Blint n° 74 - Julio 2015

ENGLISH TRANSLATION
a superior, pushy way, making the customer feel silly and
incompetent. The women participating in the focus groups
stated that they had found young sales people who were
highly competent and clearly doing their job with genuine
passion and dedication. Remember that the term craft
implies having mastered a skill. Courteous skill amounts to
an added value of the product, opening the way to a more
rewarding dialogue; but, above all, it constitutes a friendly
database and the customer knows she can rely on it.
DIFFERENT ZONES
Regardless of the store’s size, be sure and divide it up into
different areas. In order to impress and appeal to different
customers. To avoid that women simply come in. It’s not a
question of divide and conquer and not even brand, product
or target segmentation. An effective store is a mosaic
of symbols which conspire to reflect the multifaceted image
of a customer. A woman has to be able to maintain or
change her image of herself, therefore she has to be able
to maintain or change the mirror. Dividing a store means
creating numerous facets. It means saying to the customer:
just look at how many women you can be while, all the
time, remaining true to yourself. And if you only want to be
yourself, look at how many delightful ways you have for doing
so. Once you have divided up the shop, that ‘just look’
has to become signals, tests, images which communicate
to the customer that here she is who she wants to be. That
particular sector, partition, division, that world. In the end,
there refers to the entire store as a whole. And for the woman
it becomes her store.
UNCONSTRAINED SHOPPING
This doesn’t just depend on the size of a given store and not
even the opportunity to wander around without being hassled
by a gaggle of store clerks pestering you about what
you are looking for. It’s a genuine emotional need that customers
(women) have.
“I’m going out for a stroll” implies a mental phenomenon
as much as a physical action. It’s similar the idea of taking
a break, taking a journey and the need to be free of hassles
and confusion. But this metaphor for freedom contains a direct
link with basic, simple personal movement: take a walk,
take a stroll, amble about, wander around, ramble, take the
air without a thought, enjoy a leisurely constitutional and so
on and so forth. A store represents an opportunity, a means
and a context for this type of activity (or, rather, need). It
should be understood that we are referring to a mental meandering:
a sense of freedom, therefore not depending on
the size or dimension of the store.
DYNAMIC AND RESOURCEFUL
Dynamism does not involve rushing. Novelty does not
mean rejecting what is not new. Dynamism and novelty are
synnonymous with the already mentioned rejuvenation.
Having new things is a way of staying young. Dynamism
and offering new products involves more than intriguing,
engaging, attracting, fascinating and involving customers.
It’s a little plot between the store and the women, between
beauty and women, between the women and themselves.
Bewitching, seducing, enchanting, involving, winning over,
dazzling, beguiling, inspiring awe. Wisdom, based on experience
and sensibility, should not be forgotten; it should
be nurtured and constantly imbued with new vitality. New
products help the customers renew their vitality.
A SENSE OF WELL-BEING
One could learn an important lesson in professionalism
from the over-the-counter pharmacies and cosmetic counters
in regular pharmacies. “They are real pharmacists;
their professional jackets are enough to make you feel like
you’re in the hands of someone who is an expert, who understands
the relevant problems and seeks out a suitable
solution for you.” These problems, however, are deftly
transformed into opportunities for enhancing the customer-person-woman.
When you go to these people, they don’t
treat you like a patient and automatically start speaking in
terms of traditional medicines, but rather they listen to you,
providing you with a sensible solution based on the technical
knowledge that their pharmaceutical training guarantees.
Conversely, the sort of problems that in a pharmacy
setting would constitute a problem to be treated, at the
beauty product counters are transformed into opportunities
for enhancing the customer. The trick is to convert a
minus into a plus. By way of providing a helpful analogy,
eye pathologies are a genuine medical problem, but glasses
embody one’s personality. They are also trendy, fashionable
accessories. The lenses obviously require special professional
skills, while the frames require another approach,
one that takes into consideration a person’s character and
individual style. These professionals with a double set of
skills approach a problem as if it were an opportunity. Shifting
this example into the beachwear and intimate apparel
sector, unsightly physical attributes are a problem, while
the products designed to correct and minimize them as best
as possible represent an opportunity.
ENCUENTROS/COMPANIES
MARYAN BEACHWEAR GROUP
POISED BETWEEN PAST AND FUTURE
Sixty years of successes for this German firm which has
made style and performance its guiding lights. At the helm
family passion and the longsighted ideas of Maryan and
Maya Mehlhorn
A long path stretching back almost sixty years, composed
of traditional values and farsighted ideas but, above all, a
family passion for beachwear which combines style and
superior performance. The protagonists of this journey
are two energetic women, Maryan Mehlhorn and
her daughter, Maya Mehlhorn, together the true driving
force behind a traditional family business that has always
managed to look to the future, growing into the industrial
success that it is today, the Maryan Beachwear
Group. The company’s roots go all the way back to the year
1946 when Paul Döbele, father of the current managing
partner and designer, founded the company in Murg
in the German state of Baden- ‐Württemberg and, together
with his wife, Pia, began to manufacture brassieres
and corsets destined for exclusive specialized stores
in Germany. The acquisition and the deposit of the international
patent for the underwired foundation garment
(also knows as the Butterfly and destined to become
famous for its support requiring no shoulder straps) on the
part of Paul Döbele, marked the beginning of the long
chronicle of company successes with the name of the
Fortex- ‐Charmant brand. This pioneering invention made
it possible for the strapless brassiere, at that time extremely
modern, to distinguish itself for its superior fit.
The women’s liberation movement of the late Sixties,
however, threw the entire foundation garment sector into
crisis and so the Döbeles came up with a swimwear version
of their strapless brassiere: a combination of corset
and swimsuit, with which the company caught the interest
of the specialized intimate apparel and swimwear market
which included the product in the selection of beachwear
products. The renowned brassiere and corset company,
which even then was specialized in large sizes, made a
fresh name for itself in the field swimwear and beachwear
fashions. Many steps have been taken since those
early days and a number of different lines have been created
in order to respond to all the market needs.
Maryan Mehlhorn, the primary line, featuring a generous
amount of fashion content, with models created with virtuoso
skill and luxurious materials for the most demanding
women. Lidea, a more commercial and sporty collection
of swimwear. Charmline, the collection acknowledged as a
pioneer in the field of shapewear applied to beachwear,
which, thanks to an innovative material is able to make