Experience Marketing in Cosmetics: Advanced Marketing Examples

While it may seem like a new, untested concept, you can find examples of experience marketing in cosmetics, fashion, consumer goods, and more. When a shopper truly engages with a product, she can clearly articulate attributes or differentiators of that product. This, according to Joel Benson, CEO of experiential marketing firm EventNetUSA, "leads to word of mouth referrals which, more often than not, happen via social media. Word of mouth is the most efficient and credible marketing campaign because consumers make recommendations based on their personal experience."

Personal recommendations like this are paramount in that most personal retail category, cosmetics, which generates over $265 billion in sales. Experiential marketing is particularly important in this industry because product sampling is a key sales element. So, too, are demonstrations on how to apply and use the products to best effect.

Experience Marketing in Cosmetics: Industry Leader L’Oreal

L’Oréal’s color cosmetics brand, NYX Professional Makeup, just opened a digitally enhanced online/IRL store in Silicon Valley’s Santa Clara. It represents a new trial strategy for NYX, one that is part of an industry-wide movement. According to company messaging, "NYX retail stores are a one-of-a-kind addition to the beauty retail world. Fully loaded with unique digital features, the stores bring the passion and innovation of the online beauty world into a bricks and mortar retail environment."

NYX plans to open similar stores around the nation. These stores will offer video tutorials, digital walls to post selfies, and various high- and low- tech ways for shoppers to experiment with products and get application tips from professionals. Once again quoting from NYX’s release, "NYX Professional Makeup has a global online community made up of millions of beauty fans who look to beauty artists and influencers on multiple digital platforms for personal inspiration. Our new line of stores was created for these consumers."

Sephora uses Experience Marketing in Cosmetics Advertising

With 2,900 stores around the globe Sephora is one of the world’s leading cosmetics retailers. Part of the LVMH empire, it has become a leader in omnichannel innovation. Its in-store digital experiential initiatives brilliantly use digital to enhance customers’ experiences. Sephora leverages technology to create an in-store playground where its customers can learn, experiment, sample, and engage with products with their friends. It gives its customers just the right amount of information, as they need it, tailored to their needs, knowledge, and interests.

The in-store experiences teach customers how to use the products via video tutorials, classes with Sephora experts, and online content sharing. Sephora’s online content is modeled on YouTube make-up tutorials, which are hugely popular. Another Sephora in-store tool is the Pocket Contour, which teaches its customers facial contouring techniques. A shopper uploads a photo of herself to the app and receives an analysis of her face-shape, and precise contouring advice on how to apply make-up for the look she desires.

Sephora stays at the vanguard of innovation because of its San Francisco-based Innovation Lab. The Lab is a think tank that brings together cross-functional teams from across the company to brainstorm, evaluate, develop, and launch new offerings and technologies for both in-store and online experience. Sephora also focuses on customer data analysis to better understand and anticipate shoppers’ needs and behavior.

Originally was published here.

Anthony Mandelli is a Social Media Marketing Manager