Glossier: A Brand You Can Be Friends With
Glossier launched its first products in 2014 and had gained an immense amount of success ever since. It had shifted from a mediocre beauty blog into a juggernaut in the beauty industry valued at over $1 billion. Unlike other renowned beauty brands, the key was not using complex algorithms to track consumer behaviour but instead building emotional connections with their customers through amiable social media presence.
Treat Customers Like Friends
Glossier invested most of the day interacting with their followers on Instagram. They would answer questions and comments daily. They already had a big community — thanks to Into The Gloss, the beauty blog that kicked start the brand — but as they gained more spotlight, Glossier were able to build a cult-like following.
Glossier set apart from their competitors by continuously engaging their customer in order to create products that resonated with the followers’ needs. Every product they launched were result of a co-creation process between the community and the brand. When the brand diligently cultivated interest to fulfill their customers’ needs, the customers would reward them with fierce loyalty.
On Twitter, Glossier focused on building friendly and approachable rapport rather than flooding their feed with non-stop promotion. Their tweets were witty and relatable, inviting people to retweet or response to the posts.
Turn Customers Into Influencers & Evangelists
Other thing that should be highlighted was Glossier’s strategy to encourage their Instagram followers to post their own beauty regime and tag the brand’s social account. They turned ordinary girls into social media influencers and evangelists featuring their products. Their authentic, humanizing, and personal approach image seemed to be the mindset behind Glossier’s high engagement rate. People would post snazzy pictures that feature Glossier’s products and write good reviews to be worthy of Glossier’s repost.
This user-generated content played a dominant role in uplifting Glossier’s sales, as Emily Weiss the CEO & Founder of Glossier, said that 70% of their sales come from direct/organic/referral traffic. Moreover, this strategy cut a large chunk of budget used for marketing expenses.
Not Glossier-centric
Glossier implemented a slightly different strategy on YouTube. Their most-watched content was a series called Get Ready With Me, featuring women doing their beauty routines. The women were often bare-faced at the beginning of the video before gradually applying their skincare and makeup — not to cover up their flaws but instead to make their physical features stood out. The series were fascinating because the videos often included products from other brands. Glossier aimed to add value to their brand by producing informative an helpful contents, as opposed to blatant Glossier-centric sales pitch.
In conclusion, social media had effectively helped Glossier to bring their community together and connect with the brand. The biggest attribute to Glossier’s success was their tenacity in building emotional commerce experience that was focused on a breath of connection not a breath of product. Nowadays, an emotional connection matters more than customer satisfaction. To capture customers’ trust, brands must first understand their market on a personal level. However, as competitors have begun to level the playing field on social media, Glossier must find the next innovative ways to keep relevant in forefront of the 21st century beauty industry.
What’s your next move, Glossier?
