Case Study
Creating the Kiehl’s Academy:
A Transformational Journey
“It's been a pleasure to partner with GuyKat to help elevate our global eLearning platform.”
Mia Kernaghan
Digital Education Specialist at Kiehl’s
At a glance...
Background
To support their mission of delivering highly personalised skincare expertise to every customer, Kiehl’s recognised the importance of investing in a scalable, intuitive and easily accessible global learning platform.
The ambition was to grow an academy where Skincare Experts could deepen their skincare knowledge from anywhere in the world. That’s why Kiehl’s joined forces with Docebo to create the first Kiehl’s Academy.
Kiehl’s rich history and culture are an integral part of their brand. Therefore, they partnered with GuyKat to ensure their homepage and eLearning content reflected their long-standing heritage
This collaboration aimed to provide scalable, accessible, and high-quality training that could reach a global audience.
What was the learning challenge?
It was once a vision of founding family member, Aaron Morse, to create a Kiehl’s Academy to help educate in-store employees and customers alike. Education has always been at the heart of Kiehl’s, so as part of their digital learning strategy, Kiehl’s wanted to make the first-ever eLearning platform for Skin Pros at Kiehl’s.
Kiehl’s identified the following needs:
With over 170 years of rich history and heritage, they needed a centralised place where Skin Pros could understand their values and how to uphold them.
The platform needed to provide a highly personalised, accessible, and academic experience where the users could advance their education.
The content needed to be easily accessible anywhere around the world, in any language.
This is where the idea of the Kiehl’s History Storybook came into play. The challenge was to create a high-quality piece of content to share Kiehl’s history and stories with customers to help build trust and credibility.
What was the solution?
BCF and GuyKat’s strategic partnership has led to a first-class eLearning experience that truly changes a person’s life.
GuyKat partnered with Kiehl’s to provide a comprehensive suite of services that included:
Bespoke Content Development:
GuyKat created an interactive and engaging video in the style of a handwritten diary that showed the brand’s rich history. The module featured gamification of learning about botanics and understanding the core values of Kiehl’s. It is now completed by all Skin Pros on Kiehl’s Academy as the very first course they take as part of their onboarding, which is their first introduction to the brand.
Enhanced UX/UI:
GuyKat created an easily accessible home page. The aim was to improve user engagement with a personalised learner experience to help elevate their digital education in all languages. Using key feedback from an original pilot, Kiehl’s incorporated insights into the new landing page, ensuring that users would not be deterred from completing any digital training and would feel engaged from the very start.
Translations:
Accessibility is super important when putting together a digital learning strategy. However, two, often interchanged, factors must be considered. It’s important to understand the needs of your audience, as well as any challenges they may be facing in the future. Therefore, GuyKat localised all Kiehl’s content and platform to accommodate the diverse linguistic needs of their global workforce.
Hands-on Admin:
Though providing ongoing support and comprehensive administrative training, GuyKat ensured that the Kiehl’s team were set up for long-term success. GuyKat optimised the extended enterprise, implemented any legal documents and translated graphics and copy into the website and app. This made the onboarding process for new markets quicker and easier. Since Kiehl’s Academy has grown exponentially, Kiehl’s receives 200 Reward Store requests each month. GuyKat now manages all Reward Store requests through the platform.
What was the impact?
The impact of Kiehl’s eLearning initiative has been significant.
Since its release, the Posttraumatic Growth in Practice (PTGIP) course has seen:
Since launching, 100% of users have completed their onboarding, which includes the Kiehl’s History Storybook and sustainability training.
100% of local Educators (Super Admins managing Kiehl’s Academy in their market) use Kiehl’s Academy to conduct training (virtual or blended learning).
On Earth Day, 100% of stores in Mexico shared how they were actively working towards a better future. This included volunteering in their community, reducing plastic waste, etc.
Through these initiatives, GuyKat helped Kiehl’s transform their eLearning vision into a functional and engaging platform that reflects the company’s heritage and values.
“Each one of GuyKat is a highly valuable, reliable, and trusted partner to us at Kiehl’s, and their close attention to detail, innovative creativity, and constant hard work is what makes them so different.”
Mia Kernaghan
Digital Education Specialist at Kiehl’s
