» Online http://www.thenhuch.com Because beauty industry conversation is more interesting than the news Tue, 24 May 2011 11:40:31 +0000 en hourly 1 Read Me: Brands as Publishers (Swide, Nowness, The Highlow) http://www.thenhuch.com/2010/08/06/read-me-brands-as-publishers-swide-nowness-the-highlow/ http://www.thenhuch.com/2010/08/06/read-me-brands-as-publishers-swide-nowness-the-highlow/#comments Fri, 06 Aug 2010 14:16:12 +0000 Andrea http://www.thenhuch.com/?p=1270

This is a slow but sure trend that has been developing in the last 24 months. Brands have started to allocate marketing dollars to produce content similar to magazines (beyond a plain blog).

Are brands becoming publishers? Or shall we call them self-publishers? Well it depends. Dolce & Gabanna seems to have been one of the first with the launch of Swide, a site that focus mostly in promoting their own brand with all kinds of interesting and behind the scenes content. It also covers other fun and witty info ranging from style, faces and life – full of live and sexyness. Check out this post about a video made for Kiehl’s ("I LOVE YOU" directed by Stephen Blaise). Earlier this year (around February 2010) LVMH closed eLuxury.com and relaunched as Nowness, an online magazine, completely independent from a content standpoint, focusing on showcasing the most creative and international content about fashion, art, culture and travel with a luxury angle (very posh and great sources of insipiration). 

Liz Claiborne Inc is the latest brand to join the publishing bandwagon with the launch of The Highlow, a magazine style site that aims to celebrate the democratization of fashion. It reads like a not-overproduced fashion blog, written by a really nice girl (Felicity Loughrey) with an easygoing voice and fashion insights. The great plus for us are the industry headlines posted under ‘the thread’. They intend to keep the conent editorially independent as their mission is to start conversation and dialogue with people, and not make it read like an ad.

These are great examples of how content creation and marketing are evolving (and blending?) to create engagement and dialog. There are many ways to do it. It all depends on the brand’s comfort level and strategy. I personally think Swide is a great example as it is not shy about self-promoting by giving fans what they want, an opportunity to see more behind the scenes – how D&G do things, what the designers like and ultimately what they think. Fans want to be part of, identify with, belong to brands and have a say. Can magazines connect with readers the same way (and how are they going to make up for these repurposed budgets)? Who will be the first in beauty to do it? I bet it will be a haircare company.

Sources: WWD.com

 

]]> http://www.thenhuch.com/2010/08/06/read-me-brands-as-publishers-swide-nowness-the-highlow/feed/ 1 Lancome: Declaring Indigo iPhone App http://www.thenhuch.com/2009/12/08/lancome-declaring-indigo-iphone-app/ http://www.thenhuch.com/2009/12/08/lancome-declaring-indigo-iphone-app/#comments Tue, 08 Dec 2009 22:33:15 +0000 Andrea http://www.thenhuch.com/?p=923

After Facebook, iPhone apps seem to be getting traction in the beauty industry. This past October, Lancome launched an app to promote its Declaring Indigo Fall 09 Color collection by make up artist Aaron De Mey (one of the most talented make-up artists of his generation according to the app intro and brandall77 a Total Beauty community member). The app received only 2 starts out of 336 ratings. Users mentioned that it crashed often. I downloaded the app and didn’t experience any technical difficulties. However, I found it a bit limiting when it came to creating looks. It only allowed me to use one color at the time for eye shadow, lipstick and nail polish. Overall it is a nice looking app but extremely basic and it doesn’t have enough content to bring users back on a regular basis (news section is buried). Apps are a great opportunity to keep customers engaged. Brands should make sure to take advantage of the captive audience that already downloaded it and avoid treating it as a seasonal ad. On another note, I wonder how many people shared their looks. Mine is below.

Additional reviews:

Mail Movement

Hahayue

Total Beauty

Mobi Ad News

Lancome iPhone App

 

]]> http://www.thenhuch.com/2009/12/08/lancome-declaring-indigo-iphone-app/feed/ 0 Beauty Stat New Facebook App http://www.thenhuch.com/2009/12/04/beauty-stat-new-facebook-app/ http://www.thenhuch.com/2009/12/04/beauty-stat-new-facebook-app/#comments Fri, 04 Dec 2009 18:09:44 +0000 Andrea http://www.thenhuch.com/?p=896

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).

Here is an email interview with Ron:

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:

 

Beaut Stat on Facebook

 

]]> http://www.thenhuch.com/2009/12/04/beauty-stat-new-facebook-app/feed/ 1 What are people saying about Shiseido on Twitter now? http://www.thenhuch.com/2009/08/17/shiseido-twitter/ http://www.thenhuch.com/2009/08/17/shiseido-twitter/#comments Mon, 17 Aug 2009 04:18:12 +0000 Andrea http://www.thenhuch.com/?p=739 What are people saying about Shiseido on Twitter now?

