FENTY BEAUTY: ANALYSIS AND EVALUATION OF ITS DIGITAL MARKETING STRATEGY

Fenty Beauty: Analysis and Evaluation of Its Digital Marketing Strategy

Rihanna created the Fenty Beauty makeup line in 2017 with the aim of including people everywhere, particularly those with skin tones that are traditionally hard to match with makeup products (Fenty Beauty, n.d., n.p). This paper seeks to evaluate the organization’s digital marketing strategy in the context of the company’s goals and its competitive environment.

Fenty Beauty’s Strategic Goals, Aims, and Values

Since its conception, Fenty Beauty targeted inclusivity as its core goal and value. When the brand was launched, Fenty Beauty based its marketing message on the idea of inclusivity in terms of skin tone, body shape, and more recently, gender (Johnson-Hunt, 2020, n.p). When the product launched and currently, the main character and models within the Fenty Beauty narrative are a South Sudanese and hijab-wearing model which highlighted the company’s strategic goal of inclusivity (Johnson-Hunt, 2020, n.p). The company’s founder, Rihanna, stated that her intentions in founding the makeup line were to provide beauty products for people everywhere, particularly for those with traditionally hard-to-match features including their skin tones and skin types (Fenty Beauty, n.d., n.p.). The company has prioritized inclusivity such that it began including male products and models in its marketing campaigns, which further highlights its focus on inclusivity.

The company also prioritizes diversity in its products and its customers. Fenty Beauty includes a wide range of close to 90 products, with its most notable products being its Pro Filt’r foundation line which includes 50 shades, 13 of which are dedicated to people with much darker skin tones (Johnson-Hunt, 2020, n.p). This path was cemented by the inclusion of models with all skin tones in the product line in their marketing, which made the company’s initial marketing efforts stand out and allow them to pursue diverse markets and cultural backgrounds (Johnson-Hunt, 2020, n.p).

Fenty Beauty seems to focus on digital sales and marketing efforts. In its launch campaign, the company relied on an entirely digital marketing campaign (Butenko, 2020, p.16). The company seeks to engage its customers and market its products to them through social media and the use of influencer content (Butenko, 2020, p.16). The company targets to spread the inclusivity message through its digital marketing platforms, where the messages are often relatable and attractive (Adnan, 2018, p.74). Fenty Beauty has over 80,000 influential posts on social media and has more than nine million followers across various social media platforms (Adnan, 2018, p.77). The company seeks to engage with a wide range of customers through their relatable posts and use of influencers to reach more customers. Since the company’s main values and objectives are inclusivity and diversity, its customer engagement and marketing efforts are targeted towards promoting these two core values. However, Fenty Beauty also aims to promote its image as a luxury brand mainly through its association with Rihanna and its pricing model (Loewenthal, 2020, p.2). The company seeks to use its luxury brand and pricing to achieve its main goals of diversity by pricing its products slightly lower than other luxury beauty products, which allows inclusivity and diversity of its market.

Fenty Beauty’s Performance In the Past Five Years

Fenty Beauty, as an online-centric beauty products vendor, seeks to make several sales and engage multiple customers online. This means that the key performance metrics for the organization are high sales and revenues, and increased customer reach and engagement on social media platforms. On its launch in 2017, the company’s Instagram platform had gained more than 1.4 million followers in four days, which was highly successful considering that it had relied on a fully digital campaign (Butenko, 2020, p.16). In addition to its high market after its launch, Fenty Beauty had generated $100 million within 40 days, making it one of the best-performing beauty organizations in the market. According to research from Slice Intelligence, the company was on its way to beating cosmetic giants like KKW Beauty and Kylie Beauty during its first year since it had more products and made 34% higher sales in its second month than the two giants individually (Hays, 2018, n.p). The company was able to make revenues of up to $573 million within its first 15 months, which can be considered a significantly high performance for a young company (Timeyin, 2020, p.2). The company has been performing well over the past five years, reaching an estimated value of $3 billion. The company has already gained both a large and diverse range of customers and managed to improve its financial gains. However, like most organizations, the company faced significant challenges during the pandemic and is a luxury brand, customers seeking to reduce their expenses would cut off on such costs or go for cheaper ones.

Main Challenges Fenty Beauty Faces in Relation to Customer Engagement, Changing Trends, and Competition

One of the challenges Fenty Beauty faces relative to customer engagement is the limited number of retailers for its products. Fenty Beauty products are exclusively sold at Sephora stores or on their online digital platform, while other few retailers are given the privilege to shelve their products based on their relations with its parent company. This drives consumers to opt for other beauty companies which are relatively cheaper with off-the-shelf products. Online customers have a variety of products they view making their change in taste inevitable. Fenty Beauty faces intense competition from other beauty companies like MAC and Loreal which have been in the market longer and offer almost similar products at lower prices (Timeyin, 2020, p.3). This means that Fenty Beauty is faced with the challenges of substitution, particularly for cheaper products since it is a luxury brand. Additionally, due to increased online engagement with several influencers, customers have changing aspirations, including going without makeup, which could challenge Fenty Beauty and other companies in the market (Timeyin, 2020, p.3). Other companies are also following in the footsteps of Fenty Beauty’s unique approach to diversity and inclusion, which poses a challenge for the company since its competitors are taking away its competitive advantage. Additionally, if Rihanna’s reputation was to be damaged, then the company would face similar challenges.

