The Power of Presentation
Let us tell your amazing brand story.
Prep People
Your people are the face of your business. The way they present themselves speaks volumes about your company’s culture, character and values.
Prep People help businesses strengthen and cultivate their image through their most important asset – their people.
Our grooming and personal presentation programs are individually tailored to each business and their requirements.
WHO WE ARE
A history of excellence
Prep People was founded in 2002 by Laurel Brown, an exceptional Hair and makeup artist who trained in London in the early 90’s and whose career has spanned more than 30 years working globally in television, Film, Fashion, Advertising and professional learning and development.
Her credits and projects span from consulting to cosmetic Giants including Christian Dior, Make Up For Ever, Benefit Cosmetics, Laura Mercier and Rimmel London, to providing makeup and hair services for award winning advertising campaigns, including Sony, Qantas, Commonwealth Bank, Telstra, Levis, Schick, and for Films and Netflix shows and television networks such as ABC, Network 10, Fox sports, Optus Sports and many Television productions.
Today, through Prep People, Laurel and her leading team of consultants, make-up artists, hair and fashion stylists offer the highest quality services to organisations and individuals.
What We Do
Prep People provide consultative advice, training and support in personal presentation, grooming and brand awareness.
Our Clients are customer-centric global organisations across a range of industries from hospitality to aviation, retail, and the service sector.
Our interactive workshops and seminars offer a secure environment where frontline customer service teams learn:
- How their presentation impacts the customer experience,
- Best practice skills in skincare, makeup application, hairstyling and other grooming components,
- Brand awareness and how to present to align with brand values.
Our suite of online training serves to inspire and motivate participants, and also impart inside tips and techniques for best practice tailored skill development.
The result is your customer facing team capable, confident and consistent, aligning perfectly with brand and customer expectations…… head and shoulders above the competition.
Our Services Include:
Great trainers with fabulous attitudes.
So helpful and friendly. Very good techniques with individual assistance.
Testimonials and Case Studies
To-date the Prep People team have helped more than 16,000 customer facing personnel from some of the worlds most recognizable brands achieve excellence in personal presentation.
Qantas sets the standard
Prep People works with Qantas on grooming standards for a consistent and professional image, training over 5000 existing and new cabin crew and ground staff between 2003 and 2015.
In 2003 Qantas launched a new uniform and look for its Cabin and Ground Crew. Prep People was engaged to establish grooming standards that complement the new uniforms and enhance the presentation of staff while adhering to relevant safety standards and regulatory requirements.
“We selected Prep People because we wanted to ensure our people acquired the grooming competencies and aptitudes necessary to present themselves in a way which reflected our brand message of customer service excellence” Julie Lamberg-Burnett, Manager Service Standards – Inflight
After extensive research and consultation with Qantas, Prep People designed a colour palette of suitable makeup options as well as several hairstyles which not only enhanced the new uniform but helped new recruits represent the Qantas brand through a consistent and professional image. These new standards were delivered to Cabin Crew through a series of intensive interactive workshops.
We also deliver this training to specialist groundstaff providing critical skills and information in skincare, makeup selection and application, hair care and styling, hand and nail grooming, shaving best practice and general grooming advice. We trained over 1500 frontline Qantas personnel in interactive sessions across all major Australian capitol cities, and helped Qantas maintain a brand image that is professional, friendly and immaculately presented.
“The services have been exceptionally well received by all participants. Prep People have exceeded our expectations in all respects” John Mills, Qantas Training Manager.
A new image update for Qantas
In 2013 Qantas produced a new uniform for our combined customer experience team.
We enlisted Prep People to help us communicate the new “look” to our people. Prep People were a natural choice – they helped us communicate our last uniform back in 2004, and continue to work closely with us delivering training in image and presentation to our cabin crew as part of their induction training – they know our brand!