Insight by Andrea

There are lot of deals. But it looks like skincare is the favorite topic. By the way, why isn’t Shiseido making khols anymore?The new images for Maquillage are out. Someone is finding the products expensive. Have you searched for your brand on Twitter? If you don’t use Twitterdeck, just go to search.twitter.com and type any brand to get a feel for what is being said about it in real time. This is a good exercise to do on a regular basis. Even better is to designate someone in the organization to respond and engage with these customers.

  

 

]]> http://www.thenhuch.com/2009/08/17/shiseido-twitter/feed/ 0 Temptalia Asks You http://www.thenhuch.com/2009/06/30/temptalia-asks-you/ http://www.thenhuch.com/2009/06/30/temptalia-asks-you/#comments Tue, 30 Jun 2009 20:02:11 +0000 Andrea http://www.thenhuch.com/?p=620 Blogs provide free research for Marketers: "Temptalia Asks You"

Shared by Andrea

Blogs are great resources for marketers. Temptalia, besides having a constant stream of comments on its posts, also asks direct questions to its reader base. There were 39 responses to the question “What role does packaging play in your purchases?” posted on June 26th. Many said that packaging is very important, but functionality and simplicity seemed to be a common theme. However, product quality is still more important.  The following brands were mentioned as great examples of packaging: MAC, YSL, Guerlain and Benefit. Product development, marketing and sales teams should be monitoring the most active blogs in their categories in order to take advantage of these free outputs that are direct results of mass collaboration. Visit Temptalia to review the 39 responses.

Temptalia Asks You 

]]> http://www.thenhuch.com/2009/06/30/temptalia-asks-you/feed/ 0 ELuxury: Fashion Publisher http://www.thenhuch.com/2009/06/28/eluxury/ http://www.thenhuch.com/2009/06/28/eluxury/#comments Mon, 29 Jun 2009 02:13:49 +0000 Andrea http://www.thenhuch.com/?p=572    ELuxury: from E-commerce to Fashion Publisher

Shared by Andrea

After 10 years selling LVMH brands like Marc Jacobs and Emilio Pucci, online e-tailer eLuxury, shuts down its commerce functionality and relaunches today as a ’social media’ site devoted to the world of luxury. I wondering what they mean by a ‘social media’ site. Perhaps they didn’t want to call it a blog or a social network, but we shall see how it will shape up once they start adding content by their global team of curators, contributors and users. My take is that they are going to have a very well designed blog in which readers will be able to comment and vote on the content in addition to having accounts on Twitter and Facebook. For now, eLuxury will feature a quote of the day on the homepage and collect emails (sign up to be an insider).

This is a very interesting move by LVMH in which the advertiser becomes the publisher and therefore a potential competitor to the traditional publications that depended heavily on LVMH advertising dollars. It will be interesting to see who will win the battle for attention. I already signed up to become an insider and can’t wait to see what comes next on eLuxury! 

 

 
eLuxury

Twitter Followers: 3,655 (since May 2008) Facebook Fans: 1,155           What people are saying on Twitter right now about the new eLuxury:

]]> http://www.thenhuch.com/2009/06/28/eluxury/feed/ 0 Free Beauty Samples: Beauty Marketing on Facebook http://www.thenhuch.com/2009/06/12/free-beauty-samples-on-facebook/ http://www.thenhuch.com/2009/06/12/free-beauty-samples-on-facebook/#comments Fri, 12 Jun 2009 04:03:57 +0000 Andrea http://www.thenhuch.com/?p=463 Trend: Free Beauty Samples – Beauty Marketing on Facebook

Shared by Andrea

Free Beauty Samples is a new online beauty marketing tool providing free samples to potential customers according to their skin type. It is a great service for marketers wanting to reach a group of potential customers eager to try the latest and greatest products. Ultimately, the goal is to generate positive reviews and sales. It was probably developed using a tool called Facebook Connect and the actual site lives inside Facebook. A separate blog (www.fbsamples.com) linking to the page in Facebook offers product reviews (given that the company’s initials are FB, the URL almost looks like a clever play on words with Facebook). If executed well, this can be a phenomenal way for beauty companies to generate valuable insight about their businesses – and to learn more about ’social media’. I signed up for it today (very easy), but due to high demand, I was told that I am on a wait list. I can’t wait to receive my first batch of free samples.

fbsamples

Click here to sign up: http://apps.facebook.com/freebeautysamples/

Click here to view the blog: www.fbsamples.com 

Twitter Profile (52 followers): www.twitter.com/FBSamples 

Facebook Fan page  (156 fans): http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=55526938958

 

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