How Fenty Beauty Uses Digital Marketing To Engage Create Value for its Customers

Fenty Beauty focuses on its digital website platform and its social media to build relationships with its customers. The company uses its website as its main engagement platform with its customers since it is where they are able to interact with the company’s products, purchase them, and give feedback. Through its website, Fenty Beauty is able to showcase its products and their values as well as teach its customers about beauty products through tutorials and formulas (Fenty Beauty, n.d., n.p). However, social media is the most strategic digital marketing method the company uses to engage with its customers. The company built its initial relationship with customers through Rihanna’s large following on Instagram and other social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook (Adnan, 2018, 77). Rihanna promoted the company and its social media platforms through her own platform, which resulted in almost 1.4 million followers in the first four days of launching (Butenko, 2020, p.16). The celebrity and founder of the company, Rihanna, uses their products on tutorials on the company website, which makes the experience relatable for customers. This relatability is enhanced by the use of models that fit the skin tone shades offered, which further enhances the customer’s experience with the website. Fenty Beauty stays innovative in its interactions with customers such as offering the skin tone test and makeup test services on its website such that clients are able to get the value for their money when they make a purchase.

The skin tone test is an evolution for the company since it was included to increase awareness about the diverse range of skin types globally, and show inclusivity by offering products dedicated to those traditionally hard-to-match skin tones. This subsequently impacts their relationship with customers since it shows the dedication for the company to meet the needs of the client without compromise. The company uses influential posts and influencers to interact with its customers and create new relationships through referrals by influencers and posts that are relatable and appealing to new customers (Adnan, 2018, 77). The influencers create new relationships and foster evolution for the organization, while Fenty Beauty focuses on developing high-quality products to meet its customer’s needs. The techniques used by Fenty can however pose a challenge because they are highly replicable by competitors, which results in the need to innovate at an extremely fast pace.

Digital Marketing as Part of The Customer Journey

Fenty Beauty offers its customers a web-based and offline customer journey. The offline customer journey begins with the customer visiting select stores such as Sephora and browsing the products from the shelves and finally purchasing them. The web-based journey begins with visiting the company’s website, which leads to the landing page where one can shop. The customer is immediately informed of the latest products, modeled by Rihanna herself, and as they scroll down, the customer sees the products with the highest demands, as well as several other products the company offers. This is a gain-point since each post allows the customer to purchase it directly from the landing page, or like it for later viewing. The customers are also able to specify their search and look for items depending on the categories provided. After adding their selected products to a cart, the customer checks out and is able to pay immediately or later after receiving the goods. Finally, the product is shipped to the customer. During the customer journey, the company shows its users adverts on related products, how to use the products well, and the desired outcomes. This is another gain point for the customer journey that improves the customer experience and value.

Fenty Beauty’s Response To Major Customer/Consumer Trends Through Digital Marketing  

Fenty Beauty has an active digital presence that uses digital marketing to respond to consumer trends. The TRIP framework is helpful in identifying value creation and using digital marketing to respond to consumer trends. In transparency, Fenty Beauty shows commitments to the planet and society by producing products with less effect on the environment, recycling and reusing materials, and eliminating boxes to replace with product refill systems (Fenty Beauty, n.d., n.p). Fenty Beauty is transparent and communicates with its consumers through comments on interactive platforms as well as customer service on their commitment to a better environment and inclusivity. They are transparent with their globally sourced ingredients which are used to make beauty products. Fenty Beauty ensures customer needs are met by being responsive to user needs like tutorial videos to teach customers how to use products and providing products for consumers of all ethnicities. Fenty Beauty uses data analytics and intelligence programs to track orders, allow returns and exchanges, reviews products to provide the best quality, and ensure the customers are updated on new insights and trends (Fenty Beauty, n.d., n.p). The company keeps track of customer preferences by tracking consumer trends and allowing feedback and interaction with customers through their social media platforms and their website. Customers are able to inform the company what they need, and the company is able to develop products to suit these needs.

Fenty Beauty TRIP Analysis

Recommendation 1

Fenty should partner with other online retailers to increase their reach through the network of possible customers within the next year.

Recommendation 2

Promote smaller and affordable versions of their products online to increase the reach to lower-income markets.

Recommendation 3

Develop platforms for customers to create their own content using company products, hence increasing authenticity and reach through secondary networking.

References

Adnan, W.H., 2018. A Study on celebrity cosmetic brand content analysis and social media engagement: The case of Fenty Beauty’s product. Jurnal Pengajian Media Malaysia, 20(1), pp.73-86. http://journal.media-culture.org.au/index.php/mcjournal/article/view/1646

Butenko, E., 2020. Investigating Marketing Strategies. https://www.theseus.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/345001/Emily_Butenko.pdf?sequence=2

Fenty Beauty. n.d. About Fenty Beauty. [Online]. https://fentybeauty.com/pages/about-fenty-beauty

Hays, K. 2018. Fenty Beauty Sales on Track to Outstrip Kylie Cosmetics, KKW Beauty. [Online]. Available at: https://wwd.com/business-news/financial/rihanna-fenty-beauty-sales-on-track-to-outstrip-kylie-jenner-cosmetics-kim-kardashian-beauty-11127361/

Ismail, A., 2018. International Marketing Strategies in the Celebrity Cosmetics Industry: A Dual Case Study: Huda Beauty and Fenty Beauty. https://www.theseus.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/149544/Ismail_Amiira.pdf?sequence=1&isAllo 

Johnson-Hunt, N., 2020. Dreams for Sale: Ideal Beauty in the Eyes of the Advertiser. M/C Journal, 23(1). https://journal.media-culture.org.au/index.php/mcjournal/article/view/1646

Loewenthal, E.H.F.D.S.F., 2020. Leveraging brand image in the cosmetics market: how premium brands create the illusion of luxury (Doctoral dissertation). https://repositorio.ucp.pt/bitstream/10400.14/31200/1/152118042_Elizabete%20Loewenthal_DPDFA.pdf

Timeyin, H. D. 2020. Marketing Plan. Academia.  Available at: https://www.academia.edu/42231333/Marketing_Plan