ASEAN’s Cosmetics & Dietary Supplement Manufacturing Event
5 - 7 November 2024

Decoding 10 Cool Marketing Ideas

  • Even during the COVID-19 pandemic, the cosmetics market continues to grow, reflecting consumer demand and marketing opportunity.
  • The most popular strategy at the moment is to highlight products made with natural ingredients and are eco-friendly.
  • Online marketing has become an essential tool for beauty brands to drive sales and success.

        Nowadays, there are many beauty brands in the market which shows that COVID has not diminished the potential of this industry, and also reflects consumers demand and unlimited marketability.

        All the well-known beauty brands have employed successful marketing strategies, including brands like L'Oréal, Yves Rocher, Biotherm, The Body Shop, Clarins, Mistine, and Cute Press, among others. In this article, we have decoded 10 of the coolest marketing ideas from these brands for aspiring beauty entrepreneurs to apply to their own businesses.

1. Universalization 

        The world-renowned brand L'Oréal has used a universalization strategy to create understanding and respect for diversity. This leads to the development of personalized beauty products for consumers in different regions. The brand also has its own laboratory to develop new products to serve different markets. 

2. Commitment to CSR

        Many beauty brands have emphasized the importance of natural ingredients, as well as issued a clear statement on supporting the environment and society, such as The Body Shop. The brand’s statement is in line with the current health-conscious and environmental-friendly trends.

3. Social Listening

        During COVID, one of the beauty brands that employed social listening effectively was Clarins. The brand received overwhelmingly positive feedback from their beauty consult service via video calls. They also have a strong social media presence by assigning an admin to actively engage with consumers online. All of these approaches enabled the brand to really discover the needs of the buyers.

4. Products with naturally derived ingredients

        The currently popular strategy is to promote products made with naturally derived and eco-friendly ingredients. Yves Rocher is one of the brands that constantly develop new natural beauty products with reasonable price points.

5. Promote hero ingredient 

        Sending out a constant message about the hero ingredient is a sure way to create brand impression. A good example is Biotherm which constantly promotes its use of plankton as active ingredient that helps restore and strengthen skin that consumers can remember easily. 

6. Branch Expansion 

        In the digital age where online shopping has a record growth, Cute Press has decided to approach marketing both online and at the counters by opening up new 18 branches, contributing to the total number of 299 stores in order to service the customers directly through their representatives, creating both brand loyalty and strong brand image.

7. Influencer Marketing

        Influencer marketing has a huge impact on purchasing decisions these days. Influencer Marketing or Key Opinion Leader (KOL) which relies on influential figures’ recommendations is used by many brands to increase sales and achieve goals.

8. Online Marketing

        Many brands use several online platforms like Shopee, Lazada or Pinkoi to establish brand presence among international customers. When their brands become known, they can use microinfluencers to help recommend their products to increase even more sales. 

9. Omnichannel Marketing

        Omnichannel marketing creates a seamless experience between online and offline worlds. Customers can use the same promotions available at the counters which facilitate and speeds up customers’ purchasing decision.

10. Exclusive product strategy

        Exclusive product strategy is used to create demand for specific products. Watson has been using this strategy by creating their own House Brand as well as contracting with some brands to only sell particular products via Watson’s channels.

        Some examples of Thai brands that have used online marketing successfully include Zenn.th, a groundbreaking cosmetic brand that has taken only a few years to establish popularity among young Chinese beauty fans with their Durian-scented lip gloss that sold over 600,000+ units in a few months. They have since moved on to omnichannel strategy by selling their products at stores like EVE AND BOY, BEAUTRIUM, KIS BEAUTY and COSMO Beauty.

        Another successful Thai brand is 4U2 ​​Cosmetics. After having discovered from a survey that customers tend to buy lipsticks easier than other products, the brand has begun to develop[p lipsticks with high quality, affordable prices and attractive packaging. Thus, young consumers like to take photos of the products and post on their social media, contributing to the organic growth of brand awareness which is very impressive.

References (all in Thai language):

6 ideas for marketing segmentation to increase sales.

https://stepstraining.co/strategy/6-idea-for-marketing-segmentation

Strategies to transform Thai beauty business into a billion Baht enterprise.

https://www.krungsri.com/th/plearn-plearn/strategy-transform-thai-beauty-business

Unique business strategies & models.

https://www.loreal.com/th-th/thailand/pages/group/strategy-and-model-th/

Unlock 12 marketing lessons from The Big Four cosmetic brands in France.

https://brandinside.asia/marketing-cosmetics-france/

Deep dive into strategies of Thai cosmetic brand Zenn.th on the creation of "durian-scented lipsticks" that sell over 600k units in China.

https://www.brandbuffet.in.th/2021/03/zenn-th-thai-costmetic-durian-scented-lipstick-in-china-market/

Learn how the famous Yves Rocher brand transforms the business to be sustainable.

https://www.brandbuffet.in.th/2020/01/yves-rocher-with-tranformation-to-be-sustainable/

Image from Watsons

https://www.watsons.co.th/who_we_are