Merit’s Signature: A Lipstick, A Shade and An Icon
Merit Beauty was born as a solution to the overwhelming world of beauty. They seek to provide quality solutions and simplify makeup for people.
After asking their followers in an Instagram post what color shades they wanted in their Signature Lip formula, Merit delivered in may of this year.
Merit launched their new shade Ginger into their Signature Lip Collection lineup. This came after several of their customers wishes to have a lip shade to pair up with their Flush Balm blush in shade Beverly Hills.
This brand is not only known for their elegant aesthetic, but for showing their makeup in more mature skin. Merit is no stranger in pairing up with women over their forties — an unusual feat for a makeup brand — to market their makeup. A clear example of this is when Kelly Rutherford, better known for her portrayal of Lily Van der Woodsen in Gossip Girl, went viral on TikTok for her Get Ready With Me using Merit products.
However, for this campaign, Merit tapped in fashion icon Grace Coddington to be the new face of their new shade, Ginger.
This move made exquisite sense for the brand: tapping in a famous redhead for their new shade, while simultaneously being famous for leaving her own signature in the fashion world.
The announcement of their new shade, as well as the campaign rollout, was done on Instagram and TikTok, where makeup brands historically, make more noise.
It’s no secret that TikTok revolutionized the makeup industry. TikTok is where trends start and where consumers look into before buying a product — especially when it comes to makeup. Consumers on this platform foster consideration depending on what their key opinion leaders are using at the moment and with the rise of Get Ready With Me videos, makeup has never had a larger platform.
Merit’s marketing team took a note on that and made sure to showcase first and foremost, the color of the lipstick. Almost everything was made in video format, attuned to the way most people consume ads these days.
There were videos showcasing how the new color showed up in different skin tones, how you could paired it up with their blush shade Beverly Hills, and let’s not forget the one where the face of the shade, Grace Coddington, tells the viewer a little about herself.
This makeup brand does an excellent work of showcasing their products and shades in a way that does not feel in-your-face. Their casual and nonchalant ways of filming Get Ready With Me or sometimes not even saying the brand name, but putting the name of products where the viewer can easily read has become their signature to market themselves.
Making their campaign on platforms like Instagram and TikTok while having someone more mature to be the new face, showed who Merit wanted to buy their new shade — everyone.
Merit’s unusual multigenerational target and impecable visuals make up for the success that is the brand currently. While Ginger was a shade added to an already existing collection of fan favorite lipsticks, little can be said about it’s monetary success just yet.
However, Merit Beauty has been on the rise since their beginnings and it has been reported to be on track to surpass their $100mm 2023 revenue in 2024.
Nonetheless, the TikTok world seems to like the shade according to the number of pages of content you get when you search for it’s name, so maybe that’s all that matters, right?
