Launched in 2020, Jones Road Beauty, Bobbi Brown’s second makeup venture, has seen explosive growth in the past year. It’s particularly picked up speed since Cody Plofker, Brown’s son, took on the role of CMO in May 2022. Along with Brown becoming an accidental TikTok star and taking part in a viral feud with a mega-influencer, the company has opened its second and third brick-and-mortar stores. Bobbi Brown now has 437,000 TikTok followers and the brand has 40,000.
What have been some of the banner moments of the past year?
“When we first went viral on Tiktok, that was obviously a big moment. Before that, I was a little disappointed with our awareness and just wanted more people to know of Jones Road. I would tell somebody [about the brand] and they wouldn’t [understand], until I’d say, ‘Do you know Bobbi Brown? It’s her new brand.’ And then they were interested. So I thought, ‘We just need to make everyone aware.’
My thesis was basically that we could build her brand the way she built her first brand. She had used media that was available at the time, like going on ‘The Today Show’ and writing books. Today, TikTok is the new TV — and we’ll figure out what the new version of books is, if there is one. We started on an iPhone in January 2022, and I remember the lighting was just so terrible. But by Black Friday 2022, our sales had quadrupled year-over-year.”
Jones Road has had a big year for retail — opening not one but two new stores. Tell us about that.
“We opened our first store in Montclair, [New Jersey]. It’s two blocks away from our office, and it does really well. People travel to it from pretty far, which is so cool. Now, we’ve also got the Greenwich Village one, which is doing great. And we just opened a third in East Hampton. We don’t know where our next will be yet, but we’re actively looking. We’re all about profitability — we’re not going to rush into stores and sign leases that we’re not really comfortable with. Bobbi’s aesthetic is very clean and simple, so it’s not a huge investment. The artwork is literally printed photos. But I think that’s maybe what people find authentic and refreshing about it.”
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