In recent years we’ve seen the beauty industry successfully navigate the eCommerce gauntlet of technological innovations, social media updates, digital marketing trends and changes in consumer behaviour.In a mobile-first era with evolving demographics and the increased use of social media, we’ve witnessed the birth of the ‘well-informed consumer’. Customers are now more likely to carefully read ingredients or notice if there is an excessive use of packaging and are happy to take to social media to air out their frustrations. Show
But with a personal product that’s steeped in the sensory realms of touch and smell, how has the beauty industry finally managed to gain consumer trust to persuade customers to buy online? Word of mouth: Social mediaAs mobile devices drive the majority of global internet traffic, social media platforms are now conversational hubs where product information and experiences are shared between consumers. In particular for the beauty industry, social media platforms are key to engaging customers with brand content to increase sales.
Along with targeted social ads, marketers now communicate their core values, develop their ‘social tone-of-voice’ and engage with customers using stories that connect with followers on a personal level to instil confidence and provide product knowledge. Brands such as L’Oréal, Sephora, Lancôme and Maybelline regularly post tips on how to use their products with multiple images or videos, launch mini-campaigns, incorporate editorial content and publish exclusive ‘social media only’ competitions to stimulate engagement and increase their user base. But digital-savvy consumers – especially younger millennials – have grown up consuming digital media and are used to being sold to. Beauty brands have learned to turn the old-school approach of social media marketing on its head to be more relatable to their followers.
A flat lay is a common composition used by fashion and beauty brands on social media platforms In China, online retailers Tmall, JD.com and Yihaodian are the leading outlets for online beauty purchases and ‘hyper-social’ Chinese consumers rely heavily on reviews on social media platforms before purchasing. They’re also prone to paying more attention to the content in reviews – as well as celebrity endorsements – rather than star ratings on reviews. Chinese consumers are also confident mobile shoppers and frequently purchase beauty products on social platforms like WeChat and Weibo. Winning the social media game with the best reviews for a native or international beauty brand is vital for success in the Chinese market. Beauty brands also use their posts to drive conversations about their products and services and continually stay part of the conversion to become the authority of their products and their brand.
Responding to a positive experience or answering a customer’s product query with a redirect to the product page, are just a few examples of how beauty brands have been able to naturally engage with their followers. In addition, turning a customer complaint on social media into a positive experience by continuing the conversation by email or phone – with a dedicated customer care representative – has become common practice. Taking these conversations away from social media platforms allow beauty brands to increase customer loyalty and keep large volumes of publicly visible negative comments at bay. InfluencersSocial media influencers and micro-influencers are now the key to customer purchase decisions for beauty products online and are notably popular with mobile-first millennials. RELATED: The Power of the Micro-Influencer YouTube is an incubator of beauty experts and these influencers are considerably more relatable to their audience than brands who use well-known celebrities – some influencers are even considered experts within their field.
Viewers are able to see the product being used on a real person which is, of course, the most important aspect of these influencer videos. Not to mention the fact there is now an abundance of choice with content featuring a wide range of products including makeup, skincare and haircare. Popular vloggers such as Fleur DeForce and the Chapman sisters (Pixiwoo) both produce high-quality detailed makeup tutorials, product reviews and have subscribers in the millions making it a perfect opportunity for beauty brands to nurture third-party partnerships.
But research suggests that the power of influencers with millions of followers seems to be waning – engagement rates get significantly lower after a million followers. A mixture of social media bot followers and genuine followers seeing through disingenuous endorsements seem to be the main reasons for the lack of engagement. Realising this, beauty brands have taken a leap of faith and are either handing over the reins of content solely to the content creators (L’Oréal) or turning to micro-influencers who have considerably higher engagement rates but fewer followers. Instagram has grown quickly to be one of the most important platforms for influencer marketing, with 92% of marketers in a study by Linqia naming it as their top media of choice.
Micro-influencers have also been used to tackle the delicate issue of diversity and representation within beauty brand advertising. Maybelline launched its new 16-colour pallet Fit Me Foundation Collection which included 4 shades for darker skin tones in the US. RELATED: The Power of the Micro-Influencer Teaming up with micro-influencers such as Jackie Aina, Maybelline was able to diversify part of their marketing campaign and directly market to African-American customers in the US which makes the brand and its product more sellable to a wider audience. Jackie Aina also teamed up with Too Faced to expand their Born This Way foundation range to be more inclusive of deeper skin tones, following the influencer’s comments about how the range needed more options. Bringing Aina onto the team was a way to communicate to the public, especially Aina’s loyal audience, that the company was determined to improve. Overall the continued use of influencers and trust in content creators has helped to put a more personal and informal touch to how consumers and beauty brands interact. Putting a relatable human face behind a brand helps beauty companies build genuine relationships with their target audiences, which would be much more difficult to achieve with traditional marketing practices alone. Pureplay retailersTraditional brick-and-mortar beauty retailers have successfully adopted new technology to enhance the in-store experience and develop omnichannel marketing strategies to optimise their eCommerce platforms. But the success of Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Singles Day, has undoubtedly led online marketplaces to thrive and these platforms have been able to continue to court their customers due to business models heavily focused on data and personalisation.
Alibaba’s Tmall.com allowed brands to set-up different product, image and promotion combinations for different demographics using tags within the Tmall platform ahead of the last years Single’s Day and is now dedicated to optimising the site to improve its personalisation strategies. Pureplay retailers are have not only been able to adopt the latest technology to disrupt the retail industry, they’ve also allowed retailers to easily market their products to consumers around the globe. Western brands have also latched onto the growth opportunity in China. Sales of Estée Lauder and Clinique on Tmall more than doubled in 2016 from the previous year and L’Oréal reported that eCommerce sales made up 8.8% of all revenues in the first quarter of 2017. We also can’t forget the online craze for the beauty subscription box which led to brands such as FeelUnique and Ipsy creating their own eCommerce platforms.
Ipsy reached 2.5M subscribers in 2017 and continues to be a major player in subscription boxes, despite a recent dip in popularity. Cofounder Michelle Phan understood the power of the influencer community and nurtured relationships with content creators to promote the products, offering influencers studio spaces and tax advice. Long-standing luxury beauty brands have been prompted to keep up with their younger online counterparts to optimise their digital marketing strategies, including data-driven personalisation and competitive delivery and returns options. This has ultimately benefited both the customer and the online beauty market as a whole. Micro-influencer marketing and social media are continuing to drive brand marketing into 2017 for the beauty industry. With both Sephora and L’Oréal producing multiple beauty apps with a focus on social commerce, it will be interesting to see how these developments will affect the relationship between customers and beauty brands in the future. Which two are among the reasons that consumers typically shop and buy online?There are six reasons consumers shop and buy online. They are convenience, choice, customization, communication, cost, and control. Marketers have capitalized on these reasons through a variety of means.
What does personalization mean in the context of interactive marketing?Personalization is the process of keeping in mind the needs and preferences of your audience so that you market the right product and experience to the right person at the right time. By doing this, you stand a better chance of making customers feel heard, having more meaningful interaction and nudging them to convert.
What is one of the seven Web design elements that drive the customer experience?Marketers produce a customer experience through seven Web site design elements: (1) context; (2) content; (3) __________; (4) customization; (5) communication; (6) connection; and (7) commerce. A visitor to schoolpop.com, an online retailer of school supplies, will notice that it contains little text, sound, video.
What is the practice of not only customizing a product but also personalizing the marketing and overall shopping and buying interaction for each customer?A: Customerization: growing practice of not only customizing a product or service but also personalizing the marketing and overall shopping and buying interaction for each customer.
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