As part of the communication of the new Uniform, and updated image and presentation policy, Prep People designed and delivered programs which covered:
- “Managing Image and Presentation” a program for managers to help them prepare for the change. This program included a component of “having difficult conversations”, for successful and positive outcomes and helped us reach our objective of 100% compliance on day one.
- Communicating the new look to our customer experience team – particularly those parts of the business, which had not been supported with I&P training on this level to-date. The training objective was to raise the standard of Image and Presentation in areas such as the ground staff team, lounges and Freight so that the transition to the new uniform was seamless across the whole Customer experience team. Some areas of the Freight business had recently been acquired and this training, which included a brand component, helped to make the transition for those team members smooth and easy.
- Prep People also provided hair and makeup artists to ensure our team looked 100% on brand when they performed at various PR and media events as part of a soft launch for the Uniform.
“The Uniform project was an overwhelming success and Prep People were a vital part in helping make the change for Qantas. Laurels experience, attention to detail, genuine style of delivery and solutions based approach made her an indispensible member of the team. We always knew our needs were number one priority for Prep People and we would not hesitate to recommend them to any company seeking help with appearance.” Katya Noble – Head of Uniform project 2013
Qantas First Class Lounges Case Study
You may have seen recent articles announcing the exciting new Qantas First Class Lounges that are opening soon in Sydney and Melbourne. These new lounges represent a significant investment by Qantas in their premium service offerings to First Class customers and have been designed by renowned London based industrial designer, Marc Newson.
To ensure that the Qantas hosts make a visual impression that is consistent with these exceptional standards, we are delighted to announce that Qantas has engaged Prep People to develop specific grooming designs and provide expert instruction and support to all Qantas hosts during March and April 2007.
Dior styles their customers
When luxury cosmetics giant Dior developed the ‘Dior Makeup specialist’ team, a team of Make-up artists who travel Australia promoting specialist products in department stores, they engaged Prep People to provide training in the latest make-up styles and techniques, and to teach them how to translate those fashions into wearable designs for their customers.
Prep People provided ongoing specialist training to Dior on the latest techniques and styles along with innovative ways in which to use their new products as they arrive onto the Australian market.
The results have been extremely successful. The Dior make-up specialists are renowned for their expertise in luxury and high fashion make-up and tailoring the latest fashion techniques to suit their customers, helping to make Dior the leading luxury cosmetics house in Australia today.
Prep People understands the constantly evolving creative trends in this business and can communicate them simply and effectively. Dior would recommend Prep People to any business wishing to be at the forefront of design.” Belinda Bessant, Training Manager, Dior.
Makeup For Ever Case Study
Make Up For Ever is the make-up for professional makeup artists now available for consumers too. This Paris based LVMH owned brand which was initially distributed here in Australia by Trimex, has the largest, most comprehensive range of make-up products on the market from high fashion eye pigments to bruising kits, blood and latex foam for SPFX and beards.
Due to their expertise and experience, Prep People were engaged to provide training to all customer service and sales representatives when the brand was launched into the Australian market in 2003.
The object was to gain exposure for the brand by applying makeup-up in creative ways to as many people as possible. It required an intimate knowledge of the product range and their respective qualities as well as industry best practice technically.
“We engaged Prep People because of their exceptional technical skills, broad industry experience, and strong communication skills. They have the skill of being able to communicate complex ideas simply and effectively”.
I would recommend them to any brand needing in-depth technical make-up skills, and product experience combined with effective hands-on training – they proved to be outstanding facilitators.” Charlotte Turner – National Training Manager, Trimex
Nespresso Case Study
Luxury coffee retailer Nespresso entrusts Laurel and the team to spruce up Boutique Coffee Specialists appearance.
This entailed bespoke hair and makeup designs, a nationwide roadshow delivering hands on grooming workshops for all the Nespresso Boutique personnel and the development of a series of online training made available to the Nespresso boutique teams to ensure skills are upheld and motivation levels remain high.
