A decade in, what is behind Glossier’s success as a cult millennial beauty brand? As part of our Build a Brand series, we talk to its VP of marketing to break down the formula.
Glossier initially built its brand through word of mouth packing its site and socials with reviews and endorsements from its customers. The strategy was to foster a Glossier ‘community’ encouraging its customers to create content, talk to one another, customize products and buy into its merchandise. A decade on Glossier has expanded into out-of-home, experiential marketing and added more social channels to its mix. We break down its current strategy.
Launching in 2014 as an offshoot of the popular beauty blog Into the Gloss, Glossier built a $1.8bn brand (2021 valuation) in less than 10 years. But in 2020, the business was rocked by a series of scandals exposing a toxic workplace. In 2022, after some business missteps, Glossier laid off a third of its corporate staff. The negative press led to its founder and chief executive, Emily Weiss, stepping down and appointing Kyle Leahy as her successor to try to turn the business around.
The story of Glossier has been positioned as the ‘rise and fall’ of a cult brand. The Drum even published an article in 2022 titled ‘The tale of a fast-growth brand gone south.’ So, two years on with a new CMO and vice-president of marketing in place, what does its strategy look like?
We sat down with the newly appointed vice-president of brand and marketing Kristin Kim to find out more about its five-point plan.
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1. Customer service
Glossier was born out of the beauty publication Into the Gloss, with its initial products inspired by conversations readers were having in the comments section. Having one-to-one conversations with customers is a fundamental part Glossier’s strategy.
“There has always been that person behind the screen and we want to reach through the screen in all of our messaging.” Where it can, Glossier tries to reply and interact with social media users who have made Glossier-related content.
“Something that surprised me when I first joined was how much we invest in our customer team in a positive way. For any email sent our way from a customer, any DM, we are consistently having that conversation.”
Glossier recently responded to customer pressure by changing back the formula of its popular Balm Dotcom after comments on its social accounts showed that customers preferred the original.
Glossier has invested in technology that can bring one-to-one communication to its retail environment and then merge that with its digital data. The ‘program,’ Kim calls it, allows store staff to reach out to customers for feedback.
“That is how it develops its super fandom, by essentially building one-on-one relationships with everyone. The closer that we are to our customer and the more that we’re speaking directly with them, the better we’ll be – it will only continue to improve the trajectory of Glossier.”
2. Bricks & mortar
Despite launching as an online DTC, Glossier has been making waves in bricks and mortar retail. Its stores have been widely written about in architectural and design publications, praised for their sleek aesthetic, color palette and attention to detail. The stores are not only extremely Instagramable but also include hospitality features like coffee shops and selfie stations.
It’s clear that Glossier sees its stores as a marketing channel in themselves. CEO Leahy has previously said, “Our stores are just one part of our omnichannel strategy, but they’re incredibly important, both as a key element of our differentiated customer experience and a profitable growth channel for us. As a beauty brand, giving customers the options to trial products in real-time, make their own swatches and spark beauty discovery are all reasons why we continue to believe in retail as a key lever for our business.”
Last year, the brand also entered the wholesale market, partnering with Sephora and Space NX as its first foray into third parties. Here, Glossier loses some of its tightly protected brand environment, but Kim says the business has been “highly strategic and very thoughtful” about its wholesale partners.
3. Social media
Glossier found fame through Instagram and YouTube. Instagram for its slick, highly aesthetic imagery and strong use of millennial pink. YouTube for beauty tutorials, recommendations and beauty advice – leaning into its origins as a beauty blog.
The brand had to pivot its approach to social to adapt to TikTok after years of being heralded for its success on Instagram. Kim says TikTok fits with Glossier’s ‘unfiltered’ approach to beauty and allows its customers to get more involved in its brand.
@glossier @Mikah Chay touches up with Strawberry Balm Dotcom Available in a Glossier store near you and on Glossier.com! #glossier #balmdotcom #strawberrybalmdotcom ♬ Die A Little Bit – Remix – Tinashe & ZHU
“It’s less edited, it’s more authentic, it’s more genuine and that is what Glossier’s community members are looking for,” Kim says of TikTok. “People want to see more behind the scenes, people want to see the product in real life and applied in real life.”
Glossier has had a couple of major viral TikTok moments; one came after a relatively unknown TikTok creator shared a story about how she was stopped on a jog by someone asking what perfume she was wearing – it was a Glossier fragrance called You. She uploaded the video with the caption ‘@Glossier sponsor me.’ Glossier turned this into a piece of organic content using a TikTok ad tool. The brand attributed the viral moment to helping it sell a bottle of You perfume every 37 seconds.
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4. Experiential
Having spent most of its history as an online brand, Glossier now prioritizes real-life activations, event sponsorships and on-the-street sampling to connect with customers.
Kim is spearheading a new workflow she’s calling ‘Glossier in the Wild.’ “This runs the gamut from being present at different city marathons, cheering people on and holding signs, to welcoming people to come into our store with freshwater refreshments after an arduous journey.”
This approach also includes making out-of-home interactive. For example, Glossier recently ran an experiential activation at Times Square and pop-ups across New York where it handed out complimentary charms and stickers, had a phone booth and offered free ice-cream. “Glossier consumers are really crafty, love arts and crafts; they love to bring their own personality to the product. So, we want to give them that opportunity.”
5. Partnerships
Other examples include Glossier’s partnership with the women’s NBA, where it hands out samples at games, and its recent project refurbishing a New York basketball court.
Kim says that when deciding locations and passion points to show up at, Glossier is guided by its customers. “This is what happens when you open the feedback loop. So, we’re really just taking the insights from what our community is saying that they want to see us at.”