I often think about social responsibility and how brands can stand out these days. I firmly believe that instead of governments, the private sector should be the main driver of social change (a combination of doing good and doing well). Social media enables people to share their opinions and advocate. Brands are trying to figure out how to use social media in order to create meaningful conversations. These conversations will be created, shared and multiplied if they are rooted in causes that are relevant and dear to their fans/advocates (shall we no longer call them customers or consumers?). 

So I was very glad that at the recent WWD CEO Summit (May 2010) there was a panel discussion about digital marketing that brought up the concept of relevancy to our industry. Panelists included B. Bonin Bough, global director of digital and social media at PepsiCo; Jory des Jardins, president, strategic alliances, and co-founder of BlogHer Inc.; Kevin Kells, national industry director of consumer packaged goods at Google Inc., and Fred Mossler of Zappos.com. 

The highlight, in my opinion, was introducing the audience to PepsiCo’s Refresh project, which is giving away $20 million to sponsor community projects driven by individuals, not organizations. PepsiCo reallocated budget from its Superbowl opening ad position into this effort in order to build relevance in the eyes of the consumer while promoting the health of its brand.

Here are some interesting quotes from WWD article Digital Directive that covered the panel, June 06/11/10: "Bough (from PepsiCo) observed, “When people are having conversations about our brand online, are they mentioning these attributes — a brand that I can’t live without, a brand that I know supports my passions?”He continued, “What it was really about was, can the brand stand for something, can we remind people that a soda can make a difference and, even more, that your choice makes a difference? Kells of Google added, “Relevancy is tied to effectiveness. That’s where I think in the next decade, the conversation has to switch.” He added that the industry has been too hung up on efficiency. The best way to grow the top line, he asserted, “is to be more effective. The way to do that is to be more relevant at the right moment for the right outcome.”

Brands like MAC have connected and created relevance through many ways and specially with Viva Glam. Most of the other beauty companies support breast cancer. However our beauty fans/advocates are dealing with a wide variety of interests, needs and wants, that brands could tap into to connect and create relevance. Why don’t you ask them what they care about before your next campaign?

Credits: Photo by Harvey Bilt, WWD.com

GCI is one of my industry references. Yesterday I had a chance to read the Branding for Digital Media article by Aniko Hill. I was really excited to see the topic being reviewed in more depth and Aniko provided some very good points and tips for successful digital marketing. However, after reading it a few times, I was very worried that this February feature may give the industry the wrong impression about social media & marketing. I’ve been in the beauty and digital industries for many years and I do my fair share of reading and writing but I was extremely surprised about some of the points raised in the article.

"Tropicana’s rebrand, spearheaded by ad giant Arnell Group (which also did Pepsi’s recent face-lift), had all the pieces in place for success. Most projects that come out of reputable agencies for large clients have comprehensive strategy, a long design process and thorough focus group testing before the product hits the shelf."

 

Tropicana example was used in a way that makes social media the culprit and Arnell the victim. Ad giants make mistakes and are perhaps one of the most alienated from the changes and benefits brought by social media. Furthermore, according to a post by Jym Edwards on bnet.com, this was the third flop by the uber agency, not to mention that the Pepsi redesign received its own fare share of criticism. Perhaps, their biggest mistake was relying so much on their expertise and traditional way of doing things and not using enough social media tools to test their new packaging concept. Many companies are embracing mass collaboration/crowd sourcing in their product development processes and package testing is one of the easiest applications of this concept (check Jovoto, a platform that allows people to submit, review, rate and vote on creative projects). 

 

"Unless you have a solid understanding of the art of branding, you can unwittingly damage your brand very quickly without even knowing it."

 

It is not so definite like that. According to Jeff Jarvis, an industry expert, we live in a constant state of beta and "there is no such a thing as perfection". Social media tools allows us to try new things and update them as we learn and improve. In my opinion, as long as there is transparency and honestly, online audiences are much more forgiving than the boardroom.

 

"Digital marketing is still a very new discipline, and navigating this world can be overwhelming for brand owners."

