I’m shifting gears. If you’ve spent anytime on my blog, you know that I am blogging endlessly about beauty products, cosmetics and beauty treatments. Today I want talk about the retail beauty industry & influencers.
Advertising and Marketing in the Beauty Industry is Quickly Changing
The days of Cover Girl commercials are pretty much over. With everyone transitioning their lives from satellite to streaming services we are seeing less and less of the commercials we used to see all the time. Glossy gorgeous printed magazine ads? I mean; the only time I ever even see magazines is when I’m in a waiting room. And even then, do I pick one up? Not likely. Instead of flipping through beauty and cosmetics ads in those worn out magazines, I’m probably going to stick to scrolling through my phone. It’s just not wise for beauty brands to throw their advertising and marketing budgets at print or TV anymore.
Beauty Brands are Using Influencers More Than Ever
If they aren’t spending on TV or print ads like they once did, where is their money going? Influencers. You know exactly what I’m talking about; your favorite IG accounts are posting #ad more than ever before. Did you know that Estee Lauder announced last year that they were using 75% of their marketing budget on influencer partnerships? Instead of throwing money into their creative team to develop a 30 second TV ad or a glossy magazine ad with a gorgeous celebrity Estee Lauder is going to be partnering with influencers. Now Estee Lauder doesn’t even have to spend time creating the content, the influencers will do that for them. Professional makeup artist like Ceclia Katz get paid to produce content and with her 60k YouTube subscribers she’s an ideal partner for any beauty brand.
Beauty Retailers are Beating Department Stores
I read this super interesting article on CNBC: How department stores lost their clout in the beauty industry to Ulta, e-commerce and influencers and It’s spot on. Stores like Sephora & Ulta are attracting more and more business from consumers by continuing to score exclusive partnerships with the top brands. Plus, when I think of Sephora & Ulta I instantly feel warm and fuzzy because of their great rewards plans. Department stores don’t typically offer rewards points or big incentives unless you have that stores credit card. With Sephora & Ulta, you can sign up for their rewards programs without committing to another plastic.
The Beauty Industry is Always Changing
We all have the trends we watch, the trends we follow. Even the trends we loathe. With consumers being more and more confident in their desires, the beauty brands need to keep up. Keeping up means the brand are now following the consumer more then ever before. Long gone are the days of the beauty brands driving consumer spending; the consumers are now driving the brands spending.
What do you think?
Are you on board with Influencers being the majority of beauty brands marketing budgets? I think I am. Most of the Influencers that I follow; even though they are typically being paid to post about the products they will give their honest opinions. I’ve gotten comfortable with my favorite influencers. Some of them feel like ‘old friends’ to me and I trust their words more than I trust the words a celebrity is reading off of a prompt screen at the TV commercial shoot. I know for me personally, I will only agree to work with brands that I am genuine interested in and I let them know up front that I will only post honest genuine personal opinions and feedback.