Introduction:
This blog details my journal posts which include visual elements, observations, and analysis during the 4 weeks that I observed each makeup company. I am analyzing each companies marketing techniques, strategies, and campaigns based on a four-category criteria rubric, which I used to asses each company at the end (see full detailed rubric at bottom of page). These categories are:
Consumer communication: Customer support and satisfaction.
Following trends & influencer use: Adaption to current trends (and technology) and effective use of influencers.
Unique value proposition: Differentiation from competitors and innovation in product offerings.
Promotion: Effectiveness of marketing campaigns.
At the end I give a full overall analysis of my thoughts during this process, strengths and weaknesses observed overall from each company, and suggestions on how each company could improve in certain areas.
Week 1 Journal Entry- March 25th – 29th
Morphe:
Morphe Analysis Week 1: This first section of the first week I am observing Morphe, which is the company from my original project. When I observed this company 2 1/2 years ago, they were one of the most prominent and popular makeup brands that year. Since then, their popularity has declined a ton and other companies have taken over that top spot, so I am interested to see their current marketing efforts. Looking at the screenshot on the left, they’re using some “trending” language when using “POV” (a TikTok trend), to promote the current sale on their setting sprays at Ulta. Some things I saw this week not only on this post but on some others, their engagement was very limited in the comment sections. They are promoting a 40% off sale, which should be a great deal, but there is only 3 comments on the post which says a lot.
Next, I wanted to look at what their Twitter (now X) feed was looking like. I was impressed with their activity on this platform and how they show their personality and “lighter” side more on here. Usually, many companies posts are synonymous along all their platforms, but Morphe gave us different content on X than on their Instagram and TikTok pages which was refreshing to see. As you can see from the second screenshot, they asked their followers to show off some of the spring looks they created. This is a fun way to get your consumers involved, make them feel special, and connect with them.
E.L.F:
E.L.F Analysis Week 1: Elf is a lower-scale makeup company compared to Morphe and Fenty, but is regarded as one of the best “drugstore” brands around. One of the products they are most known for is their power grip primer, and it is one of the most popular and highest quality in the whole market, and was awarded Americas #1 primer. They use this as their competitive advantage because no other companies make a primer that is similar and that works as well as E.L.F. Another key with this company is that it is very affordable, as this primer is only $10. As you can see from the first screenshot of their recent instagram feed, almost every post highlights the power grip primer. Not only do they highlight this product, but they display a new release product which is a power grip setting spray to go with the primer. Having such a popular product, they do a great job building on its popularity with similar items.
As you can see in the second screenshot provided (right), we’re seeing some negative comments on their instagram feed. To provide some background, E.L.F. recently came out with a new “gothic” collection, which sold out extremely fast. These three comments above were only a few out of the many negative comments on this post. Cancelling orders and promoting something that is already sold out is a bad look for the company, and is going to make them lose customers. They need to be more transparent with the customers placing orders, and giving possible compensation for the orders they they canceled. It is also a red flag that they are not communicating back with these comments and trying to resolve the problem. As far as promoting their recent drop goes, they should’ve been promoting and “teasing” the new products days/weeks before it dropped. As I looked at their feed, it was only announced the day before it dropped, so it didn’t give people the time to even hear about it until it was gone. This is something they need to think about going forward.
Fenty:
Fenty Analysis Week 1: This week with Fenty Beauty I wanted to focus on their competitive advantage and how they emphasize this in their marketing. Many companies in recent society struggle with shade inclusion in their products, and providing a range in which everyone will find their perfect match. Many companies are under fire for this issue, but Fenty is one of the companies that is thriving in this area. They have continuously been praised for “changing the beauty game” when it comes to diversity and inclusion. You can see it from the different skin shade emojis they use in their captions (see first 2 screenshots). It’s the little things like this that other companies do not do, and make Fenty stand out against the competition. Also, not only as seen in the second screenshot, but all of their marketing campaigns feature models with diverse skin tones as well as male models. One last point I wanted to touch on is how they provide tools for shade matching (see first screenshot), because it can be hard to find your perfect shade especially when buying online. This is one of the only companies that uses AI to give you your perfect foundation match. Using this new form of technology is such a cool thing and really sets them apart from other companies by keeping up with the newest trends in technology.
