The consumer buying journey has been upended over the last several years, due, in part, to the rise of product discovery on social media, an altered DTC e-commerce landscape and the beauty industry’s emphasis on omnichannel. Suffice to say, the shopping journey is not linear.
On Monday, during a one-day LTK Beautiful event hosted in Miami, several beauty industry leaders and veterans discussed the challenges this new nebulous journey presents, the way it alters how brands work with content creators and the overall implications moving forward. Below are excerpts from the conversation.
Strategizing around TikTok
“TikTok has proved to be a channel where we can lean into showing [product] efficacy and can be reactionary and relevant with it. We’re excited to continue evolving our TikTok strategy, particularly as we think about diversifying our [digital] omnichannel and different ways to monetize the e-commerce journey.” –Lisa Bobroff, vp of global communications and community engagement at Olaplex
“We also use TikTok as a research and listening tool because brands can, in some cases, be [overly] prescriptive with their [creator] briefs. We’re trying to get away from that and look at how our products come to life and who’s interested in it. We can see how consumers or creators will go and talk about the brand and what research they do. … We’re definitely trying to work on [TikTok] as a search engine. It’s at a different level because it’s intent-based, and it’s very different from Instagram.” –Heidi Jessop-Maund, svp of digital at Tata Harper
“Our top two priority channels are TikTok and Instagram, but with different objectives. Search [investment] specifically would be TikTok, followed by Pinterest, actually. With TikTok, specifically, … my team produces content so that we can be found in user searches. We also have always-on paid media for boosting our content creator partners, whether it’s something based on a trend or something for us that’s specific to a launch or it’s one of our cause initiatives. We try to use TikTok for its search component all the way down to paid media.” –Sarah Shaker, head of brand engagement at Maybelline
Leveraging content creators
“Creators sit everywhere in the marketing funnel. We work with top-tier, even celebrity creators, who serve as awareness drivers and drive brand relevancy. Then we move down to the micro and nano creators whose communities see them as a real-life friend.” –Sarah Shaker, head of brand engagement at Maybelline
“In this coming year, all brands will rely heavily on technology. I’m excited to see all the new advancements and empower both the [creator and brand] sides to make it more mutually beneficial.” –Heidi Jessop-Maund, svp of digital at Tata Harper
“We need to strategize on objectives, make sure we’re working with influencers and long-term partnerships so it does feel authentic. And we know we’ll find more sellers that way.” –Liz Wong, vp of digital channels at Elemis
Expectations for the influencer economy
“[The future is] pairing authenticity with authority. For our brand, we’re looking at derms or estheticians who can not only share the product because they love it — you have an authentic relationship with the brand — but they’re also recommending it to you and can educate you on the product.” –Liz Wong, vp of digital channels at Elemis
“The first [expectation] is a continued professionalization of the creator economy and the various regulations we see within that. The second is how brands capitalize on the monetization of social commerce, such as TikTok Shop. And finally, leaning more into nano- or micro-influencers for engaged communities.” –Lisa Bobroff, vp of global communications & community engagement at Olaplex
“The proliferation of affiliate and performance influencer marketing has led us to be able to scale that business, and I think that will happen a lot this year. Hopefully, that gives you more time to foster the relationships that are paid placement.” –Heidi Jessop-Maund, svp of digital at Tata Harper
“Anyone can be a creator, and anyone can then become influential. So there are voices we haven’t heard from yet that will drive a lot of our businesses. [We also looking at] the future of social selling social commerce, and whether it can be adopted in the U.S. like it is in China or the Eastern market.” –Sarah Shaker, head of brand engagement at Maybelline
