Between the ocean of new TikTok brands and timeless heritage brands in beauty and wellness, most of us are aware of the vast competition and necessity to not only stand out but have reputable results, ethics, and messaging.
Unsurprisingly, the mixology of what each brand aspires to achieve varies from brand to brand and domain to domain and platform to platform.
Brilliant marketers are digging ever deeper to understand the needs of their customers and to really tap into their individual behaviours, as well as targeting, quite meticulously, their pain points.
While baby-faced brands that have had record success on TikTok, influencer marketing and perhaps celebrity blogger acclaim, the heritage brands have had to pivot to compete. With many of our beauty giants realising this over COVID, the likes of Bamford, Chanel, Victoria Beckham, etc., all drove millions into digital marketing with varying success.
The chase of the ROI was possibly misleading in the first instances of COVID, as online sales rocketed and scrolling mirrored the consumer buying trends. More time spent in front of the phone screen meant the marketing department had more chances of getting their ad, campaign seen by a bored or wanting consumer looking for a dopamine hit during the long, hot evening stuck indoors.
Regardless of that, all beauty houses want to see a return on the investment within 3 months at least. While many of the digital teams in the UK may have been able to produce this, there will have also been a fatigue and lagging after the six-month mark as the spike of covid shoppers subsided and we all started to play outside once again, searching for ‘experience’ and ‘wellness’.
How do you pivot once again to drive those sales, and is it sales you really want? What about our life long customer rate and how we bring people into the ‘world-of XXX’. How do we capture their attention and show relatability and that we are, in fact, a brand that aligns with their view of the world, a brand their friends are keen to try and a brand that genuinely impacts their life for the better.
Almost certainly, there would have been tough conversations over founder expectations versus the digital team asking for more testing money and changing the plan. The landscape shifted, and so did most of the strategies for these brands.
However, that was over half a decade ago. Where have brands found themselves today, navigating the digital space and competing for new customers who last a lifetime?
Brilliantly, beauty and wellness have always understood the power of marketing and the investment in it. We see the likes of Victoria Beckham Beauty, who previously was losing millions in 2019, as reported by the Guardian, as sales fell 6% to 35 million Read here
Has since taken on a new CEO, Katia Beauchamp in 2023 (Read here), who is the driving force to now generating 100 million in sales for the beauty brand alone - in fact, this segment of her business portfolio is now responsible for holding up the fashion label.
But how did she do it? Katia, like many strategists, has viewed the changing market and allowed specialists to push the envelope of what we would have traditionally guarded as ‘brand protection’. Yes, we must honour the brand and make the experience for the customer flawless and in line with the expectations of the brand, but we must also optimise and allow for techniques, tricks and the science of conversion to flourish uninterrupted by protective helicopter stakeholders.
The brand is the story, and it is the reason people will stay, but they need to find you first, and Katia most definitely identified that early on and took a strong pivot towards digital to save a sinking ship. And we’re delighted she did.
Contact us at Swell Marketing today to discover your next digital elevation for your brand.
Written by Roberta Morris, June 9th. No AI.
