in Japan” or “Why home is your second skin” are stimulating the customer to pay attention to small things. All of our digital communication play a major role in all of Rituals brand building activities and allow us to get in touch with people.

Rituals ambition is to transform the daily routine of their customers into special and slowed-down moments. How important is the Rituals philosophy for you personally?

Schouten: We all try to live and breath our brand philosophy every moment of the day. Off course we are in a hectic place with the massive growth we are going through, but we definitely strive for a well balanced working environment where we offer Yoga classes and a great slow down lunch environment to make sure that all our staff is enjoying life at work. And for me personal that is the same, while I travel a lot, I make sure that I take a few  moments  for myself every day, by going for a run in the morning, followed by an extensive shower and grooming session and on top of that making sure that I take the time for a nice and healthy meal at the right moment of the day and then go to bed early to make sure that I have a good night of sleep and can kick start again the day after.
Thank you for the interview.

 
More from behind the scenes of Rituals reveals Arjen Schouten at the EHI Retail Design Konferenz 2017 on September 19th / 20th in Cologne.
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