Omum to conquer the food supplements market About ten years ago, Marie-Pascale Ballet founded Omum (Naadam Nature), a cosmetics brand dedicated to women and moms-to-be. Currently promoting positive, benevolent beauty, the brand has a holistic approach with an offering that includes a nutricosmetics range: three food supplements whose formulations are adapted to pregnant and/or breastfeeding women. So let us discover an environment that is so cozy. Actif’s Mag: How would you present Omum in just a few in particular. Capsules containing probiotics, cranberries and vita- words? mins, whose consumption is recommended in parallel with the use Marie-Pascale Ballet: After a world tour that lasted one year, I of the gel. The same process is deployed each time: each ingredient saw how women live in various parts of the world. And in particu- (whether under a brand or not) used in a formulation is the subject lar, the different ways pregnancy is experienced in all these places. of a monography provided by a regulatory firm. All our capsules are Nevertheless, all these women across the world were always sup- of vegetable origin and HPMC. ported by their close ones, and I was touched, in particular, by trans- mission and by the fact that rituals are passed over from one woman Actif’s Mag: Do you aim to create a build a real universe to another. When I got back in France, I yselbecame a mother. around women? The idea of surrounding women with well-being and beauty du- Marie-Pascale Ballet: Exactly. And this is an approach that needs ring this period of transition to motherhood took shape and this is to be as holistic as possible. Marked by the massage rituals I dis- how Omum was born. Organic-certified cosmetics formulated with covered during my travels, I wanted to share them with our wo- natural ingredients. Clean, of course, in order to meet the technical men “here”. Thus, massages are available on our website. They specifications of products for pregnant and breastfeeding women. can be downloaded according to each persons’ needs and wishes. Very quickly, the target expanded to reach women, in general, as Moreover, to continue in the same spirit of woman-to-woman com- women enjoy pampering themselves. Thus, the In&Out range natu- munication, our female consumers are invited to test the products rally emerged and tried to meet the same requirements in order to in order to become ambassadors. My dream is that each Omum wo- provide women with more comfort and beauty. man feels her belonging to a kind of “tribe”, that she feels good and radiates with “beauty”. A blog and podcasts are as many tools deve- Actif’s Mag: How did you structure this range? loped in order to support the growth of this universe and offer to wo- Marie-Pascale Ballet: The range consists of three products, all of men tools they can use depending on their personal filters. them acting as a complement to another cosmetics product of the brand. We want our approach to be global so as to allow women to Actif’s Mag: What are your current distribution channels? take care both of their inner and outer self. Moreover, the topical ac-Marie-Pascale Ballet: We have several ones, in addition to our we- tion can sometimes act quicker, thereby improving adherence. The bsite, of course. First of all, we are working with the selective chan- technical specifications being already established for cosmetics, the nel of organic stores, both retail and online ones. Perfumeries and criteria remained the same (as much as possible) for the develop- beauty institutes (Beauty Success) are other partners we have, and ment and the formulation of food supplements. The difference is we provide training sessions to their sales teams. Finally, we also rely that everything is much more complicated when it comes to nutra- on nearly 200 pharmacist clients. Our export activity (exclusively for ceuticals! No additives, no excipients, naturalness and effectiveness, cosmetics) accounts for 10% of our turnover; our B2B 65% and our eco-responsibility are the principles that lead the development of B2C 25%. our formulations. Mon Coup de Pousse targets hair strengthening and growth with its composition: biotin, zinc, brewer’s yeast and bo- Actif’s Mag: What is your communication strategy? tanical extracts. For more visible results, it is offered as a supplementMarie-Pascale Ballet: As regards communication, we train the to the lotion under the same name. La Surdouée targets skin hydra- sales teams, pharmacists, as well as our B2B interlocutors. Our web- tion and elasticity with the aid of the following active ingredients: site is a real educational tool. We are currently making recruitments hydrolyzed marine collagen, vitamins C and E, botanical extracts for our digital communication team. And we also rely indeed on and zinc. Its action is potentiated when also applying the epony- communication between women. • mous oil. For this product, another great asset that reflects our value is the use of marine by-products via collagen. Finally, L’Intime offers a more natural solution to women’s vaginal flora problems. An alter- Comments collected by Elisa Duclos native to antibiotics, which are frowned upon by pregnant women, sdnarB — seuqraM- 23 -