Week 2 Journal Entry – April 1st – 5th
Morphe:
Morphe Analysis Week 2: I wanted to first focus on Morphe’s consumer engagement strategies from the first screenshot above. The usage of asking a question to your consumers is a great way of engaging them, especially when you are talking about new products like in this case. There was better consumer engagement in posts like this, that are interactive, compared to what I was seeing from previous posts. As far as the second screenshot goes, we’re just highlighting communication with consumers. It’s simple, but effective. The consumer has a basic question, and Morphe responds with a quick, to the point answer.
E.L.F:
E.L.F Analysis Week 2: This week for E.L.F I wanted to focus on their consumer communication. Last week with E.L.F I highlighted problems in their communication when it came to negative comments, which is something that they should work on. Although this week I wanted to look at the positive side, and emphasize how great they are with providing helpful answers to consumer questions as well as taking in suggestions. The two screenshots that I included above were only two examples out of MANY similar situations of excellent, helpful consumer communication. In the first picture you can see that in responding to a customer wanting a matte setting spray, E.L.F gives a product suggestion they think the customer will like, as well as giving the features of the product. In the second picture, you see E.L.F’s responding to a consumer comment where they are asking for more matte products as well. I like how E.L.F. responded to this comment by asking the consumer what they would like to see for matte products in the future. People like when companies take suggestions and give them products that they want.
Fenty:
Fenty Analysis Week 2 : This week for Fenty I wanted to focus on their launch in China, and the reactions of their consumer base. To start off, I love how Fenty shows a little bit of behind the scenes action to their customers with Rihanna. Showing this type of content provides a completely transparent view of the company, showing off its personality and building a trust factor with its customers. Now, diving into the launch on Fenty Beauty in Sephora stores in China. Like I had talked about in week 1, Fenty is a leader in diversity and inclusion within their campaigns, and now they are expanding even further. Again, this portrays them in a positive light and they received positive praise for this expansion decision. Fenty included numerous Asian-American models in their launch campaign who were honored to be included in this experience.
Week 3 Journal Entry – April 8th – 12th
Morphe:
Morphe Analysis Week 3: This week I am focusing on influencer usage and a prime example of Morphe listening to their consumer base. To start, I want to highlight the usage of celebrity makeup artist, Ariel Tejada, who is most known for his work on the Kardashians. Whether or not you are a fan of the Kardashians or not, his work is stunning, and for Morphe to partner with him is a great idea because of his celebrity work. The word choice in the caption in the screenshot on the right, detailing what makes up his “signature look,” is effective marketing. For aspiring makeup artists, or people who just like to play around, they may be intrigued on how to achieve Ariels famous looks. The word choice again in the caption “using his expertise, he meticulously developed, tested, and perfected the M x Ariel brushes. Detailing the hard work that went into creating these brushes with the idea that consumers can use the “perfectly made” brushes just like Ariel is what will get them to sell. This collaboration is a smart idea overall, since Morphe claims to be a makeup brand “For the Creators.” Looking at the screenshot from the TikTok, you can see that there have been many comments complaining that the brushes aren’t sold individually, and asking for them to be. Morphe listened to their consumer base and did just this, which improves customer satisfaction, brand loyalty, and trust between the brand and their consumers.
E.L.F:
E.L.F Analysis Week 3: This week I decided to look E.L.Fs TikTok page, and I was more than impressed with their presence on TikTok. Most of the marketing this week was focused on the launch of a new product, and everything revolved around it this week. I touched on this a little bit last week, but I’m really going to focus on E.L.F listening to what their consumers want, and the way people reacted to the product launch tells a lot about the love for E.L.F. As you read through these comments you can see that bronzing drops has been something that the consumers have been asking E.L.F. to come out with, they delivered, and the people are thrilled about it. Like I had mentioned with Morphe just above, listening to your consumer base is going to skyrocket customer satisfaction and create a stronger sense of brand loyalty. Looking at the last screenshot (which is actually from their Instagram rather than TikTok), I like the way they promoted their launch of this product by actually displaying a consumer comment “begging” for bronzing drops. You can see the consumers are actually commenting on the marketing approach of E.L.F, which is always a good sign when you consumers are recognizing this. One final piece to add is that they actually dropped these bronzing drops on the day of the solar eclipse which is just a fun piece of marketing that draws people in.
