When Dyson entered the beauty space eight years ago, the move was met with scepticism. After all, the brand was primarily known for its home appliances, such as vacuum cleaners and fans.
Then there was the fact its first hairdryer, the Supersonic, had a retail price of almost US$400.
Kathleen Pierce, now global president of Dyson Beauty, also had questions when she first passed by a display of the Supersonic – whose head resembles a short, hollow cylinder – at a Dyson store in Hong Kong.
At the time, she was a senior vice-president at The Estée Lauder Companies, based in an office in Hong Kong’s Tsim Sha Tsui area.
We leveraged our knowledge of airflow to fundamentally improve the product
“I was genuinely curious as a consumer, because I was looking at this device and this shape and I couldn’t understand how it worked,” she says. “Where did the air come from? What was so superior about it?