SPOTLIGHT: GINA BOSWELL, Chief Executive Officer & Director, Bath & Body Works
Gina Boswell is a business visionary, inspirational leader, and true Woman of Action who joined Bath & Body Works as Chief Executive Officer and Director in 2022. She is also, wonderfully, a fragrance lover. For this special edition of ACCORDS, she imparts a few secrets of her success, reflects on how important scent is for experiential and emotional impact (both in life and in commerce), and shares why she brought Bath & Body Works membership back to TFF.
What is your personal connection to fragrance?
Beyond dousing my teenage self with Love’s Baby Soft fragrance mist, my personal connection to fragrance started fairly early in my career, when I first fell in love with the beauty business. Fragrance was a fascinating category to me in part because it was a much more personal one–almost like the fragrance picked the person versus the other way around. Three decades ago, I started collecting the most beautifully crafted solid perfume compacts from Estée Lauder in iconic fragrances like Beautiful and Pleasures. Some were limited edition Swarovski encrusted gold pieces that, when opened, would unleash the most incredible scent. I’ve lots of fond memories of my two daughters who might have pulled apart their Barbie dolls or drawn on them (think weird Barbie) and yet they treated these compacts like the most fragile Faberge Eggs. We moved many times as a family and the first box they’d need to secure and open would be these fragrance compacts, carefully and proudly placing them on their vanity, as if to say, we’re in our new home now.
Fragrance has been so integral to Bath & Body Works’ success. Why do you think that scent connects so much with consumers?
At Bath & Body Works, we believe in the power of fragrance – fragrance is a deeply sensorial experience that moves beyond olfactory into something much more transportive. Smell is the most evocative of all the senses, and our customers seek fragrance to transform their moods, express their identity, and connect with others. Fragrance even has the potential to unlock special memories, create new ones and
unite people over a common bond.
You have brought Bath & Body Works membership back to TFF. As TFF has expanded its scope with so many programs for the community & consumers in the last 6 years—such as Fragrance Day, media and college student outreach (Scents for Success), online education, TFF Awards, etc—what are you most excited to engage in?
We’re glad to be back and I feel like we’re reconnecting at the right time, for the industry and for our brand. As we build on the strong foundation we have today as global leaders in fragrance, staying connected and involved with The Fragrance Foundation is key. TFF is a great connector to our industry with a wealth of experts who each share unique and future-focused insights. As we continue to innovate and extend our brand reach, we see TFF as an important voice to help educate and engage consumers while elevating the industry through professional development and recognition. We’re particularly excited about the potential in TFF’s Scents for Success program. Its focus on fostering the next generation of fragrance professionals and driving diversity and inclusion is so important to the future of our industry. We look forward to seeing how our experts can take part in educating and supporting new members in our fragrance community.
What are your goals going forward regarding Bath & Body Works and fragrance?
Bath & Body Works has an excellent track record of being a fragrance-first innovator and we continue to play to our strengths. We’re uniquely positioned to deliver newness to our customers along with their familiar favorites and can do it across two dozen product forms. You’ll continue to see us celebrate our core fragrances while expanding our portfolio. I’m eager to continue working with the team to elevate our brand and expand our reach to new categories with fragrance at the center. We’re excited about the success of our expanding Men’s Shop collection. It remains one of our fastest growing product lines as more men get connected to personal care routines and incorporate scent into their daily practice. What’s equally exciting is bringing customers a full spectrum fragrance experience. We’ve played an important part in our customers’ home fragrance journey, and we’re thrilled to add to the head-to-toe routine with fragrant hair care and laundry.
What are the chief tenets of good leadership?
People need to feel empowered and comfortable making decisions, whether they are small scale decisions or larger, more creative endeavors. None of us are as smart as all of us – that’s why, regardless of where I am, I focus on being collaborative and decisive while always encouraging my team to do the same.
What advice do you give to other women who strive to become CEOs of global brands?
Don’t second guess what you bring to the table. People found it amusing that I moved from cosmetics to cars (and then back). When I made the switch, at first, I was a bit unsure of myself as someone who could not even change a flat tire, but then I realized that the company was full of people who knew about cars and that was not the perspective they needed for the future. It’s also advice that goes beyond switching industries; expanding my professional portfolio, from finance to strategy to marketing to sales, was not only rewarding but also prepared me to lead a multi-billion-dollar company.
I’m thrilled to be back in the beauty industry but would encourage anyone – regardless of career stage – to get comfortable with taking risks, especially when you want to rise. We all must be willing to go there and embrace change, especially with how much change we’re seeing in our business and in society.
To what do you attribute your own success?
While it is tough to sum it up in one word, I can tell you what’s shaped my career: I like going where the heat is- stretching myself to learn and grow along the way. I was also blessed to have an incredible network of mentors/former bosses and supporters— legends like Leonard Lauder, Jeanette Wagner, and Paul Polman to name a few. Each of them took a chance on me and showed me how to navigate the business and accelerate my learning curve. Their extraordinary energy, passion, work ethic, and legacy are something I still think about often and I do my best to pay it forward. I think much of my success has come from building on iconic brands, shining a light on what makes them iconic, and then taking them to the next level. That’s what we’re doing at Bath & Body Works.
How does your beauty industry background enhance your role at Bath and Body Works?
The beauty business brings with it a constant drumbeat of innovation and change. In the time I’ve spent in the industry, I’ve had remarkable exposure to renowned brands which helped shape me into the leader I am today. I first caught the beauty and retail bug as a management consultant focused on driving shareholder value. I then officially joined my client and it was at that point that I really began to understand the beautiful business of beauty; that is, the overall attractiveness of the business fundamentals. Few industries have such a strong emotional connection with consumers that helps support the category’s resiliency (in good times and bad times), the opportunity for brand love, and customer loyalty, not to mention the favorable structural economics in margin and profitable growth.
My experience across four beauty businesses has exposed me to literally every channel and geography where beauty and personal care brands are sold. There are differences in the various go-to-market strategies across prestige, mass, direct, or e-commerce, and certainly cultural and regional variations, but the core of beauty, with its functional and emotive benefits, is similar, and frankly transportive.
Transportive is a word we use frequently at Bath & Body Works whether describing our wonderful fragranced products or our immersive store experiences. Having recently celebrated my one-year anniversary as CEO of Bath & Body Works, this chapter might just be the most exciting yet.
What are some ways that DEI initiatives such as #FragranceForwardTFF can make Bath & Body Works better both internally and for the consumer?
We know that diversity, equity, and inclusion make us stronger, and we strive to ensure everyone is included and has equitable access and opportunity. Something I’m proud to share is our commitment to developing the next generation of perfumers through the American Chemical Society Scholars Program. This program awards renewable scholarships to undergraduate students from historically underrepresented groups majoring in fields like chemistry and perfumery.
We’re in year two of our three-year partnership and so far, we’ve donated $200,000 to this important program. As a retailer who excels in storytelling, we’re also proud to showcase the diversity of our perfumers on our in-store material and on the product package itself. Leveraging our own channels to elevate and celebrate underrepresented perfumers is critical and sets an example for the next generation. We will continue to invest in DEI not only because it’s the right thing to do for each other, but because it’s the right thing to do for our business, our associates, and our communities.