“It is a pleasure to work with Nespresso, they stand proud as an industry leader with a bright future. We were able to facilitate their people in developing grooming skills so that they present as a consistent, polished team which goes hand in hand with their superior customer service and luxe boutique surroundings” says Laurel from Prep People.
Trimex (Clarins Group) Case Study Early 2000’s
When Trimex launched Laura Mercier products into the Australin market they needed to ensure that their in-store make-up artist could employ Laura Mercier’s unique and complex application techniques in effective customer demonstrations. To ensure that this was achieved Trimex engaged Prep People to provide a series of training sessions.
“The challenge was being faithful to Laura Mercier’s patented and advanced techniques, while at the same time, making these skills accessible to make-up artists at all levels and capable of replication in a retail environment.” Laurel Brown, Principal, Prep People.
The training was so successful that Laurel was invited to lead a national road show.
“Laurel is a gifted facilitator who is highly skilled at communicating complicated skills in a way that enables people to try them for themselves. We have a team with a mixed bag of make-up expertise and she ensured that everyone walked away with more skills and greater confidence. “ Charlotte Turner, National Training Manager, Trimex.
Serco Case Study
Global service giant Serco enlisted Prep People to help raise the service standards of the crews on the “The Ghan” regarded as one of the world’s greatest train journeys.
Prep People designed hair and makeup to work with uniform and safety policy’s and delivered hands-on workshops to crew members. This involved finding solutions to the unique service challenges of the environment off an onboard the train.
Sydney Hilton opens in style
The internationally renowned Sydney Hilton Hotel went through an almost total re-build in 2005, which involved the recruitment and training of approximately 3000 staff. Prep People’s brief was to create several grooming standards and styles for Hilton’s many front line personnel to project an image of style and professionalism in line with the hotel’s luxurious new refurbishments.
Through careful consultation, Prep People developed a style solution that complemented the numerous uniform variations in each department. Hair and make-up styles and palettes were designed for the reception and welcome area, café, bars and restaurants, and events and conferences staff, ensuring consistent and stylish presentation at all of the hotel’s interactions with its guests.
The grooming standards and designs were rolled out to all front line personnel through training sessions conducted by Prep Peopleimmediately after the opening of the new hotel in October 2005. This attention to presentation helps the hotel maintain an image of style and luxury in what is a highly competitive service industry.
“We would recommend Prep People to any organisation that not only wants its personnel to understand the connection between the organisation’s brand and the appearance of people who represent it, but also needs its people to acquire the skills and motivation necessary to carry this out.” Elegy Ruddick, Assistant HR Director, Hilton Hotel – Sydney.
Sydney Westin invests in all customer touch points
In recognition of the value placed by the Westin Hotel – Sydney in its premium brand, it engaged Prep People in 2005 to develop more comprehensive grooming standards across all customer touch points in the hotel from the concierge out front to the chef in the kitchen. Prep People developed these standards and delivered them to the Westin’s personnel through a series of informational seminars.
“It was a challenging assignment because of the variety of roles and numbers of personnel involved. The focus was on communicating the Westin’s high expectations to people of different backgrounds in a way that was engaging and motivational.” Laurel Brown, seminar presenter and Principal, Prep People.
The seminars were very well attended and had immediate benefits.
“The Westin Hotel brand stands for exceptional customer service and exceptional customer service requires ongoing commitment to detail. The grooming seminars were undertaken by us in recognition that how well our people are groomed not only directly impacts upon the customer perception but also has the power to affect the attitude of our people in performing their respective their duties. The training sessions were effective because they were not only informed our people of the required standards [for grooming], but also reminded our people that we are all brand stewards.” Kathy Webb, the Westin.
“We found that her techniques for grooming, tips and recommendations were specifically suited to our needs, extremely well delivered so that we were able to comprehend and digest the information easily, and the feedback from participants was very positive indeed. The result was a more motivated team who now takes more care in their presentation. Thank you Laurel for a most beneficial series of training sessions.”
Testimonials from PrepPeople Workshop Participants
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