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We last spoke with Jean-Didier Allongue in 2021, but because of the leap forward his team and organization have made at Harry’s over the last three years, that conversation “might as well have been [in] 1996,” the senior director of store design says. Three years in Harry’s time, understandably, feels like forever. The brand that helped revolutionize the men’s grooming space in 2013—a name that many first encountered through podcast advertisements and direct-to-consumer sales—has evolved into Harry’s Inc., a multibrand CPG company.
Today, the Harry’s Inc. umbrella includes its namesake brand and women’s grooming brand Flamingo as well as Lume and Mando deodorants. Even as the company continues to rapidly scale, Allongue, who leads global store design for Harry’s and Flamingo, maintains a focus on meeting customers, new and old, wherever they are.
“We initially found our customer base through mediums like podcasts, and that has worked out great for us, but we also know that our customers wanted to see us at Target, Walmart, Kroger, CVS, and shopping outlets where they’re already going regularly,” Allongue says. “Our customers told us they wanted to find us on Amazon, so you will see us there as well.
“This organization is doing an incredible job of maintaining its messaging and branding across these new channels,” he continues. “We don’t differentiate our messaging for direct-to-consumer or our retail locations. We are who we are, but we’re meeting our customers where they are.”
During his ABQ interview, Jean-Didier Allongue donned a shirt from one of Harry’s longstanding social impact partners: Stop Soldier Suicide. The nonprofit, which focuses on the mental health of veterans and their families, is just one of the dozens of nonprofits Harry’s partners with. The social impact arm of Harry’s is a huge motivator for what Allongue loves about his job.
Harry’s works with organizations dedicated to supporting men’s mental health, including Black Men Health, Futures Without Violence, and The Trevor Project, to serve a diverse range of communities. To date, the brand has donated over $12,000,000 and helped connect over two million men to quality mental healthcare resources.
“My son thinks I work for the coolest company ever based on our mission to give back,” Allongue says. “It’s representative of the people and mission here. It makes me very proud.”
Achieving this consistency is no small feat. Allongue says the company was in a wildly different place the last time he spoke with ABQ: different team, goals, and direction. Over three years, the senior director says his store design team has successfully merged with the supply chain to form a single, cohesive group. The goal? To be a main disruptor in the grooming space by offering a best-in-class, second-to-none experience for customers across all Harry’s brands.
The now global store design team is currently planning its budget for 2025. But the real differentiator, Allongue says, is that when that process is complete, it stays in-house.
“Instead of handing those plans over to another group to execute, it stays with us until it’s finished,” the senior director explains. “That’s allowed us to mature and to become an active partner to the rest of the business. We get to act as an accelerant for company growth.”
When Allongue says, “The customer is our boss,” it could sound like a generic slogan, but his enthusiasm reveals it’s more than that. Allongue sounds giddy about what his team and brand have on the docket in the coming months. He’s clearly passionate about how Harry’s can catch a potential customer’s attention at an endcap display or midway through an aisle.
Allongue’s role spans multiple functions. He gets looped in early on discussions about new brands and products, new business in the US, Canada, or Europe, and special events.
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“Once that is planned, it’s our job to ensure that, at a deep level, everything is aligned to make that idea a success,” Allongue says. “Is our demand planning ready to go? Is our logistics team ready to support? That is part of why so much of our process now falls to one team. We’re trying to keep the process smooth, elevated, and cohesive.”
In ensuring both brand and retail partner success, Allongue aims to make relationships “side to side, not face-to-face.” That means going the extra mile to understand the intricacies of store layouts, price-point preferences, and logistical requirements. If Harry’s wants to completely disrupt the spaces it operates in, it needs to understand every detail. Blowing up a space you don’t fully understand is a recipe for disaster, and Allongue is too dedicated to his people and his mission to let that happen.
There are a lot of irons in the fire, though Allongue regrettably can’t reveal any specifics of upcoming projects yet. But the senior director was willing to drop a few breadcrumbs.
“You can be on the lookout for some amazing new products,” Allongue says. “And keep an eye out for an unexpected brand partner that I am so excited about. All I can say is that it will be beautiful, absolutely beautiful.”
Through Innomark’s longstanding partnership with Harry’s, we have had a unique opportunity to see how they have brought the Brand to life at Retail. We would like to congratulate Jean-Didier on this recent feature article and thank him for sharing his insights into how Harry’s strives to create a distinct and impactful retail experience on a recent podcast that our in-house agency, RWOB produced.
