Summary
Maybelline - The Foundation of Fairness Rather than asking women to fit themselves into discriminatory shades, we reimagined the category & launched 18 custom-made shades to fit the diverse Indian skintones & cemented our position as a trendsetting brand. Through this campaign Maybelline's equity saw a significant increase and the Fit me franchise posted a growth of 30%.
Challenge
While Maybelline has posted healthy growth year on year, we were never able to gain leadership position. Formidable competition: Makeup market has been dominated by one home grown brand for decades now. Lakme has been around for ages and most often it has been a choice passed down from one generation to another. It controls more than one fourth of the market. Entry and recent activity of other players like Faces, Chambor, Colorbar, etc were also eating into our pie. Thanks to the rise of ecommerce, there is a new international player entering the Indian beauty landscape every quarter and vying for the same consumers' attention. The younger consumer was gravitating to these newer formats and exotic ingredients. Maybelline wanted to strengthen its position in a market that on one hand has a strong legacy leader brand and on the other hand is exploding with newer brands, formats and categories.
Objective
Maybelline wanted to strengthen its position to become the default choice of millennial and gen Z women for any category of makeup. We set the following measurable business and marketing objectives. OBJECTIVE 1- Generate awareness about our unprecedented launch of 18 shades – We aimed to increase awareness and TOM scores of Maybelline mother brand and the Fit me franchise by 5% OBJECTIVE 2 – Increase the overall sales, quarter on quarter by 10% OBJECTIVE 3 - Increase offtakes month on month – We aimed to increase offtakes by 5% OBJECTIVE 4- Encourage trials – This is a category where a good trial experience can convert one into a lifetime user. Our aim was to increase the offtakes of the smaller SKUs by 20% OBJECTIVE 5- Strengthen the perception of Maybelline as a trend setter brand for millennial Indian women.
Strategy
THE FOUNDATION OF FAIRNESS INDIVIDUALITY IS VALUED AND BRANDS ARE ALSO EXPECTED TO RESPECT THE SAME. They reject conventional ideas and societal norms if they don't make sense to them. We wanted to get these young women to love Maybelline because they are the true trendsetters and the largest cohort when it comes to buying makeup. Youth ethnography study revealed that YOUNG WOMEN WERE OTHERWISE ENTHUSIASTIC ABOUT MAKEUP, WERE NOT BUYING INTO THE FOUNDATION CATEGORY. Social listening helped us understand that the reason was not aversion to foundation but because they could never find their right shade. While the generation before this had the desire to look fairer, this generation owned their unique skin tone with confidence. THEY WERE REFUSING TO ‘FIT' THEMSELVES INTO THE LIMITING AND DISCRIMINATORY CHOICES FOUNDATIONS OFFERED. This led us to our insight – MILLENNIAL INDIAN WOMAN DOESN'T WANT TO FIT IN; SHE WANTS THINGS TO FIT HER. Maybelline realized the need gap here and we asked Indian women to help us bring the right shades for them. A pan India product trial study was conducted to create 18 custom shades made for diverse Indian skintones to fit them right.
Data
With the aid of research, data and social listening we were able to converge to our marketing objectives for this campaign. OBJECTIVE 1- Generate awareness about our unprecedented launch of 18 shades – We aimed to increase awareness and TOM scores of Maybelline mother brand and the Fit me franchise by 5% . Source: Ethnography Research & Brand Lift study OBJECTIVE 2 – Increase the overall sales, quarter on quarter by 10%. Source: AC Nielsen, Company sales records 2017-19 OBJECTIVE 3 - Increase offtakes month on month – We aimed to increase offtakes by 5% Source: AC Nielsen, Company sales records 2017-19 OBJECTIVE 4- Encourage trials – This is a category where a good trial experience can convert one into a lifetime user. Our aim was to increase the offtakes of the smaller SKUs by 20% Source: AC Nielsen, Company sales records 2017-19 OBJECTIVE 5- Strengthen the perception of Maybelline as a trend setter brand for millennial Indian women. Source: Company finance report, Ethnography Research & Brand social media engagement.
Solution
To speak to this younger generation, we took a youth icon, Alia Bhatt, as the face of the campaign. Our campaign launches celebrated individuality and diverse skin tones of Indian women. A whole squad of authentic influencers were brought on board to demonstrate our shade range. THEMATIC FILM Alia and the Fit me squad featured in our film that championed the narrative of diverse women and their skin tones. Medium: TV + Digital PRINT ADVERTORIALS Advertorials helped women understand out product range and educated them how to choose and apply foundation. Medium: Newspaper + Magazines ON-COUNTER AIDS We developed easy on-counter aids to help women find their right shade. Medium: On-ground activity INSTAGRAM STORIES Instagram stories also helped women pick their fit shade and buy it on the same link Medium: Social Media SHORT HOW-TO VIDEOS We also focused on education and created short how-to videos – one with our makeup expert Elton Fernandes and others on how to apply foundation with different applicator tools like a blender or brush. Medium: Digital videos FIT ME FRIDAYS Online engagement with our audience continued through our property of ‘Fit me Fridays', through which we helped women create different looks using Fit me and other Maybelline products. Medium: Digital YOUTUBE PRE-ROLLS Youtube pre-rolls with Alia helped us bust different myths around the foundation category and increase inclination towards usage. Medium: Social - Youtube ECOMMERCE An ecom takeover day was planned WITH NYKAA where the platform ran offers on the whole fit me range and educated women on the use of fit me through Nykaa TV. Medium: Nykaa - Ecommerce HUMANS OF BOMBAY We then took the platform of ‘fit me as I am' beyond beauty and told stories of different women who found their fit through HUMANS OF BOMBAY Medium: Digital + Social
Results
OBJECTIVE 1- Generate awareness about our unprecedented launch of 18 shades – We aimed to increase awareness and TOM scores of Maybelline mother brand and the Fit me franchise by 5%. RESULT 1 – We saw a hike in the awareness score by 10% which also reflected in our TOM scores. (Source: Maybelline Brand Track Data) OBJECTIVE 2 – Increase the overall sales, quarter on quarter by 15%. RESULT 2 – The overall sales quarter on quarter increased by 24%. (Source: Maybelline Sales Data) OBJECTIVE 3 - Increase offtakes month on month – We aimed to increase offtakes by 5%. RESULT 3 – Our offtakes went up by 10% which is a huge jump. (Source: Maybelline Sales Data) OBJECTIVE 4- Encourage trials – This is a category where a good trial experience can convert one into a lifetime user. Our aim was to increase the offtakes of the smaller SKUs by 20%. RESULT 4 – Smaller SKU – tube – posted growth of 27% in 6 months. (Source: Maybelline Sales Data) OBJECTIVE 5- Strengthen the perception of Maybelline as a trend setter brand for millennial Indian women. RESULT 5 – Post the campaign, we observed a rise in equity score from 96 to 107. (Source: Maybelline Brand Track Data)
