Because last month was New York Fashion Week—which drained most of us—it made perfect sense to report on restorative products. Conveniently, this month’s products focus on revitalization and what to use to achieve that. Both Malin+Goetz and 3LAB promise to remove puffiness, dark circles and bags, while refreshing our baby blues, greens or browns. Skyn Iceland looks to revitalize the neck with their Hydro Cool Firming Neck Gels, while Oh My, How High! Lengthening Mascara from Butter London is formulated to bring lashes to life by lengthening and volumizing. Phytospecific offers a remedy for listless hair with Curl Legend Curl Energizing Spray, while Strivectin’s lastest line was created specifically for millennials. Although social media continues to carry weight, many brands are looking towards partnerships, increased education opportunities and sampling programs to market their beauty goods this month.
Butter London’s Oh My, How High! Lengthening Mascara
Marketer in Charge: Sarina Godin, President of Butter London
How It Works: The product is formulated to provide extreme length and dramatic volume, delivering “towering, panoramic” lashes. The sweeping curved brush contours each lash for dynamic dimension, while a jet black formula looks to add intense depth.
Waitlist Worthy: “Consumers love dramatic results. And this delivers 880 percent more volume, 186 percent more curl and 20 percent more length in just two coats,” said Sarina.
Marketing Plan: “We are excited to expand our mascara portfolio after the successful launch of Double Decker Lashes Mascara in 2016. This product will receive a coveted secondary placement in Ulta Beauty stores in a custom cash wrap unit during Ulta Beauty’s 21 Days of Beauty event,” Sarina added. The launch strategy also includes a robust public relations and digital marketing plan, with a strong focus on influencer seeding and social integration – along with an extensive deluxe-size sampling program and strategic participation in various targeted customer acquisition campaigns.
New Strategy: To drive excitement, the brand is offering an exclusive pre-launch on butterLONDON.com. The pre-launch was announced on the Butter London Instagram account, integrating the Like2Buy platform to drive both social engagement and revenue.
Get It: At butterLONDON.com, Ulta Beauty stores and online, and Nordstrom.com. Oh My, How High! Lengthening Mascara retails for $20.
Skyn Iceland Hydro Cool Firming Neck Gels
Marketer in Charge: Sarah Kugelman, CEO and Founder of Skyn Iceland
How it Works: Each single-use patch, used for only 10-minutes weekly, aims to improve tautness, blur lines and help fortify and firm crepey skin around the neck. It also looks to tighten, lift, tone, firm, smooth and refine skin’s texture.
Waitlist Worthy: Targeting stressed skin, Skyn Iceland extends its focus on the still-trendy mask category with an innovative product that hasn’t been introduced to the market yet, and that gives high performance in a short amount of time.
Marketing Plan: “The brand is aggressively pursuing influencers, specifically mother/daughter duos to do before-and-afters. We’re also partnering with esteemed makeup artists in the industry to help curate how-to video vignettes and build awareness and credibility,” said Sarah. The brand will rely on photos showing real women over the age of 40—their targeted consumer—to address real “skyn” concerns, instead of using models, which they feel the average woman doesn’t relate to. “These images will be central to the Hydro Cool Firming Neck Gels campaign and will be used across platforms and social media channels to generate awareness and drive sales,” she added. The launch will kick off with a Facebook Live video.
Get It: Ulta.com /Ulta Beauty stores, skyniceland.com and Amazon Luxury. Four Hydro Cool Firming Neck Gels retail for $35.
Malin+Goetz Revitalizing Eye Cream
Marketer in Charge: Christine Song, Vice President, Marketing
How It Works: Firming peptides help maintain the skin’s natural collagen production and smooth away the look of fine lines and wrinkles while marine algae extract helps stimulate skin renewal for an energized appearance.
Waitlist Worthy: Malin+Goetz fans will love both the silky soft, luxurious texture and powerful, comprehensive benefits. The Ultimate Eye Cream for Total Eye Revitalization is formulated to combat lines, wrinkles, dark circles, puffiness and loss of firmness, while adding radiance to brighten, reawaken the look of eyes.
Marketing Plan: “We’re doing a comprehensive 360-degree support plan, with a heavy focus on sampling as our number-one driver, including sachets and deluxe samples; leveraging digital press, social media and influencers will drive awareness,” said Christine. “Elevated in-store experiences, including the introduction of a new service-based education platform, a mini-facial service and impactful visual merchandising both in our own free-standing stores and department stores are also part of our plan.”
