The future of beauty is emotional

With a generation that’s always feeling something in an age when all these feelings can be said, beauty brands are becoming a substitute for comfort food, extensions of our most trusted friends, and treasures we rave about to our networks online.

Every important beauty purchase starts with a feeling. You can develop a connection with a product without even having to try it. Just seeing it flat-laid on Instagram will make us want to buy. It’s how brands communicate today — more visual than verbal, more emotional than hard sell, less about the brand and more about the consumer. What does she like? Who does she hang out with? What decade does she wish she were born in? What’s her zodiac sign and time of birth? The beauty industry has developed an uncanny ability to relate to consumers on an increasingly personal level through the screens of our phones and desktops. It’s kind of amazing and a little freaky. How did Google know you just bought another face oil on Sephora? Easy — we all leave breadcrumbs, online and IRL, clueing beauty brands to our wants and needs.

Recently, Avon Philippines revealed the results of a new whitepaper study called “Beauty, The Future, and The Power of Emotions.” Lisa Gallo, Avon’s vice president for global product and process development, presented the data to beauty journalists at the Avon HQ in Makati via conference call. It began with what could be the first couple of lines of a modern-day tragicomedy: “Life is getting lonelier and she’s looking for connections.” It also sounds like an advertisement for a dating app, which is not surprising. Finding a match is much like finding the perfect shade of foundation — it’s almost like it doesn’t exist! You just have to keep looking and never settle.

The whitepaper was first unveiled at the international beauty summit INNOCOS in Italy, to show exactly which changes set into motion Avon’s evolution towards a new vision and modern understanding of Avon representatives and consumers from different countries. Globally, Avon is 130 years old and in the Philippines, the beauty brand is celebrating its 40th anniversary. It’s lived through enough years and engaged enough people to know its stuff, and right now, it’s telling us, in a nutshell, that in the future, beauty will be a matter of emotions.

Emotionally Driven Beauty

“There is a need for emotionally driven beauty like never before,” says Gallo. The study supports this with some interesting numbers:

• 1/3 of millennials would prefer to communicate with emojis rather than words.

• 45 percent of consumers say YouTubers inspired them to make a change in their life.

• 39 percent of millennials say online video has helped change their perspectives.

• 85 percent trust peer-to-peer recommendations.

“The beauty industry has a vital and meaningful role to play in providing products that speak to our consumer’s evolving, emotionally-charged needs,” allo shares. She cites Glossier, which hired 500 representatives to market their brand in their social circles, and Amazon and Best Buy, which are bringing back the “traveling salesman” by sending people to consumers’ homes to consult and recommend products. But there is no other beauty company better placed to talk to its consumers than Avon, with its six million representatives in 70 countries. While the brand has recently embraced a digital model for its reps, the company believes that “offline” conversations are as important as the business it does online. Whereas niche brands are focusing heavily on digital branding and communications, Avon uses this new information to further develop a tried-and-tested machinery — its network Avon representatives.

A Shared Sense of Belonging

If you’ve ever spoken to Avon representatives, you’ll know that they are also fans of the products. They’ve used them and can tell you exactly what each one does. And because they are the people around you (your officemate, your fitness instructor, your tita or friend), usually the stars also align and match you with a representative that you can relate to best. Through the years, Avon has built a community of reps, consumers and product developers, making it as relevant as ever, because the future of beauty is also about being part of something.

Another major point in Gallo’s presentation is that beauty will be about a shared sense of belonging. Avon representatives hold Facebok Live parties to sell products in the digital world. “People interact directly with me during the Live session and then, once it’s over, I’ll post links directly to the products so people can purchase online straightaway,” says UK representative Carolyn Haywood. Just like niche brands have their super enthusiastic Instagram followers, Avon brings its community together on a digital platform.

Co-Creation is Key

The study also reveals that in the future, everybody will be a beauty influencer. “Seventy-percent feel a responsibility to share feedback, whether good or bad. Our conversations with consumers are often and deep, so that we now say we don’t just create products, we co-create with our consumers,” says Gallo. According to the whitepaper, this is where Avon believes true product innovation will come from in the future: the consumer, so busy, so stressed, so bombarded with information, he or she will be looking for brands to address their unique needs.

Gallo cites Avon’s Big & Style mascara as an example. “Consumers put on mascara by using so many extra household implements to get the look they wanted — a safety pin, a toothpick, even a spoon. But what we really unlocked was the motion behind these methods: frustration. Working with gel technology from the candle industry, we were able to create Big & Style mascara, which enabled the mascara to set, but not completely dry so as to still have flexibility to it,” says Gallo. “The consumer of tomorrow doesn’t want to have to tell you how she wants your product to make her feel; she will expect you to already know. She wants to feel as if the products are made for her.”

The study concludes, in order to create amazing products, brands must listen to their consumer’s stories. “We’re transforming to become a hi-tech, hi-touch, hi-impact, fast-beauty brand. We’ll bring consumers the latest trends through a direct, trusted, personal experience, with our beauty entrepreneurs, supported by digital — while leveraging the huge impact of our global network to create positive change for millions of women and their friends around the world,” Gallo says.

With a generation that’s always feeling something in an age when all these feelings can be said publicly, beauty brands are becoming a substitute for comfort food, extensions of our most trusted friends, and treasures we rave about to our networks online. Need a confidence boost? Buy red lipstick. Having trouble getting a guy to see you? Blind him with your highlight. Stressed out at work? Conceal, conceal, conceal. With a product for every feeling, who needs therapy? Just join your Avon representative on Facebook Live. She’ll hook you up.