2019-05-21 Shama Hyder

How To Reach The Connected Consumer In

The Beauty And Cosmetic Space

Getty

For a new company, trying to break into the beauty and cosmetic
industry is not always pretty.

For one thing, the space is crowded—new brands are being created
every day. For another, customers aren’t always eager to give up long-
time brand loyalties and try something new.

What this means is that beauty brands that want to reach today’s
consumer—the connected consumer—must have a deep
understanding of what these consumers value, and how those values
translate into not only the products, but the story that these beauty
brands are telling.

Here are 4 practices every beauty brand must adopt in order to reach
the connected consumer.

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When it comes to social media, up your transparency factor.

For beauty brands, image-based social platforms like Instagram and

Pinterest are—unsurprisingly—hugely important.

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Your customers want to see your products in action, so images and

video of those products and their application are key to building your
online following. However, remember that the connected consumer
also craves something else: authenticity and transparency.

This is part of why today’s consumers, especially Millennials, trust

regular people over celebrities or models. With that in mind, brand
managers in the beauty space should take a good look at their
company’s social media pro les to see what kind of images they’re
projecting.

Are diverse types of people represented in those images? Are they out in
the world, going about their lives, or cooped up in a studio, looking
utterly perfect? Are there typical, everyday users that your customers
can see themselves in?

Every brand will have somewhat di erent needs in this area, of course,
and it’s no secret that the beauty industry has always been—and
continues to be—an aspirational one. Balancing that aspirational
aspect with the authenticity that the connected consumer demands will
look di erent from brand to brand, but the balancing act itself is a
constant.

Invest heavily in in uencer relationships.

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In the beauty industry, in uencers are a key component of e ectively

reaching the connected consumer.

Even though some achieve “Insta-fame,” boasting millions of

followers and a seemingly glamorous lifestyle, most in uencers still
qualify as the “regular people” that connected consumers would
almost always rather listen to.

Take the beauty startup Glossier, an online-only cosmetics company

that surpassed $100 million in revenue in 2018. The company not only
partners with in uencers—it was started by an in uencer and beauty
blogger, Emily Weiss, who focused on conversations with real women
about their real beauty routines.

Bridge the online and o ine shopping experiences.

Even though the popular image of the connected consumer is one of a

Millennial scrolling endlessly on their phone, connected consumers do
still desire a hands-on shopping experience.

It’s a hallmark of the connected consumer’s purchase journey, which

today is much more complex than the simple A to C path that generally
existed before the internet.

As we discovered through our research into the connected consumer,

connected consumers often begin their purchase journey online by
researching a product, often creating documents or systems for
keeping track of and organizing their options. If the opportunity is
available, they’ll often visit a store to try a product out, or to pick up a
product they purchased online.

Beauty brands can take advantage of this need by implementing

experiential marketing tactics, like pop-up events that allow
consumers to try out their products or get free one-on-one styling
advice.

This is what we did for Chase for Business—we launched the Chase
BizMobile, a high-tech mobile van that small business owners could
visit for one-on-one social media consultations with Zen Media’s
marketing experts. This idea could easily be translated for the beauty
industry.

Streamline the try-out and purchase experience.

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Perhaps one of the most interesting paradoxes of the connected

consumer is that they wield unprecedented amounts of power when it
comes to their purchasing choices—and yet, that same power is also
paralyzing.

We heard from consumers during our research that they often felt
worry that they were not making the right choice when it came to the
brands they ended up purchasing from. Some took it even farther,
worrying that they were not making the best possible choice.

To help ease this anxiety, beauty brands can streamline their

purchasing experiences by o ering “try-before-you-buy” options,
free shipping, and free returns.

Companies like the eyeglasses retailer Warby Parker have perfected the
try-before-you-buy model, shipping frames to customers so they can
try a variety before choosing. They support this part of the consumer
experience by encouraging consumers to Instagram sel es in their
Warby Parker glasses using a branded hashtag.

While glasses are not the same as, say, lipstick or hair conditioner, the
concept holds true. Beauty companies that make samples available or
that allow users to upload pictures of themselves to virtually “try on”
di erent shades of makeup, will get much farther with the connected
consumer than those that remain wedded to the old retail models.

Reaching the connected consumer in the beauty industry means

embracing transparency, in uencer relationships, the consumers’
desire for hands-on product experience, and the need for power and
convenience. For more on reaching the connected consumer—in every
industry—download our report Marketing to Gods: The De nitive
Guide to Reaching, Engaging, and Retaining the Modern, Empowered
Consumer.

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