Sponsored content.
With the rising popularity of digital, it’s becoming more and more critical for brands to find enticing new ways to ensure they are still engaging with customers on a personal level. After getting a little lost in the digital bubble, beauty brands are going back to basics, recognising the importance of face-to-face interaction in building a personal rapport with consumers. Through the combination of both digital strategy and personalised events, beauty brands are able to reach a wider audience, enhance its marketing influence and stay front of mind for the consumer.
While there’s no arguing digital has reformed the counter-to-customer relationship, no matter how many online avenues there are for brands, the beauty world will always benefit from tactile interaction. E-commerce is certainly a big part of marketing today, however, with the beauty category, we find that consumers still like to pick up, touch, smell and trial products,” says junior brand manager styling and care Rebecca Hamilton.
A sentiment L'Oréal Paris cosmetics brand manager Adorna Yip agrees with: At the end of the day, if consumers don’t relate to your brand then they won’t be interested in what you have to say. Consumers are more savvy and have higher expectations than ever before, it is therefore more important now than ever to engage consumers at a personal level and allow them to trust your brand.” She pointed out that it was also beneficial for brands to have a relationship with consumers in order to better understand their needs and preferences to provide them with products and formulations they really want.
But finding a way to get customers to commit to face-to-face interaction is where brands are often finding a stumbling block. The solution is that brands need to find new innovative ways to appeal to customers on a personal level. An example of this was witnessed recently with beautyheaven’s Beauty Degustation event, which saw the brand host 20 loyal members in their office for a product station rotation. Just like a food degustation sees guests sampling different portions of dishes in one sitting, the Beauty Degustation event saw members sampling five separate beauty offerings - including nails, skincare, hair, make-up and fragrance.
Brands involved in the event included Schwarzkopf, L’Oréal Paris, and L’Occitane. Explaining the brand’s decision to take part, Yip reveals, L’Oréal Paris is always looking at innovative ways to reach new consumers and continue to engage current users of the brand. As the beauty landscape and consumer needs evolve, so does our way of approaching them. The degustation day is a great innovative approach that was interesting to trial.” beautyheaven sales director Laina O’Donnell adds, It is important for brands to have real relationships with their customers and not just see them as a faceless ‘consumer’ or ‘target market’. It is the ultimate way to create life-long brand loyalty. Rather than being big faceless corporations, our members love the fact that our brand partners actually take the time to pamper them and make them feel special.”
Members involved in the Beauty Degustation day were part of beautyheaven’s Trial Team - a group of site users who road-test products, rate them and then post reviews on the site. The event brought beautyheaven Trial Team members together outside of its online review and discussion forums, giving brands the opportunity to create intimate product experiences with key consumers. The degustation day is a great way to personalise the engagement with the Trial Team members, which can then transcend to the wider beauty consumer. A common challenge for any brand is to make a product relatable to each individual in the target market. Influential consumers can have a one-on-one experience with the product and talk to beauty experts at the degustation event, allowing them to spread the word about not just using the product but also their experience on the day, which consumers are more likely to connect with,” says Yip.
For Schwarzkopf, the Beauty Degustation was a way to speak directly to influencers. We know one of the biggest drivers to purchase is through word of mouth, and more specifically recommendations from friends or family. To have to chance to talk directly with these influencers will hopefully make us top of mind when these conversations occur,” reveals Hamilton. As much as we still use traditional media, Schwarzkopf try to find as many different mediums as possible to connect with our consumers and hopefully draw in new consumers.”
L’Oréal’s current brand focus is on utilising digital marketing to reach its global strategy of doubling consumers in the next six years. The brand’s participation in the Beauty Degustation event reinforces its digital strategy through face-to-face contact, allowing it to reach new consumers and continue to engage current users of the brand. E-commerce may be a convenient channel for repeat purchase, however, the final touchpoint for the brand remains in person, at the store or otherwise,” says Yip.
The combination of digital and face-to-face consumer experience enhances the loyalty between brands, retailers and consumers. Brands that successfully embrace this tactic of utilising both marketing avenues ensure a one-of-a-kind connection with consumers, allowing them to remain ahead of the game in the competitive beauty space.