 

Digital marketing is not at all new. I built the first Hispanic minisites for Redken, L’Oreal Paris, Maybelline and Lancome back in 1999. The problem is that most digital departments have spent the last few years managing complex website platforms and failed to keep up with the arrival of Web 2.0. Yes, navigating the new social media world can be overwhelming, but companies need to realize by now that things have changed and the social web is here to stay. For example, a handful of the most valuable brands today were built without the uber agencies and are pure online players: Amazon, Google, and Zappos to name a few. So how is this so new? 

Our industry relies a lot on traditional agency approaches to communication. When the popular Super Bowl ads (Doritos and Google), are not produced by any large agency, but by new processes like crowdsourcing it is clear that the traditional agencies need to review their approaches in a rapidly changing communication environment. Holding traditional branding in such high regard may leave the industry with the same challenges faced by large agencies.

 

If all larger cosmetics brands fail to step in, experiment and learn the new rules of the game, there are lots of smaller and mid-size brands who will do. Check a few examples of successful social media strategies on low budgets: askelf.com, purplelabnyc.com, orglamix.com. At this point, fear of the new environment and lack of speed is our biggest obstacle.

Great social marketing campaign by Bobbi Brown reported by the The Beauty Chick blog. Asking their community why Bobbi Brown Cosmetics makes them feel "pretty powerful" is a clever way to gather huge amounts of insights and sentiment about the brand. This is a good example of using giveaways/sampling as currency in exchange for a specific action – others include blog comments, retweet, follow, fan, join a community, etc. These non-monetary exchanges create awareness and allow brands to engage with their communities and generate conversation. Mining the data may take time, but it can provide a great window into the future. Quite brillant!

 

Traditionally cosmetics are rarely discounted on major department stores and specialty stores.  Estee Lauder, Clinique and Lancome may offer free gifts with purchase but brands usually don’t leave additional money on the table. However, I was surprised to find several offers in the Bloomingdale’s catalog I received last week. One side of the catalog was dedicated to beauty and featured several brands with discounted sets. At Bloomingdales.com the bonus offers are even more prominent. Fragrance sets are offering the largest value. For example, Marc Jacobs’s Lola Holiday Gift Set is $70 ($105 value) and Prada L’eau Ambre Set is  $76 ($108 value). 

On the specialty end, similar values are available at both Sephora and Bliss. Sephora has even deeper value offers, with Tarte offering a Crown Jewels Lipgloss Multi-Gift Set for $39 ($165 value). By the way, almost every holiday gift reco comes with an offer. Bliss’ catalog announced "over $450 in savings on these pages" and their website is offering 15% off plus free shipping on all Bliss and Remede purchases (expires today 12/14). Despite the discounts, some gift offers may still be pricey for many shoppers, and therefore there is a risk of alienating them for other goods. Cell phones and other durable goods are priced at similar levels and may steal the beauty industry’s Christmas lunch. If this is proves to be another tough holiday season, many companies will need to rethink their product development, pricing and marketing strategies in order to stay relevant until the economy recovers.

Sephora launched Sephora Claus on Twitter for the Holidays: "Tweet what you want from Sephora for the Holidays and we’ll grant one Sephora beauty wish each day until December 19th" (max $150 value). As of now, 30,895 wishes were submitted and 18 granted. There are 12 days left to go. Many people wonder about the value of Twitter for brands. This is a fantastic example on how to use Twitter for a purpose. Before making a wish, a large number of users had to visit Sephora’s website (I did!). Make your holiday wish and consider this type of campaign in the future.

PS: Brands should be all over this wish list to see what people want the most these days!! Fragrance, make up, skincare? Here is the beauty of socialweb tools…This is free research for any 3 year plan.

