Makeup Lovers Marketing Makeup

FYI: Makeup Alley is a social networking site popular amongst makeup lovers. It was established in 1999 and has since grown into one of the largest websites for the beauty community.

What’s in the Alley?: Makeup Alley is mostly used for skincare and cosmetic product reviews. According to this website there are over 1 million users, and over 2 million product reviews of over 100,000 different products. Because Makeup Alley was so popular, they began regularly posting on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and even Google+. They promote the latest trending beauty products and sometimes reveal sneak peeks of cosmetic collections. Their Facebook page features #MUADupeDay which shows inexpensive duplicates for high-end makeup products. They also post DIYs and How-Tos, and polls on their Facebook page.

Why Is This So Important?: This is free advertising beauty companies. If a makeup lover and avid Makeup Alley user gets her hands on a great product, then they will give it an amazing review online. Consumers are more likely to trust other consumers rather than marketing directly from a company. Instead of trusting beauty gurus who accept money and free products from makeup companies, Makeup Alley users are spending their own money on these products, and posting unbiased reviews. This sense of relatability and trust makes consumers more likely to buy makeup they saw endorsed by an average makeup user, just like trusting a sister, best friend, or neighbor’s opinion. This is uncontrolled marketing though, and bad products are relentlessly ripped apart in reviews on Makeup Alley.

Heard It Through The (Grape)Vine

FYI: Vine is one of the most recent popular social media websites. It allows users to film 6 seconds of video that will loop continuously. Started in 2012, Vine now has 40 million active users. According to this website, Vine is the fastest growing application ever. Vines can be shared on Vine (re-vined), or shared through Facebook and Twitter. Some Vine users also upload Vines to YouTube.

 Who is on Vine?: There have been a lot of companies that have realized the potential marketing opportunity in Vine. McDonalds, Xbox, Taco Bell, and General Electric are all companies that have used Vine for their marketing.

So Trendy: Fashion is one of the top 5 industries that use Vine as part of their marketing strategy. Clothing brand French Connection has become popular on Vine for their stop-motion videos of outfits and accessories. Now makeup brands are using Vine to market their products. According to this website, Burberry uses Vine to give consumers sneak peeks into backstage at runways and photoshoots. Rebecca Minkoff has used Vine to share a how-to video of an Essie nail polish look. Tory Burch used Vine during New York Fashion Week to share quick makeup tutorials on their runway models, and even used the hashtag #NYFW for users to easily find videos.

Vine Tips:

Use hashtags- Use preexisting hashtags popular within the beauty industry like #ManiMonday or #OOTD, or make up your own hashtags for users to follow.

Create how-to videos- Six second how-to videos are perfect for this generation’s short attention span and can easily show consumers how to use the company’s product.

Be creative- The more creative and funny Vines are to to get re-vined, shared, and talked about: Great word-of-mouth marketing.

Promote Vine across all social media channels- Vines don’t have to stay just within the app. Share Vines on Twitter and Facebook too!

Update frequently, especially on the weekend- Weekends are when the most people share Vines

Create seamless loops- Seamless loops have users watching Vines over and over again.

Keep it simple- Don’t try to cram too much into a six second video. Simple yet creative Vines are more successful.

Fun Fact: A branded Vine is 4 times more likely to be seen and shared than a branded video. So keep on Vining!

Three Second Marketing

FYI: Snapchat is an app where users can share photos or videos for up to ten seconds. After the photo or video is viewed once, it disappears and cannot be seen again. One loophole is screen-shots of the photos, but the sender is notified if the receiver screen-shots the photo. Snapchat now has over 100 million active users who send over 400 million photos daily. Roughly 70% of Snapchat users are women according to this website, and 33% of the US’s 18-34 year olds are Snapchat users. Only 1% of companies are using Snapchat for marketing purposes, which shows a great room for growth.