New Strategy: “For the first time, as an accessible luxury unisex brand built on the success of daily essential skincare solutions, we are entering a new arena of premium: advanced skin care,” she added. “The Eye Cream is actually the second of a new range of products to launch in the last six months, following the introduction of our new Recovery Treatment Oil in July.”
Get It: At Malin+Goetz stores and at malinandgoetz.com. Malin+Goetz Revitalizing Eye Cream retails for $92.
“M” Eye Brightening by 3LAB
Marketer in Charge: Susan Steitzer, President of 3LAB
How It Works: M Eye focuses on brightening, hydrating and de-puffing the delicate eye area. Formulated using ingredients such as rare Swiss apples, Fimexel, Beautifeye and Symcalmin, the lids and under eyes will appear visibly lifted and radiant while providing long lasting hydration.
Waitlist Worthy: Fans will want the immediate results as this product instantly brightens and reduces puffiness while energizing the sensitive eye area to increase circulation.
Marketing Plan: “In conjunction with our exclusive launch at Barneys New York, the entire “M” Collection will appear in a full-page spread of Barneys The Window, and will receive major in-store visual support and utilize pre-selling at counter with a generous sampling program.”
New Strategy: To capitalize on store traffic and exposure, the release will coincide with Barneys’ Love Yourself Bag event. “This strategy expands brand reach and generates added excitement as clients have increased incentive to shop during this time of year,” she said.
Get It: At Barneys New York. “M” Eye Brightening by 3LAB retails for $250.
Phytospecific Curl Legend Curl Energizing Spray
Marketer in Charge: Nathalie Clavel, Ales Group Marketing Director
How It Works: The Phytospecific Curl Energizing Spray hydrates and defines loose-to-tight curls. It’s enriched with ultra-nourishing, protein-packed botanical caviar which helps achieve sublime, full-body curls without the weight. Elasticurl, a natural curl enhancer, redesigns curls and holds their shape. Curls are hydrated, shiny and bouncy, with an ultra-soft lasting touch.
Waitlist Worthy: Curl Legend is a 94 percent botanical formula, and was created to help fans and customers achieve healthy, beautiful, shiny, healthy-looking and feeling curls.
Marketing Plan: “We place a big emphasis on an omnichannel experience and this launch’s marketing plan is no different,” said Nathalie. “We’ll be showcasing education videos, public relations events, how-to videos targeted to our customers and our stylists, e-blasts to our fan base and more. We’ll also be producing a lot of social media content that includes posts, videos, model look images, ingredient posts, product giveaways and the list goes on.” Other guerilla marketing campaign ideas include sampling opportunities with Ulta Beauty, phyto.com and in their top salons. Additionally, the brand is partnering with BehindTheChair.com to educate their stylists and generate buzz and awareness surrounding this curl revolution.
New Strategy: The company intends to go big on digital and use influencers to leverage brand awareness, “which has become a really big trend and retailers have seen this lead to a strong ROI,” she said. “So we will be partnering with Curly Girl Collective to launch and promote this product.” The partnership will be live until the Curl Fest Festival this summer.
Get It:
During March the item will sell on phyto.com and Phyto-specific salons. Ulta Beauty and Amazon will launch it in April. Curl Legend Curl Energizing Spray retails for $28.
Nia (Not Into Aging) Skincare
Marketer in Charge: Emily Stoler, Executive Director of Global Marketing of StriVectin
What It Is: Nia merges serious science with a millennial attitude in a line specifically targeted to them. The collection includes six products with names such as Fake Awake, Sunday Detox and Tech Neck. Products are packaged in boxes printed with photos pulled from consumers’ actual Instagram feeds.
Marketing Plan: The campaign speaks to millennials through situations they can relate to, such as pre-gaming on Friday night and post-party recovery on Sunday. Nia itself stands for not only the patented technology (NIA-114), but also for “Not Into Aging,” a message that is weaved throughout the campaign. It’s brought to life through messaging focused on what she is into – “into pizza,”, “into napping,” and most importantly “into healthy glowing skin.”
New Strategy: “We’re all about collaboration and are implementing a three-prong approach across brand, retailer and media outlets. Our multi-channel approach capitalizes on being an Ulta Beauty-exclusive launch and a strategic partner with Cosmopolitan. This allows the brand message to be delivered to millennials by not only Nia, but also by two major third-party authorities in the beauty space. Elements of the launch collaboration include Ulta Beauty in-store Mega Events with key influencers and a Cosmo Instagram takeover.
Get It: At launch, the entire six-piece Nia collection will be available exclusively in 300 Ulta Beauty doors nationwide, and on ulta.com. Products range from $22 to $39, plus there is a Starter Kit featuring trial sizes of three products for $20.
