Social Media Marketing in personal care...

Cosmetics manufacturers should turn to the Internet and social networking sites to talk with consumers and spread the word about their brands according to an article in cosmeticsdesign.com.

Consumers are not only doing more and more cosmetics shopping online but they are also scouring social networking sites for information and tips on beauty matters.

Cosmetics brands need to reach out to these consumers, learn about their beauty habits and inform them about their products.

As a shopping destination the Internet is the only retail channel to be holding onto growth in the recession.

While spending dries up elsewhere, the internet is a growing source of beauty dollars.

Beauty brands can reach out to large numbers of people using social networking sites like Twitter, YouTube and Facebook.

For example, instructional videos from Gillette on body shaving published on YouTube only two weeks ago, have so far attracted well over 1 million views.

Success on YouTube has even prompted product launches. Lauren Luke, a 27 year old from the UK, whose online ‘make-up tutorials’ have attracted 40 million viewers, used her web-fame as a platform to launch a new cosmetics line entitled ‘By Lauren Luke’, with the help of Anomaly and Zorbit Resources.

What social networking sites most commonly offer is a means for existing beauty companies to reach out directly to consumers.

Social media advice

social media is “perfect for cosmetics” because it is a high-involvement category where information, feedback and testimonials from trusted sources play an important role in buying decisions.

To take full advantage of the opportunities presented by social networking sites, marketers have to be prepared to adopt a new mentality.

Wading into social networking sites and posting fake product reviews is not the way forward. Such an approach damages credibility and trust which are the values social media can help companies foster. Companies are best off entering into a discussion with consumers asking them about their beauty preferences and offering tips.

An example of a company that has gone down this route is Sephora. The beauty store has a strong and active presence on YouTube and Facebook where it talks to consumers, offers beauty tips and guides, and keeps women up to date with its latest offers.

It is not only the big social networking sites where beauty companies can interact with their existing and potential consumers. There is a lot of activity in niche online communities where brands can talk to a more targeted audience.

Examples of such sites given by the social media expert were women’s community sites such as bellasuga.com, glamour.com and epicurean.com.

So far relatively few companies have really exploited online opportunities and many big beauty companies are set to lose out to smaller more internet savvy brands unless they actively engage with their consumers on the internet.

Social media marketing is the process of promoting your site or business through social media channels and it is a powerful strategy that will get you links, attention and massive amounts of traffic.

There is no other low-cost promotional method out there that will easily give you large numbers of visitors, some of whom may come back to your website again and again.

If you are selling products/services or just publishing content for ad revenue, social media marketing is a potent method that will make your site profitable over time.

excerpts taken from cosmeticdesign.com & marketinguk.com

I think that we can even look at the activity used by bloggers such as myself and my business LH consumer Health & Beauty, this element of social media helps me to connect with clients across my sector and show my passion and understanding of the industry.

Businesses across the board must innovate now more than ever before we must actively seek out new channels to reach our consumers & clients and what better way the personal forms of social media. I suspect we've only scratched the surface and there's much more to come through this medium.

Shiseido buys Bare Escentuals for $1.7bn

Shiseido buys Bare Escentuals for $1.7bn

Mineral beauty business will operate as a separate division

Japanese cosmetics giant Shiseido is to buy the US mineral beauty company Bare Escentuals in a friendly takeover for $1.7bn. The transaction has already been approved by the Boards of Directors of both companies by a unanimous vote.

Under the terms of the tender offer, which is scheduled to start in 10 days, Shiseido will buy shares for $18.20 each, a 40.8 percent premium over Bare Escentuals’ average stock price during the last three months. Once the majority of stock is tendered, Shiseido will buy the remaining shares for the same price in a second-step merger.

Bare Escentuals’ business will operate as a separate division of Shiseido and its unique brands will continue to be managed by the current leadership team - notably ceo Leslie Blodgett - who are expected to drive future development of the business with the support of Shiseido’s significant resources, particularly given Shiseido’s extensive R&D network around the world.

"This acquisition further enables Shiseido to move towards our goal of becoming a global player representing Asia with its origins in Japan," Shiseido chief executive Shinzo Maeda said in a statement. "The operational fit and future growth prospects make this an excellent transaction for our customers, employees and shareholders."

Bare Escentuals aims to benefit from Shiseido's distribution channels in Japan and Asia, particularly its strong foothold in China.

Leslie Blodgett, added, “This is an exciting day for all of us at Bare Escentuals and I couldn’t be more pleased to be joining forces with the team at Shiseido. Together [with Shiseido], we look forward to bringing our mineral-based beauty products to even more women worldwide.”

Lets go ECO!

Eco packaging extends cosmetics shelf life

A technology that promises to extend the shelf life of cosmetics products whilst saving on packaging materials has been patented by French company Rosas.

The process, designed for thermoformer machinery, extends shelf life by complete oxygen removal, according to the company.

Significantly extending the shelf life of cosmetics will mean that products can be transported without having to regulate the temperature, giving it both economical and ecological benefits.

However, the technology is still in development. The challenge at present is to improve the quality of the plastic film, so that it remains air tight for longer.

Removing oxygen extends shelf life

Rosas maintains that removing the oxygen from a product will increase its shelf life. However with traditional thermoformer packaging methods it is difficult to remove 100 per cent of the oxygen.

The double chamber system developed by Rosas allows the tray sealing enclosure to be cleaned of oxygen before the introduction of the product. The product can similarly be completely sterilised in a separate chamber before it is introduced. This results in 100 per cent oxygen removal, says the firm.

All types of products, solid or liquid, that are packaged in this way can benefit from the technology, although further investigations need to be done into the exact extension of life possible for each product, Roland Rossi, company director at Rosas, told CosmeticsDesign.

The company states that the technology can also be used in the food and pharmaceutical industries as well as being used for packaging sensitive computer parts.

The technology also allows for up to a 15 per cent saving on the plastic film, according to Rosas, as the injection of the sterilising gases occurs in the sealing enclosure and not through perforated holes in the plastic, therefore reducing the width of the film needed.

Improving the quality of film

Rosas' has developed a prototype of the machine, however the technology is not yet available for the industry, mainly due to difficulties with the plastic film itself.

"Once heated and thermoformed the plastic doesn't remain one hundred percent air tight," Rossi said.

"In the past there was no reason to develop plastic films that would last longer as no packaging machine was able to completely remove the oxygen" he added.

The company is calling for partners to help bring this technology to the industry.