Fenty:
Fenty Analysis Week 3: Fenty yet again continues to impress me, and this week I’m focusing on two separate aspects that I observed. First, focusing on the first screenshot on the left. Not only does Fenty create and sell makeup products, but they also have more recently introduced fragrances. They use a micro influencer to give consumers the “inside scoop” before they buy the perfume. A micro influencer is someone who has a smaller, yet highly engaged following. They tend to focus on a specific niche or interest, like in this case beauty. Since their following is smaller, they often have a more personal connection with their audience, which leads to higher levels of trust and interaction. Micro-influencers are often seen as more authentic and relatable compared to celebrities or larger influencers. Their recommendations feel more genuine. I love that Fenty chose a micro influencer for this instance, because using a celebrity or a mega influencer could be taken the wrong way. I infer that doing this definitely increased sales for their perfume.
Screenshot on the right: I want to emphasize again the use of diversity here, but also the idea of providing a color theory test so consumers can see how the gloss looks on different skin tones before they purchase. They are being transparent with their consumers that the color may look different on different skin tones, and showing a true comparison of both so consumers can see for themselves. Such a smart idea by Fenty.
Week 4 Journal Entry – April 15th – 19th
Morphe:
Morphe Analysis Week 4: We have reached the last week of observation, so let’s get right into it with Morphe. On the left you are looking at a post from their X (previously Twitter) feed. Whether you know it or not, this post is going off of a current TikTok trend, and making it relate to their products. This is going to hit their target demographic in just the right way. I immediately knew that this was from TikTok, and it made me laugh because they were being “trendy.” This is the goal – to bring some personality to their brand while keeping up to date with current trends, even if it’s as simple as this. Next, let’s look at the second screenshot on the right side. There are multiple positives to this post, but a negative side as well. Starting off with the positives, I like how Morphe “polled our community” (consumer base) to get some insight. It shows that the company wants to hear opinions from the people who are buying their products, market research is always a smart idea. They then took the information that they learned, and followed through with it (wanting to learn how exactly Ariel achieves his flawless makeup looks). How Morphe then approached this was also smart. They held something they called “Morphe ProFiles,” where consumers will be able to tune in to learn more from Ariel and how uses the brushes from the collaboration. The negative side here is there isn’t enough information as to where consumers can watch this. Is it a live stream? A YouTube video? I looked around at other posts regarding this ProFiles session, and there still was no information. There needs to be more details especially if they are wanting this to be a successful experience.
E.L.F
E.L.F Analysis Week 4: E.L.F. has continued to surprise me each week, and they certainly have kept that up this for this last week. Let’s start by looking at the screenshot on the left, which is from their X (formerly Twitter) feed. In this post they are talking about their brand new bronzing drops that they just released. They split this post into two sections, first giving reasons why you (the consumer) will love this product, and second, tips on how to use these drops to achieve optimal results. Detailing why the consumer will love the product shows confidence that the product will do what it claims, while giving 7 reasons and assets the product has. One of the best parts of this is the emphasis that they are only $12 dollars. The second part where E.L.F gives tips on how to use the product is a great marketing technique. By offering tips, the company demonstrates its expertise and commitment to customer satisfaction. This builds trust with consumers who may be more likely to purchase from a brand they feel they can rely on for guidance. Increasing product understanding is great for possible new makeup users who might be intimidated by products they aren’t sure how to use. This is a great way to attract possible new customers. The last point here is that doing this can increase product usage because if the consumer knows how to use this product properly and is getting optimal results because of it, they will be more apt to continue to repurchase.
The screenshot above on the right is from the comment section on E.L.F.s TikTok page. They are addressing a question from a consumer, asking if this new primer works the same was as the other primer they have, and if it lasts. Their response details the difference between the two primers so that the consumer can understand why they differ. Although, they don’t answer the second part to the consumers question regarding if it lasts or not. Yes, they provided great information that the consumer was looking for, but they failed to answer the whole question. Why?
Fenty:
Fenty Analysis Week 4: Finally, for the last time, we will be discussing Fenty. This post details a great consumer engagement strategy, as well as using the “tease” marketing technique. The first picture all the way to the left is the example of the tease factor. First of all, the language used in the caption works well. It’s trendy, and emphasizes the “highly requested,” so consumers know this is something they have been asking for. We can’t fully tell in the pictures what the product is which drives up the interest and excitement for whatever it may be. The next two screenshots show Fenty’s consumer engagement strategy, and these were posted on their Instagram story. They want to include their consumers and fans by inviting them to join Fenty in their launch of the new mystery product. By involving consumers in the launch process, you generate anticipation and excitement around the new product. Consumers who feel like they are part of the launch are more likely to spread the word to their friends and followers, creating buzz both online and offline. To add, engaging consumers in the launch of a new product helps foster a sense of community around the brand. Lastly, and possible most importantly, asking the consumers to post to their own social network is great word-of-mouth marketing. This can significantly increase the reach and exposure of the new product, reaching audiences that Fenty may not have been able to reach on its own.
