Carnet de vol Insights from the July 2026 webinar · Cosmoprof × LYC Partners

Carnet de vol

A carnet de vol is a leader’s field notebook — practical experience,
captured call by call, by people who’ve been there.

Dominique PetruzziStatista

Valeria CavalcanteCEO, Vagheggi

Jenny LaiPresident & CEO, Bluebell

Valeria found what she calls a sister: nearly thirty years, one partner. Jenny Lai — whose group has brought 150+ international brands into nine markets — sees the same divide. Brands that fail treat the distributor as a buy-and-sell channel, opening as many doors as possible. Brands that last build brand equity together, for years.

A distributor opens shelves. A partner opens the market — sharing research, agreeing hero products, adapting the story locally, and staying through the bad seasons. Valeria changed products, communication and business models for China; she never changed the core values. That kind of give-and-take only happens on trust.

1. Screen for values and horizon first, margin second. Ask how they handled a brand's bad year.
2. Never treat the distributor as a customer to be sold. Treat them as the co-owner of your brand in that market.
3. Write down what will not change — your core values — before you negotiate what will.
4. Agree local positioning, hero products and keywords with them before launch; direct translation does not work.

Push product without building desire and you meet the Chinese discount machine — 70–80% off online. Once prices collapse that far, recovery is very difficult. The stable skincare brands plan for it: they spend 40–50% of expected sales revenue on advertising and promotion, on top of gifts-with-purchase, local exclusives and packaging.

The Chinese customer is now very sophisticated — almost used to seeing the best of every brand. In skincare she reads the science and the data; across the rest of life she spends on health, wellness, fragrance and small daily indulgences. She buys a quality of life, not a status symbol. Win her, and she travels — she becomes a global ambassador who can lift the whole brand.

• Hair — booming, and working well for international players.
• Niche fragrance — expected to grow 20%+; fewer than 5% of Chinese consumers use fragrance today, and tastes are moving from light florals to unisex, woody, oud.
• High-end, science-backed skincare for specific concerns — grows on communicated research and credibility.
• Colour cosmetics — large, but local brands lead with storytelling and shades built for the local customer; hard for international entrants.

1. Pass the home-market test first: mature brand, stable team, clear positioning, developed retail concept. Asia amplifies weakness — it doesn't fix it.
2. Budget for demand, not just stock. Plan the A&P line before you price the market.
3. Build the evidence — science, data, local claims — for a customer who reads it.
4. Enter with one sharp story and hero products, not the whole catalogue.
5. Treat live streams as media and education, not only a sales channel; every social channel needs its own content.

Valeria visits China at least eight times a year; some salon clients have stayed with the brand for 28 years. Her advice: understand and deeply respect the culture, listen more than you speak, and take the long view — the market rewards years, not quarters. Jenny Lai puts the operational version in one line: remote management rarely works.

Relationships in Asia are built in person and over years — and the market changes faster than most. Vagheggi works only through the professional spa and salon channel: consultation, treatments, education, measurable results. It generates deep loyalty, and it drives home-care sales from trust. Her Chinese partners have gone further still, building training programmes that give unemployed young women an education in beauty therapy and a permanent job — a depth of relationship a remote office never reaches.

In Southeast Asia presence plays out differently but just as locally: halal is becoming law in Indonesia, and Thailand's knowledgeable consumers weigh ingredients and safety above price. Local rules, local people.

1. Budget the travel — eight visits a year is the bar for a serious market, not the exception.
2. Put a named, senior person on the ground before product goes on shelves.
3. Choose a channel model — professional, boutique, or social-commerce-led — and stay disciplined to it.
4. Listen first on every visit; treat adaptation as permanent, not a one-time launch task.

Localisation is non-negotiable, Jenny says — different consumer journeys, different social channels, different retail ecosystems demand dedicated local teams or strong local partners. And Valeria's first and last advice is about respect at the top: the people lead, the strategy follows.

The same brand thrives or fails on the person running it in market. That leader holds the partner relationship, guards the demand budget, keeps the brand honest when discount pressure comes, and carries the culture across borders. Europe is not one country; neither is Asia — no single playbook travels with the product. This is the exact question LYC Partners works on: who runs your Asia business, and are they set up to succeed?

1. Name the leader for market one — China, or a Southeast Asia hub — before the go-to-market plan is final.
2. Match the leader to the model: a brand-builder for a boutique, demand-led play; a relationship-builder for professional and partner channels.
3. Hand them the values document, the long horizon — and real authority.
4. Build the local team around digital and content fluency; live-stream and social commerce are native skills here, not add-ons.

Look closely and the four decisions are one: the partner, the demand, the presence — and the person who runs all three. Get the people right, and the rest is execution.