Mark, is on its way to change forever direct selling for the next generation. According to WWD, this was Andrea Jung’s request to Claudia Puccia, when she was appointed as Mark’s Global president in 2005. First was the iPhone app launched in August  to help sellers replace their old catalogs. Now Facebook users can shop directly from the Mark Girl fan page. A shop tab was inserted with an ecommerce widget allowing users to navigate, shop and select a representative without leaving Facebook. This is definitely a very forward thinking move, and perhaps one of the first major brands to do so on the popular social media platform. The shopping page has a great design and straightforward check out, even though it wasn’t integrated to Facebook in anyway to leverage the fans information. If someone has a previous meetmark.com account they can use it, otherwise they need to create a new account (without leveraging Facebook user info) and enter their details. Future integrations should consider tools like Facebook Connect to ensure a seamless experience for fans. As fans become savvier they expect those types of integrations from brands in order to expedite their experience inside Facebook. The current Mark model seems focused on helping the reps increasing their sales, but not leveraging the full benefits of being inside Facebook by allowing fans to share their purchases with their friends through full integration with Facebook. So the question is: What would it take for meetmark.com and Facebook fans to be combined in one database? Is it possible? Why wasn’t it done? The beauty of the web is that everything can be continuously improved and I am sure Mark and Alvenda are looking into these questions for future launches.

Beauty Stat, an online beauty community destination, introduced this week the “first-of-its-kind”  Facebook application. The brainchild of industry veteran and visionary Ron Robinson, Beauty Stat is an innovative, non-biased, highly targeted expert driven community that connects women around beauty. Facebook provides them with a familiar environment to share, discuss, and engage in conversations about skin, make up, haircare, etc. The great insight for brands is the introduction of the concept of social product development. Beauty Stat offers a targeted forum for beauty companies to listen to customers talking about their brands and the opportunity to engage the network to output better, co-created products. Let’s hope companies get out of their comfort zone and try it out. I am already a fan (become a fan).

1. Did you first launch a regular website then moved to a facebook app? I remember back in January/Feb signing up to Beautystat.com. Yes, I moved to a Facebook app because I saw a huge opportunity given Facebook’s tremendous growth.

2. Why did you decide to make the change? Was it a planned evolution? Yes, this was a planned evolution.  Facebook has nearly 350 million members worldwide.  More than half of those members are women. Facebook is an amazing platform that allows people to connect and share information with each other.  My vision for Beauty Stat is to allow women to connect and share information about beauty.  Facebook was a natural fit given our shared vision.

3. As the first app of its kind, how do you see Beauty Stat changing the face of beauty/cosmetics industry? Beauty Stat will have an effect on both consumers and brands. Consumers are overwhelmed and confused given the number of beauty products out on the market today. And they are skeptical about some of the strong claims being made as well.  Consumers are turning to each other for recommendations and testimonials before making a product purchase. Beauty Stat facilitates that communication on a much bigger scale. Brands are taking notice of this change in consumers and Beauty Stat allows companies to "listen" in on these conversations among consumers as well as expose their products in a zero bias environment.

4. How did you build your network of experts? How do they contribute? We look for experts who are willing to help educate our members. Those that are willing to give objective, expert advice.  Zero bias and no hard sell are part of the core values of Beauty Stat. We have a few more big name beauty experts that will be joining our roster soon as well.

5. Who helped you design the app? We created a partnership with a company called DotBox. They are a digital agency and marketing firm whose clients include Harry Winston, Henri Bendel and Cole Haan.

6. What are the main ways people can participate/be part of the community? Aside from exchanging advice with other members, the feature that members are really excited about is the ability to connect with one of our beauty experts. Members can email them questions directly as well as have live chats with our beauty experts. Soon we will be offering this service through live video streams as well.  

7. What is your business model? We provide beauty manufacturers with the ability to test new product concepts and advertising with consumers of different demographics and shopping habits.  We give consumers the ability to have a say in the new products that will be coming out and brands can use their feedback to make better products.

8. How can brands be part of Beauty Stat? Will they send you products for review? Brands can also sponsor product giveaways.  My expert beauty team reviews these products first and then we send them to our members to get their feedback.

9. You already got a nice following (in how many days did you get to over 500 fans)? We are really excited about the response since we just launched this week. 

10. Additional coverage:

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?

Celebrity Hairstylist – Sally Hershberger, launching Luxe Layers exclusive on HSN

Insight by Andrea

Sally Hershberger, is not only an ubber celebrity hairstylist known for creating the famous Meg Ryan’s signature shag in 1995, co-creating John Frieda’s Sheer Blonde product collection and charging $800 for a haircut. Besides a talent for shaggy, natural hair with movement, she actually has a great personality, is very low-key and most importantly offers professional grade products at affordable prices, very in-line with what old masters have done (Vidal Sasson, Charles Worthington, and John Frieda) And great for times when people are watching their wallet. Products are available at Walgreens, Target, ULTA Beauty, Shopper’s Drugmart. On September 8th, Sally’s range will debut at HSN with the Luxe Layers Blow Out Gel, "for an everyday, salon-perfect blow dry at home".

