Mirror, Mirror on the Wall, Who Is the Fairest of Them All?

This is not a post about plastic surgery. It is about human vanity and how the cosmetics behemoth L’Oreal leveraged vanity, or if you want, our human insecurity, in a pretty smart way. L’Oreal increased sales in cosmetics last year by 11% compared to 2% in perfume and 6% in skin care, according to FastCompany.

The reason: selfies.

Yes, selfies!!!

I thought selfies are so “last year”, but according to Hieronimus, L’Oreal luxury products chief "We live in a society in which people increasingly put themselves on stage, so these actors need make-up."(Source: L'Oreal Makeup Sales Jumped Because People Want To Look Good In Selfies)

And he is damn right!

Remember Shakespeare’s quote “All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players.”

L’Oreal’s Makeup Genius app lets you try on virtual cosmetics with your smartphone, using its camera and somewhat successful motion tracking to overlay the makeup on your face, live, just like you were taking a selfie.

What is so special about this in the context of Customer Experience?

In the ocean of cosmetics we swim from international to local, organic, palm oil-free, paraben free, formaldehyde free, preservative free, based on miracle brooth formulas, the list goes on, L’Oreal managed to increase their cosmetcis sales because they touched a very important chord of the customer journey- they leveraged a brilliant digital strategy to actively create a personalized experience for its customers.

The Makeup Genius app, which I just tried, analyzed 60 characteristics of my face and offered me three sets of looks “event”, “day” and “night”. With a simple click I could see how the corresponding look fits my face and next thing I knew the 5 products part of the “sunkissed look” were in my shopping cart with the option to purchase online or pick up from the store. Did I forget to mention, I could share the selfie with my Facebook friends...which I didn't.

Through active personalization, L’Oreal created a very sticky customer journey. Based on my purchasing behavior, the app will compare what customers with similar profiles similar to mine have purchased and will adjust the next offer based on the “look-alike” segment I fall into. I know, what you say, big data rules! Data is the new Marketing, yeah! Just for the record, the Makeup Genius app was downloaded 14 million times and make up was tried on 250 million times.

L’Oreal leveraged not only active personalization, but also automation (i.e. ridiculously easy log-in process, check out process) and anticipation (videos on customer’s finger tips to learn in 2 mins how to apply the make-up they just bought) to create a great customer journey.

If you like this post, you will probably like this one (I hope): It's like putting sunshine in your pocket."