The document discusses how The Beauty Company (TBC) utilized a social media strategy to successfully launch the beauty brand Jabot Cosmetics. Some key points: 1) TBC built excitement before launch by creating a microsite and active Facebook/Twitter pages to engage over 1,000 consumers who provided feedback. 2) On launch day, TBC drove consumers to watch the brand's debut on TV and online via social media. Over 12,000 visited the microsite within hours. 3) Ongoing social media efforts like contests and reviews helped Jabot products sell out on HSN and gain thousands of new customers within two months. TBC's social media approach was critical to Jabot's

1. MARKETING n by ALISA MARIE bEyER
MATTERS
Let Her Do the Talking:
A Case Study for Social Media
So much more than merely talking to your consumers, social media has emerged as the fastest and
most effective way for a brand to reach its consumers in a world where new modes of communication
seem to appear every day—and it’s not the brands that are leading the charge.
I
f you had asked 10 years ago where Restless), The Beauty Company (TBC) Before Jabot was set to debut, we began
we thought the future of beauty brand played a key role in defining critical brand building excitement and consumer buzz
marketing might be headed, I doubt elements for this launch. It included work with a microsite—a fake front website solely
too many of us would have answered, “to on brand positioning and visual identity; designed to build buzz about the brand
a website called Facebook,” let alone any designing brand assets, logos and taglines; with videos and video tutorials, brand and
website at all. So much more than just a writing creative copy; and managing the spokesperson photography, and multiple
place we go to check e-mail or read the photographic representations of the brand, highly visible “Sign up now” buttons to
news, the Internet—and especially social as well as its spokesperson identification encourage consumers and fans to opt in to
media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, and management. We also took a pivotal receive Jabot updates. By reaching out to
YouTube and FourSquare—have become marketing role, creating all marketing consumers in this way before launch, we built
one of the most important ways to connect collateral and the website, and as we took on a base of consumers already interested in our
directly with consumers, and they have these challenges, we simultaneously worked brand to help drive interest and excitement
undeniably altered the marketing landscape with real women to gather feedback on ideas when the launch happened.
for everyone. and follow their lead on the creation of the Concurrently with creating the microsite,
These days, consumers turn to the Web brand. Social media is all about interaction we also began constructing a robust, fully
first for just about everything. Need to with consumers, and with Jabot, we pushed integrated and active Facebook page—and,
know where your closest Sephora is located? the boundaries of this interaction. Here’s to a lesser degree, Twitter and YouTube sites.
Google it. Looking for the name of the how we did it. Designed specifically to play up the brand
lipstick Taylor Swift is wearing in her latest photography, the Facebook page was very
Cover Girl ad? Head to the Cover Girl visual, featuring lots of before-and-after
website. Want to tell your favorite movie
Build the Base photos, as well as images of the spokesperson,
star how much you love her new hairstyle? To kick-start our social media efforts and the products, and candid photos of the team in
Visit her Facebook page. The Internet has not get the word out on the street about Jabot, action. We also created pages for user reviews,
only allowed us to connect with consumers TBC built a database of more 1,000 beauty downloadable consumer product usage guides,
and consumers to connect with us, but consumers, taken from our own Pink Panel, and information on how to get the Jabot look.
for consumers to connect with all aspects and invited these women to learn about, use Once built, the TBC’s beauty ambassadors
of our brands in an extremely intimate and experience Jabot through our Brand began to organically stoke the page by
and immediate way. And just like any Ambassador Program, a program that interacting with other fans, talking about the
relationship, time, attention and excitement allows consumers to try new products even products, providing feedback on their results,
must be funneled into the care and growth before they hit the shelves. They were then and engaging and interacting with consumers
of this part of your business if you want to asked to offer feedback and dialogue about to build excitement and demand for a brand
stay relevant. Jabot’s products and brand in a constructive, that wasn’t even launched yet.
