It’s a good hair day!

3 min readJul 10, 2018

Beauty isn’t a new topic. Skincare, haircare and cosmetics have always been used; from ancient Egypt to the 90’s Girls Band. However, we clearly observe an increase in interest for this category, especially among millennials, both in terms of information and spending. Beauty-related content views on Youtube have consistently increased over the past 10 years (see graph below), the most popular types of content by share of views being tutorials (1). And millennials are buying and using almost 25% more cosmetics than they did just two years ago and significantly more than baby boomers, according to the research firm NPD (2).

Annual beauty-related content views on YouTube from 2009 to 2017 (in billions)

What’s new is rather what millennials are looking for when they are about to make a beauty purchase. First and foremost, they want a product that perfectly does the job: cleaning, moisturising, colouring, etc. That’s what incumbent beauty brands have been offering for ages. Think about Nivea moisturising cream or Head & Shoulders shampoo. These are efficient products but not really inspiring.

Actually, being “functional” isn’t sufficient anymore. Millennials want beauty products to which they can relate, that represent the values they believe in. The first value would be transparency. Have you ever noticed how now every beauty shopper is looking at the back of the packaging to check the list of ingredients? And this quest for transparency also applies to the way beauty products are made, ‘cruelty free’ being the new norm. The second value would be empowerment. Millennials expect beauty products to enable them to become a better version of themselves (the same way they expect it from food, travel, fitness). And that’s only 2 of the main values pursued by millennials, not to mention authenticity and inclusivity among others.

That’s why, I believe that beauty brands need to move from a “functional” approach to an “emotional” approach. By building brand affinity, beauty brands will benefit from more loyal customers and customers more keen to genuinely promote them. The key to build this affinity is to share an authentic story that inspires your audience, that uses a tone of voice aligned with your target millennial community values. By relating to this story, millennials create a strong and lasting emotional link with the brand. And what better way to convey transparency and authenticity than using social media and their influencers? As explained in my last article about travel, social media, and especially Instagram, influence millennial consumption desires: 34% of millennials claim that they like a brand more when it uses social media (vs 16% of older generation) (3), more especially when brands use micro influencers who appear to be more trustworthy than traditional brands ads. That could explain why fashion and beauty brands, who offer very visual products, are the top 2 categories for partnerships with Instagram influencers in 2017 (4). However, interestingly enough, less than 25% of beauty-related Youtube videos mention a brand name cosmetic (5).

Several emotional brands have emerged over the past years in cosmetics and skincare, the most well-known and innovative one being Glossier. These brands have been able to leverage the “Instagrammability” of red lips and face mask, and to build engaged communities thanks to a solid brand and content strategy. However, I can’t spontaneously name any hair care brand with whom I would have built an emotional link, even though I am buying shampoo on a very regular basis. And how Instagrammable a good hair day could be! There is an interesting play in this space to be done and I can’t wait to see who will finally inspire us to have more good hair days.

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It’s a good hair day!

Written by Emilie Spire