German heritage brand Babor launched a medical professionals–only line in late April, previously only available in Europe. The introduction signifies one of many new approaches to the brand’s expansion in the US market.
The 70-year-old Babor has been in the US since the 1990s, but has long focused on luxury hotel amenities and spas. Now, with the US launch of Doctor Babor Pro, which debuted in Europe in September 2025, the brand is expanding its focus to professional medical clinics. The launch of Babor Pro comes amid a broader maturation of the brand’s US strategy, including doubling down on content creators and investing in generative engine optimization to ensure the brand appears more often in prompt results from large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini.
Babor’s Pro product suite differs from its cosmeceutical Doctor Babor Spa line in formulation, intended use, and distribution channels. The Pro line was created for use in medical and clinical environments to complement more intensive in‑office procedures, such as microneedling, lasers, and chemical peels, than commonly available at its spas, and each formulation is indication specific. Pro includes a cleanser, an overnight acid peel, seven serums, and a calming sheet mask, among other products, all of which are exclusive to dermatologists, surgical clinics, and aesthetician clinics. Doctor Babor Pro also offers product protocols for pre- and post treatment for several common services, such as microneedling. The brand’s median US customer age is 38.
As of 2020, Babor surpassed $250 million in annual sales, according to CEW. The brand declined to share updated sales figures, but said in an email that the US market specifically generated approximately $35 million in sales. The US currently accounts for 17% of global sales, with US sales expected to grow 15%-20% in 2026, said Tim Saunier, CEO and President of Babor North America. Furthermore, expected sales growth across the Americas (Canada, the US, and Mexico) could account for 30%-40% of global sales over the next five years, he added.
“There are three ways to be successful in North America. You can be a direct-to-consumer brand, which means focusing on performance marketing. Retail means you have to invest massively in [broader] marketing. And then there's the professional channel,” said Saunier. “This is a strategy shift [for Babor].... We realized over the last 10 years that the channel is totally developing into this [medical] direction.”
Indeed, there are 10,000 medical spas in the US as of 2025, and, according to the American Med Spa Association, the US medspa industry is valued at $17 billion and growing by about $1 billion annually. And with this explosion in locations and services comes the opportunity to sell more products in the professional channel. Fifty percent of physicians report generating more than 10% of their total revenue from skincare retailing, according to a 2025 Kline report.
To support its ambitions, Babor has doubled its full-time field team to support the Pro expansion, and Saunier said it will probably double again in the next 12 months. He added that major accounts expect to meet with a field rep at least once a month. Babor plans to add 20 new office or spa locations per month over the next year and to increase its presence in dermatology by publishing clinical studies in journals such as the Journal of Drugs in Dermatology.
“The medical channel works so well for us, because our ambassadors are doctors, and it works for us from an [educational] perspective,” said Mirja Rousselle, VP of Global Marketing.
Outside the medical realm, Babor has also sought to beef up its product education focus over the past three years, which, in turn, will help optimize its generative engine. Since 2023, Babor has run an ongoing global marketing campaign called My Skin My Story, which spotlights true stories from around the world, including those of people, like model Devon Windsor, who have overcome skin challenges using Babor products.
Today, Babor sends 2,000 products a month to content creators on Instagram and TikTok for affiliate marketing and to solicit product reviews on its website and on Amazon. Saunier said that Babor has invested more in content creators over the past three years, with 50% of the US marketing budget now going to them.
“The best-performing [social media] assets are always the ones that come from real people, so that's why we shifted the budget,” he said.
But the additional reviews and online chatter help bolster Babor’s position in prompt results from LLMs, the latest marketing arms race within the beauty industry. In data from 12,000 relevant searches conducted by Quilt.AI, the top skincare brands appearing in US-based LLM searches were the dermatological brands Paula’s Choice, CeraVe, and La Roche-Posay.
For its part, Babor has invested in public relations and now publishes one skincare-related article on its website every day because LLMs look to see how much credibility a brand or product has, said Saunier.
“When you search for what is the best medical-grade skincare brand, [we want people to see] Babor. Smaller brands like us need to make sure we have a lot of content that talks about our superior performance,” he concluded.