As a member of the team who helped exciting and innovative way with other
bring the beauty entertainment brand Jabot consumers. Before even a single product
Cosmetics to life (from its origins as a faux
Build the Buzz
went on sale, we had an established database
cosmetic company featuring prominently that provided a foundation for all future On June 19, Jabot made its official debut live
on the CBS soap opera The Young and the social media marketing efforts. on the red carpet at the 2011 Daytime Emmy
24 Marketing Matters GCI November 2011

2. Awards. To capitalize on this opportunity, we Be the Star By now, the importance of a solid social
took a multipronged social media approach. media strategy shouldn’t be a new concept
Callout boxes and buttons encouraged The result: When all was said and done, this to any of us, but the rapid advancements in
consumers to watch the show on Jabot’s social media marketing paid off tenfold. how to approach this strategy, which seems
Facebook page and microsite, members of Here are just a few highlights: to reinvent itself on a daily (if not moment-
the beauty ambassador program tweeted • The day it launched, the Jabot microsite to-moment) basis may be. By creating a
about the show, and a social media agency had more than 12,000 unique visitors. compelling and dynamic social media
hired full-time for this initiative provided • The official Jabot website saw more than strategy that includes consumers from the
streaming Facebook updates and drove 11,000 unique visitors within two hours of very start—maybe even before any product
continuous fan interaction. To complement launch. is available for sale—your brand will have a
the Facebook activity, we hosted a Twitter • The first three HSN Jabot premieres keen edge over the competition that is both
promotion that gave one fan a trip to the completely sold out. fun and strategic, and it keeps your brand on
Daytime Emmy Awards, where she walked • It also sold out of all three launch SKUs their mind—and perhaps more importantly,
the red carpet and met our spokesperson, within one hour on HSN. in their status updates. n GCI
actress Tracey E. Bregman. • Via these efforts, we were able to add
Next, launching on HSN with three more than 35,000 new names into the
20-minute shows, we drove consumers to Jabot database during one weekend.
ALISA MArIe Beyer is the founder
HSN.com via a huge media e-mail blast • In just eight weeks, the Jabot Facebook and creative director of The Beauty Company
to our database, as well as with ongoing, page had nearly 600,000 post views. (TBC), a global beauty consulting firm offering
integrated social media updates on the • After only two months in-market, six business, strategy, consumer intelligence and
Facebook page (where, again, the brand Jabot SKUs have near perfect five-star branding. Serving its clients at every stage
customer ratings on HSN.com, and six of development (from start-ups to 13 of the
ambassadors stepped in to interact with
top 15 global beauty companies), TBC intimately understand the
consumers and share their Jabot stories), have been deemed as “customer picks,” industry, the consumer and the market, and becomes an integral
and the websites, fan pages and social media which indicates the product as a top- part of each client or project team. alisa@benchmarkingco.com;
outlets of the brand’s strategic partners. rated favorite by HSN.com users. www.benchmarkingco.com
Notably, we engaged the official The Young
and the Restless Facebook fan page to post
status updates about the launch, which
generated massive fan migration to the
Jabot-specific website and Facebook page
and helped us capture more than 35,000
new e-mail addresses and 7,000 new fans in
one night.
Once Jabot was in-market, we hosted
multiple fan-based contests and initiatives,
and maintained consistent interaction on
all our fan pages in order to create the kind
of fun and exciting online environment
that consumers demand and keeps them
coming back for more. Using the TBC Pink
Panel database, we ran a gifting program
via Facebook to help garner positive product
reviews: any consumer who purchased Jabot
was invited to visit the HSN or Jabot Facebook
pages and write a product review, and those
who did received a red velvet Jabot bag. We
also created an interactive User Guide, which
allowed consumers to replicate makeup looks
seen on Jabot’s before-and-after models and
drove consumers to HSN.com for purchase.
Perhaps most critically, we maintained
consistent, thoughtful interaction with all the
fans and consumers who visited the Facebook
page and left comments, which allowed us
to create a strong sense of community and
react to any negative comments quickly and
proactively.
www.GCImagazine.com Marketing Matters 25