Social Media Case Study: Estee Lauder

The primary market for most companies who utilise social media in their marketing strategies is B2C communication. The real drive behind this is because social media lends itself well for B2C strategies, since social media is fundamentally based on sharing, whether it be ideas, information or products. Companies have thus taken up this opportunity to transform consumers into brand ambassadors and use them as vehicles to promote their company and products amongst online communities. Whilst there are many case studies on how social media and B2C marketing indeed compliment each other, it is important to understand how companies can take the most out of this unique media.

This article will examine Estee Lauder’s B2C marketing for their cosmetics division, with their “Lets Play Makeover” campaign.

As a prestigious and global skin care and cosmetics company, Estee Lauder saw an opportunity to tap into the increasing share of older women – mothers in particular – who were using social media. They thus created the Estee Lauder “Let’s Play Makeover” Facebook application. Which in essence is a virtual makeover tool. Women could upload their photos and use Estee Lauder products to create virtual make-up. This is a significant change to cosmetics marketing because it allows potential consumers to test and trial make-up in the privacy of their own homes before making purchases. Prior to this, women would have to make appointments with their local cosmetics provider to sit down and go through various foundations, blushes, eye-shadows etc before making a purchase decision. Of course, whilst some may point out this is an important step in B2C cosmetic marketing – since it fully engages users in product experience – it is ultimately time-consuming. For mothers, Estee Lauder’s application saves time and also lets them experiment with make-up at their own leisure.

The effectiveness of this application is underscored by how it also integrates the full shopping experience by indicating to users which specific makeup they are using, from the eye-shadow to foundation colour – and seals the deal by allowing them to purchase their chosen products online. The sharing aspect of social media is also encouraged, as the application lets users share their makeovers and before/after shots with friends.
Another important note with Estee Lauder’s approach is that this is not a one-off application, as women will want to update their looks with each season. Estee Lauder can thus update their latest product range to reflect the seasons’ trends. This B2C approach thus compliments the trends of the cosmetics industry, and its effectiveness lies in its ability to consistently promote and engage users with Estee Lauder’s products in a way that compliments the needs of users.

As we’ve discussed before, social media campaigns should not just be considered as a separate entity. It’s effectiveness in B2C marketing especially can be enhanced with other marketing methods. This example in particular shows how to effectively tie in offline promotions with social media marketing. By giving away free foundation and promotional products at department stores, the company transformed product interest to actual sales by bringing people into retail stores and counters. The underlying strategy with Estee Lauder’s “Lets Play Makeover” campaign is thus to use social media as the major point of purchase, but at the same time, offer alte
atives for users to make purchases, ultimately allowing them to fully engage with their products and services whichever way they prefer.