On “the most beautiful avenue in the world”, a new place opened last December: 86Champs, finely named after its precise location on 86 Champs Elysées Avenue. Behind the project, l’Occitane en Provence and Pierre Hermé, two brands quite far apart from each another. The result looks weird or post-modern, according to your vision of the world. In a 3,014 sq ft area, customers can buy and savor macarons and pastries, discover body lotions and perfumes, get into cosmetics manufacturing as if they were little chemists… Just like sneaking in a gingerbread house at the Science Museum.

That being said, this opening deserves closer analysis. First, it confirms that marketing likes hybrid. Nowadays, brands consider that they no longer need to invent the future to be modern. They need to create a bond with another category – the most surprising, the better – to create a buzz, make a splash, shake its image and perception. This is « oil and water » marketing. In our case, this converts into beauty products inspired by the taste of pastries and pastries spreading out notes of perfume.

86Champs is worth noticing also because they have chosen to stage their beauty products’ manufacturing and distillation processes in the heart of their selling location. This is a perfect way to quench today’s consumers’ curiosity and thirst for knowledge. An idea at the heart of the latest Starbucks’ concept called Reserve Roastery. Customers can drink their coffee while watching the coffee bean transformation after downloading an augmented reality app on their smartphones. Today’s consumers definitely want to understand what they’re buying.

In short, 86Champs embodies a new way of making business. Brands no longer need to ensure product consistency, they need to leverage the likes and interests shared by their customers. Here, colors, scents and flavors. Beauty products become appetizing, pastries are appraised for their perfumes and each brand benefits from the other’s customers. In such a place, habits are positively shaken.