What exactly is Glossier doing so right?
Everyone knows that Glossier sets the standards for the modern beauty business- but how exactly has the brand left behemoths of the beauty establishment in their (biodegradable glittery) dust?
For the sake of keeping things clean and on message, I tend to avoid discussing cosmetics/skincare. I do have experience working with beauty brands, and there is a lot of overlap between beauty and fashion, but to be completely honest the cosmetics world overwhelms me. Beauty and cosmetics is its own little eco system along side Fashion & Luxury, and I try to keep my love of skincare and makeup something that’s just fun and for me. That being said, there is one brand that to me cannot be ignored just due to its sheer strategic intelligence, and that brand is Glossier.
Glossier was founded by Emily Weiss in 2014, and has always championed ‘no makeup makeup’ and the ‘I just woke up like this look’. They postion themselves as the beauty brand for the modern woman, and promote several extremely modern messages that many of their beauty counterparts leave behind. For Glossier, diversity, inclusion, accessibility and self acceptance are all rolled into their brand DNA and cased in the ever so trendy millennial pink (which oh by the way is only a thing because of Glosser). However (and significantly), the brand has still managed to retain the idea that if you are a Glossier user, you’re also a cool girl. The Glossier woman is up to date with modern beauty standards and messages, but effortlessly beautiful at the same time. And honestly, it’s genius.
In fact, I would go so far to say as Glossier essentially invented the vernacular for the modern beauty brand. Before Glossier, only luxury makeup had good packaging, and affordable brands were hideous. Glossier took an incredibly stale category and entirely reinvented it from scratch by disregarding all the conventions of the beauty brand. In this way, their ‘anarchy’ has now become the new convention which other brands (for example Drunk Elephant) strive to emulate.
And to be clear, this was no accident. Their brand messaging has been (and continues to be) entirely in line with the cultural zeitgeist (in the US in particular). To sum, here are the top 5 ways Glossier disrupted these conventions, and created the ‘modern beauty brand’:
They are digitally native
Glossier as a brand started online. The brand was birthed from the blog ‘Into the Gloss’, and Emily Weiss (the founder) has always had a digital first approach. Glossier has managed to keep its overheads extremely low, and get the majority of its messaging out on social media. This was particularly effective in a time where Instagram growth and Blogging were on the rise (from 2014 on). Glossier capitalized on this digital boom, and never fell prey to over investing in bricks and mortar.
2. Glossier puts customers first
As mentioned, Glossier started as a blog, which primarily featured interviews with women. From here, they developed a customer first approach, which let the customer decide what beauty meant to them. This is in direct opposition to the top down way most beauty brands operate whereby they decide a standard of beauty, and impose products on the market to fit within that standard. Glossier instead identified their customer first, and then developed the brand and products in accordance with that customer’s wants and needs.
3. The store as the PR
Glossier truly understands the power of the store to drive online traffic. Glossier took advantage of the rise of Instagram, and understood that the store could be used as a communications device as well as a point of sale. As such, they created a store space that was as visually pleasing and shareable as possible. This upfront investment created a PR machine for Glossier, which allowed word to be spread about their brand without the use of traditional marketing techniques (and the traditional marketing budget). The Glossier store in New York became a place on people’s ‘To Visit’ list simply because of this strategy. Glossier has continued to implement this through limited points of sale and popups (like the Glossier pop up in London) that are highly visual and experiential in nature. Glossier stores are the perfect combination of excellent in store experience, brand visuals/ immersion in the brand experience, and opportunities for sharing- all of which ultimately drives online buzz, desirability, and sales.
4. Their community is key
Glossier truly practices two things- social listening and community engagement. Once again, Glossier is a customer first and not a product first brand. They had the advantage of having interviewed thousands of women (their ultimate end customer) to understand what the modern woman needed and wanted from a beauty brand. As mentioned above, they then created a machine whereby the customers took care of the majority of their marketing through sharing content. Glossier has always focused on accessibility and attainability in their core values, and through doing this they allowed their customers to essentially build their brand for them. Glossier never dictates- it listens and then creates.
5. They continue to think outside the box in a culturally relevant way
Lastly, Glossier continues to impress. I was amazed to find that Glossier has hopped onto some seemingly niche trends during the coronavirus quarantine. Once again, they have created a fun and unique way to engage customers without direct marketing, and this is through Animal Crossing of all places. The Nintendo game, which exploded during the corona virus lockdown, has become a convenient source of therapy for many during the lockdown times. I was amazed to see Glossier even capitalize on this trend, and create its own clothing line within the game. Several people have even suggested that gaming is the new form of social media, as it provides users with a way to interact with one another in a non physical world. Once again, this may seem off brand but it is actually extremely on the mark. For Glossier, where the customer leads, they follow.
That being said:
For us reading, much of what Glossier has done might seem obvious. 6 years from 2014 and we know that customers comes first, the in store experience is key, and community building and engagement is a must for successful brands. However, what makes Glossier significant is they really were one of the first movers/disruptors in all these categories (and continue to be so). I’m not sure they will ever hit the same number of success factors all at the same time ever again, but they have built their brand off being disruptive, digitally nimble and agile, and continue to place the customer at the center of their strategy. For this reason, I for one am always excited to see what Glossier does next.
