Glossier is a US beauty brand that takes a direct-to-consumer approach rather than relying on retailers. The company's president believes owning the customer relationship is key to building a brand. Glossier uses social media engagement and feedback from its community of over 1.2 million Instagram followers to develop and launch new products. It spent 18 months creating its first mascara to get the formula perfect. Rather than working with influencers, Glossier has found more success engaging its hardcore base of loyal customers who provide valuable feedback.

1. Why direct-to-consumer beauty brand Glossier is ripping up
the advertising and marketing playbook
US beauty brand name Glossier doesn’t “go by the particular rules”, according to be able to
president together with chief operating officer Holly Davis.
Motivated by the huge increase associated with direct-to-consumer brands for example cups
business Warby Parker, plus shaving subscription gamers Harry’s and Dollar Get rid of
Team, Davis said he / she became obsessed with how for you to use online for inventive
purposes in order to activate individuals at size and in the end change precisely what the
idea signifies to be the buyer.
Over the past 4 years Glossier has carved out there a niche around the billion-dollar
worldwide magnificence market using an online store operation selling its array of 26 natual
skin care and even make-up products, some sort of written content arm and retailers inside
key spots through the INDIVIDUALS.
After analysing this pattern among beauty brands and stores, Davis feels present
relationships have ended in manufacturers lacking a touchable knowledge of who their buyer
really is.
“We’re significantly experiencing the decline associated with department stores, which is
unexpectedly making everybody wake right up and think ‘I need to have to know my
customer’, ” he stated, speaking in Cannes Is very last week.
“But now you’re hamstrung due to the fact you’re reliant on this money and every time you, to
be a consumer packaged goods CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, say ‘we should head out
direct-to-consumer ecommerce’, the Entrepreneurs of the big department stores or food
markets call anyone and say ‘look we would seriously rather a person didn’t because we
need your own personal buyer coming to our own shop’. There’s this cooperation as though
they’re both was standing right now there with guns from every other’s heads. ”
Glossier discount
Placing itself as typically the antithesis from the beauty industry’s big monsters, Davis
defined that Glossier is “very upfront” concerning the strategy and its organization opinion
that owning the relationship having the consumer is typically the only way to develop a brand.
The corporation is usually considered innovative, said Davis, because it owns this bottom
part of the product sales launch as it does not really depend upon any other players to make
the selling on their behalf. Additionally, the splendor brand is regarded as “extra innovative”
because it can certainly tap into this awareness area of the funnel through its material arm.
Certainly not content with the sexual penetration in these components in the sales journey,
Glossier is significantly investing time in addition to money around working outside how to
own more of the funnel higher up specifically how to “disintermediate public media”.
“Social media best suited now is the owner of the partnership with the consumer and even
we’ve recently been able to be able to work with that to find to the customer around better
ways than we're able to have done a small amount of many years before, but presently how
do we have that a person step further? ” Davis asked.
“At typically the moment Vimeo or Instagram or Facebook or myspace owns the context, the
planet and this format in which most of us talk with our unique customer and basically, if we
really consider of which having customers as a central part of the corporation is definitely the

2. way to construct brands of the forthcoming, an individual have to start to own that
relationship. ”
Instagram considering
Engagement heats up every aspect of the brand and with the establish of each product
Glossier wants to illicit an answer. The brand has already amassed more than 1. two million
readers on Instagram and the crew testing the development of each and every merchandise
by asking on their own ‘if this particular were a Instagram write-up, what would certainly the
comments become? ’
The brand launched it has the Milky Jelly Cleanser following realising that customers
certainly not included a cleanser into their ‘my top shelfies’ posting, which is where followers
share with the Glossier community there is no benefits in their bathroom cupboard.
Realizing that consumers did not come with an cast with the products previously on the
market, Glossier did exploration asking its followers that would carry out a cleanser in a film.
Emma Natural stone in addition to Eddie Redmayne won by a landslide, both stars with pale
milky skin, insights which inspired typically the formulation and design involving the particular
product.
Glossier in that case put in 18 months producing its first mascara mainly because it wanted
often the ingredients to be perfect. Shunning the trend of fast-fashion splendor products,
Davis points out that will taking 18 several weeks to get the product or service “perfect” was
actually a better enterprise decision together with was permitted by typically the fact the team
weren't constrained by the requires of an retailer.
When your friend tells, ‘you have got to try this thing’, you listen. You are unable to obtain
that much information with all the advertising and the best creatives inside the world.
Holly Davis, Glossier
“We can kick off it whenever we wish and in no matter what way we would like. That’s what a
digital will for your ability to be artistic, ” he said.
“You take away all these difficulties, you may say ‘forget precisely why points are the means
they are at this time, ’ what is best regarding the purchaser? And making decisions
depending on that is this kind of a liberating location to make from. ”
Rather then working hard with influencers, Glossier has got much more good results
interesting its hardcore basic associated with fans. For their most successful launch to time
frame the brand deliberately performed not send any product or service to influencers,
instead giving it to 500 superfans who had previously bought by far the most products or
maybe were being the best engaged.
“Customer can be at the guts of item growth, purchaser is in the heart of technique and
customer is at the center of the sale made, ” he / she explained.
“When your good friend says, ‘you have to do this thing’, you listen. You are unable to obtain
that much goodwill with the advertising and the ideal creatives in the world. That’s just what
we’re devoted to. ”