Inside Maybelline's plan to fight back against beauty upstarts like Glossier and Fenty that are winning over hordes of millennials
- Beauty brands like Glossier and Kylie Cosmetics are shaking up ecommerce with direct-to-consumer models, while brands like Fenty promote inclusive messaging.
- Meanwhile, legacy brands like L'Oreal, Estee Lauder, and Coty are trying to do the same and revamping how they talk to younger audiences who are accustomed to shopping online.
- L'Oreal-owned Maybelline plans to lean heavily into its marketing centering on New York City and is investing in technology like chatbots to compete with upstarts.
- Maybelline is also experimenting with new products such as wax-free mascara to win over millennials.
A slew of beauty brands over the past few years have promised to rattle an industry once dominated by a few legacy companies like L'Oreal, Estee Lauder, and Coty and cater to younger consumers with direct-to-consumer models, slick ecommerce websites, and messaging that plays up diversity and inclusivity.
Now legacy brands are coming up with ways to fend off the upstarts.
Take L'Oreal-owned Maybelline. The brand is more than 100 years old and is trying to appeal to the Gen Z and millennial market through technology and new messaging.
During a press event in New York on Monday, a Maybelline exec called out Glossier and Fenty as brands with very strong brand equities "that speak highly to the young Gen Z and millennial consumer that we're trying to go after."
Chatbots will help personalize shopping
One way Maybelline wants to do so is through a chatbot.
Amy Wang, Maybelline's VP of marketing, said that Maybelline is currently developing a new platform called Maybelline Now, which will include an interactive chatbot on its website that will allow people to ask beauty-related questions and find the right shade of products like foundation.
The chatbot ties into a bigger platform that Maybelline is building to collect first-party data from a pool of its consumers. Users can set up an account to save their favorite products, according to a cryptic message on Maybelline's website.
Its ads next year will feature new "authentic" faces
Wang also said that Maybelline's ads will promote both celebrity spokesmodels like Adrianne Lima and Gigi Hadid and "other women who are just as authentic, very diverse, and bring them to life in a very natural, authentic way."
New York in particular will be a central theme of the brand's advertising. Print advertisements, for example, will feature a picture of a product alongside New York imagery on the right-side of pages while the look will be featured on the left-side of the page.
"Our mission is to portray the New York City woman," Wang said. "The unstoppable New York City girl who will never settle, she makes things happen, and she can make every look happen with confidence. We want to drive home fashion, education, New York, and diversity."
Millennials want a different kind of makeup product
In addition to technology and marketing, Maybelline is also making new products geared at millennials.
There's a wax-free mascara called Snapscara that's easier to remove with water than most mascara products. And there's an eyebrow gel that fills in eyebrows - similar to Glossier's Boy Brow product that has a cult-like following.
"We know that there are a lot of products in the market and consumers are looking for stuff that actually delivers," Wang said. "We want our items to be no hassle - in everything that we bring to women, we want to make sure that it simplifies her life and is easy to use."