Elizabeth Arden Red Door Spa has acquired digital beauty service Manicube in a reflection of mobile innovation's growing importance for leading beauty brands. 

Manicube is a digital service enabling users to sign up to receive beauty services in offices that was launched in 2012. Red Door Spa will be tapping into the startup?s mobile technologies and expertise to better serve its millennial customer-base and branch out into at-home services.

"With the acquisition of Manicube, Red Door Spas will be able to expand their services to the corporate world without needing to build this extension from scratch, adding over 200 corporate clients according to the site," said Marci Troutman, CEO of SiteMinis. "Acquisition is an excellent way to expand any companies portfolio. 

"Red Door Spas will be able to add their brand and marketing in-house at corporations which not only expands their business but also allows them to market to a potentially new clientele for their 29 day and resort spa locations," she said. 

Opening mobile doors
This acquisition allows for Red Door Spa to increase its presence beyond its iconic doors, and further its digital presence. With a large portion of its customer base being millennials, it is important for the beauty brand to build an existence on mobile portals to better serve their needs.

The beauty and spa industry is now tightly woven into mobile, with the surge of digital beauty startups making it vital for already established brands to innovate in this area as well. Red Door Spa has been a staple brand in the salon industry for more than one hundreds years, making it important for it to evolve with consumer behavior. 

Manicube users are able to schedule in-office beauty services through a mobile Web site. HR managers schedule weekly visits from manicure and barber specialist, and employees can order and pay for what they would like through mobile or desktop. 

Users can also schedule visits for other businesses such as boutiques or at-home parties. Red Door?s involvement will mean an expansion of services for Manicube coming in 2016.



Red Door Spa?s presence in mobile has been growing with an SMS program including updates and deals, as well as mobile rewards and a partnership with RetailMeNot. This acquisition will help speed along the process and will incite other changes to the brand in the upcoming months.

Beauty innovation
Similarly, the Honest Company's new beauty brand, Honest Beauty started its first brand campaign with a call-to-action push on social media, a new application, mobile video and user-generated images to also gain popularity amongst millennial consumers (see more).

Also, L?Oreal aimed to be a leader in the next generation of mobile innovation for the beauty sector by helping startups Cast Beauty and MikMak build their businesses (see more).

"There are challenges to an acquisition that come in merging two companies, but with the benefits this merger has for both of these companies this will most likely be a painless and easy transition," Ms. Troutman said. 

Final take
Brielle Jaekel is editorial assistant at Mobile Marketer