The beauty industry is a saturated market, filled with a multitude of brands vying for the attention and loyalty of consumers. A stand-out product or interesting story is no longer enough to succeed, it seems, as consumers become increasingly demanding and more digitally-savvy than ever before.
Twenty one year-old Kylie Jenner has been named the world’s youngest self-made billionaire, snatching the crown from Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg who was 23 at the time he accrued the title.
WAH Nails, the London-based nail brand and boutique, has amassed nearly half a million followers on Instagram. Its founder, Sharmadean Reid, has now combined her undeniable social expertise with technology for the purpose of a brand new app: Beautystack.
Have we reached peak influencer marketing?
With major brands like Unilever increasingly scrutinizing influencers over fake followers, and platforms like Twitter getting more aggressive about removing bot accounts, the answer to that question just might be yes. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that we have reached peak influencer.
The beauty industry used to be ruled by large cosmetics companies like L’Oréal and Estee Lauder.
These days, while they’re still generating success, major brands are increasingly feeling the heat from a number of new brands intent on shaking up the industry.
The beauty industry had adopted influencer marketing more fervently than any other industry.
With big budgets and a less tangible product than, say, fashion or homeware – influencers (or digital talent) can bring products to life, and help to create a link between social media and ecommerce.
Instagram is about more than just style inspiration.
Now, it seems more consumers than ever before are buying what they see on the social media channel, as 72% of survey respondents say they have made fashion, beauty, or style-related purchases directly after spotting something on Instagram.
Glossier is pretty well known now, even pricking the consciousness of people like me who aren’t necessarily in the brand’s target market.
The New York-based beauty startup emerged from online magazine Into The Gloss and has been praised on this blog for its Instagram output and its referral program.
Chatbots have gone in and out of favour during the past couple of years. First touted as the ‘next big thing’ for marketing, many brand examples have since died a death due to the tech lacking sophistication or failing to provide any real relevance for consumers.
That being said, the fashion and beauty industries still appear attached to the concept, with many more brands launching AI-powered chatbots in the past year or so.
Advent calendars used to be the hallmark of confectionary companies like Cadbury and Nestle. Nowadays, brands from a whole manner of industries are muscling in on the trend, releasing calendars filled with everything from gin to cheese.
Brands within the cosmetics and skincare industries are chiefly reaping the rewards, turning the once humble ritual of the advent calendar into a ‘must-have’ for modern-day beauty consumers.
According to a recent study by ShareIQ, Maybelline has seen the highest levels of engagement for a cosmetics brand across visual social media platforms so far this year.
It has generated nearly 60m likes on Instagram, which is 49x the amount of rival brand Revlon. Meanwhile, Maybelline now has over 100,000 followers on Pinterest, while brands like Estee Lauder and CoverGirl are trailing behind with an average of 60,000.
Little-known internationally, Glossier is becoming quite the cult favourite in the US.
A relatively late entrant into the crowded beauty sector, its rise has been meteoric – last August a Buzzfeed article revealed projected growth of 600% in 2016, with up to 30,000 people on product wait-lists.