Insight by Leah

It’s clear that since the economic downturn, fragrance sales have taken a nose dive.  Combined with the fact that the market is saturated with new fragrance launches every week, this sector is in desperate need of some help – and soon.  As consumers decide either to not purchase or to stick with dependable classics, marketers are scrambling to determine what appeals to consumers – and the answer is packaging and even storytelling.  One of the more successful recent fragrance launches was Coty’s Harajuku Lovers line (obviously the packaging influence came from Gwen Stefani who partnered with Coty for this fragrance).  Consumers loved the mini-dolls that each came with their own "personalities" and distinctive scent, and Coty offered the option of purchasing each doll separately, or in a collectible five-pack.  Coty is re-launching the line again this winter with a twist – each girl will be bundled up for the cold weather.  Coty has even suggested that at some point consumers may be able to order wardrobe changes for their fragrance dolls.  Coty combined unusual and even risky packaging with a great, personalized story, and also created a special website for the launch and as an ongoing way to engage consumers (http://www.hlfragrance.com/).  The site includes videos and music for each girl inspired by Stefani.  In a stale and crowded market, Harajuku Lovers engaged and inspired consumers.

Check out the girls in their winter gear!

Insight by Leah

Tabu, that fragrance that reminds everyone of the 1970’s, recently won the best mass-market, drugstore, budget or direct-sell fragrance in the 9th Annual Basenotes Awards.  This Dana Classics fragrance has been going through somewhat of a brand revival, and has been mainly focused on building an online following (check out the Facebook page) to grab consumer focus.  As with any brand revival, it’s always difficult to tap into consumer memories, and to build a customer base off of select brand memories.  However, the Tabu approach has been interesting to date, and may eventually offer a model for other, older brands that want to reach a new audience.

A few things that Tabu can begin to do to expand their potential:

1. Listen to their consumers – it would be great for consumers to have an active forum where they could add comments and suggestions for the brand – on everything from packaging to slight fragrance changes.  These conversations can take place on a brand blog or even on the Facebook page.

2. Create or build a new compelling message to consumers – when reviving a brand, it’s not enough to "rest on your laurels."  Tabu needs to update their 1970’s image and tagline to be relevant for the current market.

3. Explore other distribution channels – despite some initial forays online, my guess would be that Tabu is still mainly sold through corner drugstores.  Why not open up to other channels including HSN or other online channels?

What are your thoughts on Tabu or on brand revival?

Insight by Leah

Konectors, a London-based organization that finds "connectors and mavens" that have both an online presence and the social networking power to influence product purchases on behalf of advertisers, recently released a report on the Top 50 Beauty Blogs.   It should come as no surprise that topping this list is Temptalia – a blog that we have highlighted as both engaging and insightful for its audience.  Two other blogs of note include Naturallycurly.com and Basenotes.  As noted in the report, these top 50 blogs receive over 2.8 million visitors per month, and beauty companies should realize that these visitors are actively responding to content and engaging in conversations about products.  Among the other things that Konector factored into their analysis was how the blogs used various social media networks to engage consumers on their blog, on Facebook, on Twitter and in particular, YouTube.  As Konector director, Kingsley Mauder, correctly notes, YouTube and images are increasingly important in beauty purchases.

Top 50 List

Konector Report Overview

Insight by Andrea

How many of you have seen a Chinese website? Or know what are the top social networking sites there? Zero Degrees of Separation has published a great detailed review of the L’Oreal 100th campaign online in China providing great insights that could be helpful for anyone interested in this market. The campaign included 3 separate events but was centered Loreal100.com.cn. The results were impressive: over a million users participated and shared elements of the campaign (the Chinese online market is equivalent to the estimated total US population (298 million). I encourage to browse Loreal100.com.cn and experience (even if you cannot read Chinese like myself) the L’Oreal Loving Heart Tree which invites users to send “different caring movements” to friends.

 Excerpt from Zero Degrees of Separation:

The loving heart gathering event was from June 5th to July 5th. During this one month period of time, L’oreal encouraged netizens to send out “hearts” which indicated different caring movements to their friends on 4 SNS sites – Xiaonei.com, hi.baidu.com, Yoka.com (a fashion website), Sina.com. All the hearts being sent out would be gathered on a loving heart tree “planted” on L’oreal100 site. Those who sent out the most loving hearts, or sent out hearts at special lucky numbers (e.g. the person sent out the 18,000th heart, and the one sent out the 88,000th heart, etc) would win prizes from L’oreal worth hundreds, or thousands of RMB.