Assessments with Rubric:
Morphe- Final Assessment:
E.L.F – Final Assessment:
As a top drugstore brand, E.L.F. excels in engaging with customers, listening to feedback, and promptly responding, solidifying its position as a go-to choice for beauty enthusiasts seeking affordable yet high-quality products. Out of all the companies, E.L.F stood out the most regarding consumer communication. Not only do they promptly address customer inquiries and concerns, but they also actively seek out feedback and suggestions from their audience. By inviting consumers to share their preferences and ideas, E.L.F. demonstrates a genuine commitment to meeting their needs and desires, which creates a strong sense of brand loyalty. Although they had a rough first week regarding consumer communication, they turned it around completely and showed that they are a leader in this category. E.L.F. does well in keeping up with the constantly changing beauty and social trends, consistently introducing products that reflect the latest styles. While E.L.F. effectively integrates current trends into their offerings, their use of influencers, while present, doesn’t quite stand out. Unlike some other competitors (like Morphe or Fenty), their influencer partnerships may not be as prominent or strategically utilized. During my weeks of observation, I rarely came across campaigns that stuck out to me specifically with their influencer use. When we look at unique value proposition, we conclude E.L.F. distinguishes itself with its standout product, the Power Grip Primer. The Power Grip Primer’s popularity is due to its unique formulation that grips onto makeup, prolonging its wear time and preventing creasing or fading throughout the day. This innovative primer has become a staple in many beauty routines, earning E.L.F. a reputation for delivering products that meet consumer needs. E.L.F leverages the success of this product and uses it as their competitive advantage. E.L.F. effectively utilizes trend-focused product offerings and affordable pricing to resonate with their target audience of budget-conscious consumers. By maintaining a strong online presence and engaging with their community through social media platforms, E.L.F fosters brand loyalty among their target audience making them a top brand currently. They received 4’s for three of the categories, and a 3 for the category regarding trends & influencer use.
Fenty – Final Assessment:
Fenty Beauty, led by Rihanna, has not only redefined beauty standards but also revolutionized the cosmetics industry through its exceptional consumer communication, innovative inclusivity, trend-setting approach, and savvy marketing techniques. At the core of Fenty Beauty’s success lies its unwavering commitment to inclusivity. By offering a diverse range of foundation shades suitable for all skin tones, they’ve challenged conventional beauty norms and embraced the beauty of diversity. This unique value proposition has resonated deeply with consumers worldwide, making them a leader in the makeup industry. Furthermore, Fenty Beauty has shown remarkable adaptability in keeping up with ever-evolving beauty trends. From bold eyeshadows to radiant highlighters, their product range consistently reflects the latest fashion and beauty movements. In addition to this, they also have embraced new technology such as artificial intelligence for shade matching, ensuring that their products cater perfectly to individual skin tones. This integration of technology not only enhances the consumer experience but also demonstrates Fenty Beauty’s commitment to staying at the forefront of both beauty and technological advancements. In terms of marketing, Fenty Beauty excels in creating buzz-worthy campaigns that challenge conventional beauty standards and celebrate individuality. Their exceptional consumer-centric approach, commitment to inclusivity, trendsetting prowess, and innovative marketing strategies makes Fenty Beauty a top-level company that received 4’s in every category of the rubric I developed.
Suggestions:
Starting with Morphe – first they should find newer and different ways to increase consumer engagement on posts. From what I had seen, their comment sections on each platform were very dry, some posts only have 3-5 comments. The very few posts that tried a form of engagement strategy did much better. This is something they need to keep up whether it’s doing giveaways, behind the scenes content etc.
When looking at ELF, I suggest they be more prepared for their product launches & collection drops. There was a case during the first week when they had a collection drop that sold out in hours, and instead of being transparent with their consumers, they started canceling orders they couldn’t fulfill. Along with this, they kept promoting the drop even after it was already sold out which just made their consumer base angry. In the future they should plan better for these drops, and be more transparent once they are sold out. Although, on the positive side, I already saw improvements in this area from the first week to the last.
I have no suggestions for Fenty at the moment, as they have gone above and beyond in every area of their marketing, all I can say is to keep doing what they are doing.