Sally demo the product to a group of beauty bloggers at an exclusive blogger event at her stylish Downtown New York salon yesterday. Sally and her team talked about products and she even styled a few lucky bloggers and showed how to create a great within a few minutes (I even got my hair snipped by her to finish the look – very cool!). 

Besides doing celebrity hair, she has launched the Shagg denim line, been a judge at Shear Genius, launched a haircare line, started Tweeting, reaching out to bloggers, Facebook fans and  the community (Girl Scouts), and next week she will be touching millions on HSN. What is next for Sally? If she continues to innovate and engage with her audience I believe she will become one of the first female household names in the haircare industry. 

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 Leah

Lancome is again releasing The Pout a Porter lipstick – the brand has in the past teamed up with rising designers to create a lipstick that reflects their own personal style signature.  In the past, Lancome has teamed up with Behnaz Sarafpour, Proenza Schouler, Peter Som and Thakoon, much to the delight of both the brand’s and designer’s fans.  Lancome is now working with Chris Benz on a new lipstick that will be featured on all the models in his September 2009 runway show – but this time, the beauty brand reached out to consumers to help name the lipstick.  The contest was open to anyone, and Lancome and Chris Benz accepted submissions on the Chris Benz Facebook page and received over 1,000 entries.  This is an excellent example (and initial first step for Lancome) of engaging stakeholders – no doubt both Lancome fans and Chris Benz fans will feel a connection to the lipstick, and Lancome is banking on this collaboration with its consumers to drive sales of the latest Pout a Porter release.  As well, using the Facebook fan page provides an easy venue for Lancome to communicate with a younger, diverse audience than may typically purchase some its products.  All in all, a great first step for Lancome in opening up the process.  It will be interesting to see if more companies (and Lancome) continue to engage consumers in additional product development steps – brand stakeholders (and that includes everyone from company employees to consumers) are invaluable resources for feedback on everything from packaging to ingredients to advertisements, and more companies would be wise to engage them before product releases.

Excerpt from Second City Style Blog:

Big news! The Pout a Porter lipstick series by Lancome is back! The skincare and cosmetics brand has already teamed up four times with some of the most influential emerging designers to create a lipstick that embodies their particular style. The previous four lipsticks in this collection were collaborations with designers Behnaz Sarafpour, Proenza Schouler, Peter Som, and Thakoon. So far the limited edition lipsticks have been a huge success with all four selling out quickly once they hit stores. One Proenza Pink lipstick even sold for $122 on eBay!

Link to blog post

Link to Chris Benz Facebook Fan Page

Shared by Leah

For those of you who live and breathe make-up and social media as we do here at TheNhuch.com, Lauren Luke is dream-come-true success story.  A little background on Luke – she first began selling make-up brushes, eyeshadows and more on eBay, and soon found that she was bombarded with questions about use and application tips from her customers.  Since make-up is one of those "easier to show you than tell you" products, Luke began creating make-up tutorials on YouTube, and soon became an overnight sensation.  Luke’s video tutorial on singer Leona Lewis’ green, heavily lined cat eyes from Lewis’ “Bleeding Love” video is considered Luke’s breakthrough video – it alone has almost 3 million views.  As well, she has launched her own make-up line, By Lauren Luke, that is available on her own website, and will soon be available through Sephora.com and in Sephora’s new flagship store in Times Square.  Affirming how important social media has been for her, Luke admits that she was initially contacted by her make-up line partners through Facebook.  Perhaps most importantly, Luke continually interacts with her stakeholders – fans, consumers, and business partners – by responding to comments, emails, inquiries and feedback.  As she states "That’s the good thing about it (YouTube) — people can tell me what they want and I’ll see if it’s doable."  For Lauren Luke, having these interactions is her way of giving back.  For us at TheNhuch.com, it’s a perfect, winning example of mass collaboration.

Lauren Luke YouTube Channel

Lauren Luke Facebook page

Lauren Luke on Twitter

Insight by Leah

More and more companies are discovering the value and power of social media, and are increasingly engaging consumers through Facebook and Twitter.  This article highlights how Astral Brands, parent company of Pur Minerals and Aloette Cosmetics, invited its network of franchises, consultants and customers to become fans of the brands as part of its 31st anniversary celebration.  The result – 3,000 people became Facebook fans in May alone.  Astral is taking an open approach with its customers and independent consultants, and creating an inclusive environment for its community – Facebook fans receive updates on upcoming products, sales, trends and other beauty advice as well as an opportunity to provide the company with feedback.  This strategy no doubt results in greater consumer-brand engagement and increased consumer confidence in the Pur Minerals and Aloette Cosmetics brands.  As well, recent studies of consumer engagement/friend recommendations and beauty products have indicated that consumers are significantly more likely to make a purchase based on a reference from a friend/influencer.  It’s a smart move by Astral Brands and we’ll look to see if more beauty companies follow this lead. 

Pur Minerals Facebook Fan Page

Aloette Cosmetics Facebook Fan Page

Excerpt from Beauty Packaging Magazine:

These days, it’s all about being online. Astral Brands, the parent company of cosmetics brands Pur Minerals and Aloette Cosmetics, is pairing the power of email and social media to raise awareness and boost sales of its expanding cosmetics lines.  Read the complete Beauty Packaging article.