Who’s Using It?: Some companies have begun to see the marketing potential in Snapchat, including Taco Bell and Karmaloop. High-end makeup company NARS cosmetics has recently turned to Snapchat to create a big buzz on their latest collection from Guy Bourdin. NARS announced on their Twitter page “Follow @NARSissist on Snapchat to peep the upcoming NARS Guy Bourdin collection at 12PM EST today.”

Why Snapchat?: Snapchat content is easy, quick, and cheap to produce. Because the media will only be seen on a small phone screen, or possibly an ipad, the quality doesn’t have to be perfect. Snapchat can also feel exclusive, because only the users who follow NARS on Snapchat can ever see their content.

Why Not Snapchat?: Content must be filmed from a device that can run the Snapchat app, it cannot be uploaded from the camera roll. This means no professional quality of an expensive camera. Content also must be filmed in one take, so it cannot be edited together. The content also cannot be shared after it disappears, so it loses the possibility of viral marketing. There is no pass-it-on element to Snapchat, but it can still create some word-of-mouth marketing. One big downside of the Snapchat app is that there is no “select all” option to send out content. This means some poor employee has to check every single user that follows NARS to send out the content.

Success: NARS seemed to have created a big buzz for their new makeup collection just by marketing through Snapchat. One NARS consumer said that the NARS Snapchat sneak-peak was “the best 3 seconds of the day.”

Who Says You Can’t Teach an Old Dog New Tricks?

FYI: Estée Lauder is a high-end makeup company that was founded in 1946. Starting with just four products in 1946, the company significantly grew into the billion-dollar company that it is today in 2014. Estée Lauder also has created the Clinique brand, acquired Smashbox Cosmetics, and is in the works of developing a Tory Burch Fragrance. Estée Lauder also owns many more brands including Aveda, Bobbi Brown, Bumble and Bumble, and M.A.C cosmetics.

The Old Dog: The 68 year-old cosmetic brand targets 35-55 year old women. With subtle color palettes and simple ads, Estée Lauder isn’t the most exciting brand in the makeup industry. But with their latest use of social media platforms, Estée Lauder is showing customers their new fresh face.

The New Tricks: Estée has been stepping up in the social media game to attract their target market of older women, as well as younger consumers. They have been very active on all popular social media platforms attempting to revitalize their image.

In 2009, Estée Lauder provided free makeovers to women (and men) who wanted to improve their profile pictures on social media websites. After the makeover were complete, a professional photographer took photos of the women to post online to vamp up their social media presence. The makeup artists used different palettes to suit the social media platform: conservative for LinkedIn, casual for Facebook, and more colorful for dating websites. The backdrop for these photos has the Estée Lauder name on it which was great free marketing for the brand.

Estée Lauder used to seem like a bland brand with simple and subdued color palettes and packaging, but has recently been showing off its playful side. Estée has changed its simple packing to a bold, yet sophisticated look that they are showing off on Instagram daily. They have seemed to perfect their social media game by posting daily on Instagram. An Estée Lauder representative said that photos with more props and products do better on Instagram. Their instragram frequently uses hashtags to attract more users. They use pre-existing popular hashtags like #OOTD and #ManiMonday, as well as making their own hashtags like #TomsTipTuesday, which features tips from Tom Pecheux, a professional makeup artist. Estée also uses #FanFriday, where fans post their own photos of their Estée Lauder products, and the best photos are featured on Estée Lauder’s Instagram.

Along with posting daily on Instragram, they also have been frequently updating their Facebook. Lauder also posts daily photos on Facebook, these photos feature less props and products than their Instagam posts. Facebook appeals more to the company’s age range than Instagram does, with an increasing number of 30-50 year olds joining the Facebook community.

Estée Lauder has also been moving into the YouTube community by creating sponsorships with famous YouTubers. Their latest partnership is with Chriselle Lim, a 26 year-old fashion blogger and makeup guru on YouTube. Chriselle has a fresh, yet sophisticated style that perfectly represents Estée’s polished and prim reputation.

So who says you can’t teach an old dog new tricks? Estée Lauder is a great example of a more mature company that is successfully moving into the next era of social media marketing.