From aspiration to relevance: How beauty marketing is changing

It’s no longer enough for beauty brands to launch products without deeply understanding what is happening in their customers’ lives and how they can actually help them.

For so long, the beauty industry has focused on being aspirational, and that will never change completely, but the brands most likely to succeed in this era are the ones looking past demographics and static personas and instead asking the question: What is really happening in our customers’ lives, and how can we show up to help?

A great example of a brand putting this into practice is retailer Boots UK. After 175+ years, Boots is moving away from a marketing structure where beauty, health and pharmacy were often promoted as separate categories. Rather than expecting customers to shop by aisle for a product, the brand is now shifting its focus towards customer needs and life stages, and beginning to organise parts of its in-store experience accordingly. Ie their dedicated Menopause Support Zones organise products around symptoms such as hot flushes, sleep changes and low energy, while their new Wellness Zones bring together products around needs such as gut health, nutrition, movement and beauty-from-within. 

Its new “Give it Some Boots” campaign has launched alongside this and follows the same philosophy. The creative follows people through different stages and challenges of life; from feeling overwhelmed by skincare choices and discovering their first grey hairs to navigating perimenopause and other health and wellness concerns.

Aspirational marketing will always be prevalent in the beauty industry, but marketers now need to shift their thinking towards deeply understanding the lives their customers are already living, and finding a meaningful role for their brand within them.

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