How may I help you?
If you want to promote authentic, positive customer conversations about your brand, take a look at hospitality.
Last week, we had the pleasure of sponsoring and attending DynamicMTL’s One & All. Here, the topic was brought up by Ali Weiss, SVP of marketing at Glossier in her conversation with Alex Nemeroff of Dynamo.
As Weiss explains, Glossier began as Into the Gloss, “a website dedicated to beauty that explores the routines of inspiring women”. When they interviewed these women, they found their beauty routine leaned heavily on a traditional brand approach. At the beauty counter, the attendant suggested that they had a problem, maybe pale lips, or dry skin, and that they could buy the solution from the store. The people at Gloss wanted something different. Instead, they wanted beauty routines that focused on what people wanted to enjoy. They were looking for something leaning more towards hospitality. To that end, in 2014, Glossier was created.
Brands generally try to ensure you have a need and buy their solution.
Hospitality is about offering an experience, making the moment enjoyable.
This hospitality mindset pairs well with Glossier’s target audience: someone who takes ownership of their beauty routine and shares it with friends. To facilitate this communication, every aspect of the product is created as a way to start this conversation. When you’re thinking about how customers can enjoy every product interaction, from seeing it on the shelf, to unboxing, to sticking it on their face, every interaction helps to drive the customer to create and share authentic stories. Hospitality and the desire for customer-created content work together. It creates some interesting solutions, like this Moon mask lid where the package was created specifically with the Instagrammer in mind. It’s not just fun, it’s smart.
Weiss’ talk encompasses much more than this, but I think this thought presents some interesting questions on its own:
- Is your product trying to create a need or create joy?
- How might you incorporate a new element of hospitality into your work?
- What might happen?
If you want more of Weiss’ talk, you can check it out (just after the 2 hour mark in the first half), along with the rest of One & All right here:
Thanks for reading! If you like the post, give it a clap. If you’re wondering what else we’re thinking about, follow the publication. You might also like my last post, about Sebastian Speier’s talk and making things more challenging for the customer.
