Gone are the days when every household had beauty magazine subscriptions. In a world where social media is all the rage, brands are finding ways to integrate new digital concepts into their marketing departments. But how does a new player revolutionize the cosmetics industry when legacy brands like MAC cosmetics, Loreal, and Estee Lauder rule the market? You go digital!
Founded in 2014, Colourpop revolutionized the cosmetics industry by selling their cruelty-free affordable cosmetic products through social media and e-commerce.1 Today, Colourpop is a multimillion-dollar brand that has expanded into other beauty products for the eyes, face, lips, and body that can be found online or in popular cosmetic retailers.
During the mid-2010s, I was trying to discover who I was as a person and make my appearance reflect who I wanted to be – but I did not know where to start or what products to use. As a college student, I needed makeup that was affordable but also high quality. Searching for affordable makeup tutorials on YouTube introduced me to Colourpop. The California-based beauty brand provided me with the perfect $8 mauve lipstick that lasted the entire school day. Read on to learn how Colourpop stands out in the oversaturated beauty market:
Social media has become a part of life, with over 3 billion users combined on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. The way we use social media has changed from status updates and birthday announcements to algorithms influencing the content we see today. What better way to place specific content about a product in front of users searching and interested in it?
Colourpop is an early adopter of influencer marketing, utilizing YouTube beauty gurus like Kathleen Lights and Nikkie Tutorials to showcase their lip products in makeup tutorials, favorite videos, and more. Micro-influencers (influencers with 1,000 to 100,000 followers) allow the brand to connect with their target digital audience. Followers are more comfortable hearing a review from an influencer that they watch 2-3 times a week vs. a celebrity endorsement seen on TV. Consumers tend to connect with influencers because they seem raw, unfiltered, and as familiar as an IRL friend. Influencers typically film inside their own houses, give raw reviews of the product, and provide viewers with a first look at the product in action with little to no editing.
The cosmetics industry is heavily saturated with affordable favorites like Cover Girl, Loreal, and Maybelline; Colourpop had to think outside the box to differentiate themselves. As in fashion, luxury cosmetic lines release products on a seasonal basis. Colourpop created products with great pigmentation in a wide range of colors to attract millennials who wanted high-quality items without the luxury brand price. Consumers no longer had to commit to using one color; they could now afford all the colors for a fraction of the cost.
Another millennial habit is to seek transparency in the products they are purchasing – almost 1 in 3 millennials won’t buy from brands with political values that don’t align with their own.2 Colourpop appeals to these millennial values by keeping their labs and production within the United States to reduce the waste associated with international production and offering products that are 100% animal cruelty-free.3
With a not-so-traditional start, Colourpop continued to transform the makeup industry by introducing some cutting-edge tactics. We use the term “Indie” to indicate when a business develops a red ocean strategy (one that exploits existing demand vs. creating demand for a new product) to compete within an existing market. These brands are trying to capture a market and forge their own path without reinventing the wheel. Consumers want to support the “little guy” vs. a larger corporation making all the money. Colourpop did this by using social media influencers, cruelty-free practices, and producing high-quality, affordable products.
Colourpop also used collaborations to rise to fame by teaming up with their faithful social media influencers to create new cosmetics products or colors. Through the partnership, a social media influencer would reap the benefits of having their name on a product from an existing successful brand like Colourpop. These product launches have sold out within days or in the first week. Popular brands like Sailor Moon, Halo Top Creamery, Disney, and Hello Kitty have also teamed up with Colourpop in the past to capture the attention of their followers and create unique products brand admirers have never seen before.
Lastly, Colourpop used a direct-to-consumer strategy that removed middlemen like Walmart or Macys. Utilizing e-commerce as their means to market allowed the brand to sell products with reduced overhead costs and pass the savings directly to consumers. The brand created a solid organic following online before it ever thought to make its entrance into a physical store space ( which eventually happened four years later in Ulta Beauty stores across the United States).
Colourpop successfully carved out a place for a new brand in an established and commoditized market by embracing digital marketing channels and upholding values that appeal to their audience, forging smart partnerships, and providing high-quality products for a reasonable price.
1 https://www.voguebusiness.com/beauty/colourpop-social-media-success-seed-cosmetics-kylie-cosmetics-kkw-beauty 2 https://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/322261/millennials-want-brands-with-values-but-really.html#:~:text=The%20top%20words%20or%20phrases,but%20not%20near%20the%20top. 3 https://steemit.com/beauty/@camposmusing/colourpop-your-way-down-through-history-let-s-talk-affordable-cruelty-free-beauty
As a marketing specialist, Jessica is responsible for collecting, analyzing, and managing Data Axle’s marketing strategies & performance. She focuses on tracking the inbound lead process and reporting on the analytics so the marketing department can get an understanding of the effectiveness of campaigns and make data-driven decisions for future strategies. Jessica is a graduate of Illinois State University and an MBA graduate of Aurora University. In her free time, Jessica likes to travel to new places, take pictures with her DSLR, or create one of a kind crafts with her Cricut.