So, you may have heard, we're selling limited edition run of graphic tees that feature nine women. When I came up with the idea of celebrating some of the greatest female founders in the beauty industry, past, present, and future, I thought of each representative as a mini case study. Each one of them changed the industry in a fundamental way in such that their mark is still everywhere you look (or will be very soon). I hope you enjoy my blurbs about each of them, and will include links for you to learn more.
-Karen
First Emily Weiss built her audience. Then she made a brand, just for them. From Into the Gloss to Glossier - the ultimate millennial brand. By that I mean this is the opposite of a typical corporation that defines what's beautiful, what's not; what's trendy, what's not; here's a new launch of something you don't need but will make money. It's about the customer first. And like, every company claims to be customer-centric, but so rarely is it truly followed-through in every possible way.
I purchased my first Glossier product because of the bubble-wrap encased pink pouch. I asked my friend Emma, where can I get that? And she's like, "Oh, this? It came with my purchase from Glossier," as she put on her BoyBrow. My friend Emma is pretty much the Glossier girl. She's effortlessly cool, so immediately I was like, yep, gotta buy some BoyBrow, like ASAP. Later down the road, I asked her what scent she was wearing. You bet I bought Glossier's You perfume after finding out she wore it.
And that's kind of how Glossier works. There's all this slick marketing, but weirdly, it's still very word of mouth. Perhaps it's the nature of direct-to-consumer business. You don't want to buy completely blindly, so you ask someone you trust what they think. The early adopters with their trigger-happy "add-to-cart" fingers get the products. And of course, often times early adopters are those "cool girls" who are in the know. Like, Emma is for me. For Glossier I was a second-wave adoptee.
Several friends and co-workers since have asked me what I think of Glossier and what products I recommend. Despite the hundreds of glowing reviews, people still look to familiar faces and trusted friends to ask what they think. Catchy-marketing campaigns can only get you so far itn this game. When you need people to talk about your products, the products themselves better be good.
I think what's not talked about as much is how much of a tech company Glossier is. A lot of the Glossier product is the user experience. There's a lot of innovation and engineering happening at every step of the consumer journey. The whole online experience is all about removing friction. It's so not an out of the box site. On the desktop version of the home page, you can add most of their products to your cart. All without clicking away from page 1.
Definitely check out these links:
Next up: Rihanna
Previously: Huda Kattan
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