From AI to Retail, Beauty's New Marketing Playbook

Business of Fashion

16 hours ago

Social media platforms like TikTok, Instagram and YouTube continue to shape beauty trends and influence consumer preferences, particularly among Gen-Z and Millennial audiences. But social's role in brand and product discovery is diminishing. Surging marketing costs have made paid reach more expensive to sustain, further exacerbated by proliferating AI bots that by now make up more than half of all web traffic, adding to marketing inefficiency.
Influencers' sway is also waning on social media. Just 18 percent of global consumers consider them the most trusted source of beauty information.
Social will remain part of the marketing mix — but with declining effectiveness for discovery, brands must adapt their strategies, linking social media pages and influencers to in-store calls to action.
Meanwhile, physical retail is where discovery most often begins. 21 percent of global consumers cite physical stores as the place where they recently discovered a new brand, followed by friends and family at 15 percent.
Pop-ups and store locations are increasingly important. For emerging brands, allocating more marketing budget for in-person activations should be a key consideration. Visual displays, promotional activity, sampling and store staff should all be treated as marketing levers. For example, brands such as Summer Fridays align out-of-home ads with bigger retail moments, targeting billboards near Sephora and spotlighting in-store availability. Social media success requires a strategy beyond influencers
Social media can be much more than just an ad channel. It can be also used as a social listening tool, creative playground and way to interact with target groups. It is a prime space for performance and brand marketing, but the latter will take on new importance as brands try to assert their identities in a crowded market.
Beauty brand discovery via influencers is already decreasing. On social feeds, algorithms now prioritise posts likely to go viral over posts from accounts with lots of followers, impacting influencers' reach. Just 7 percent of consumers in 2025 say they recently discovered a brand via an influencer across Europe, the US and China, down from 16 percent in 2023.
Real user reviews remain the most trusted source of discovery for 51 percent of surveyed consumers, highlighting the value of consumer voices and real user-generated content. Beauty experts like dermatologists and makeup artists can help to foster trust.
Brands should also consider rebuilding their in-house creative capabilities. Without merely imitating what worked for others, brands can create the conditions for virality by investing in high-quality, differentiated and surprising storytelling.
Refy
Despite being founded by an influencer with over one million followers, the British cosmetics line has taken a more intimate approach to community-building. It invites creators with smaller followings to events, integrates user-generated content into its social media strategy and invited regular shoppers rather than influencers on a trip to Mallorca.
Ultra Violette
The Australian sun care brand has created an imaginary ambassador it refers to as 'Vi,' and uses her persona to create whimsical social content. To herald its launch in the US through Sephora, 'Vi' helped bring Aussie snacks like Tim Tam cookies to a pop-up in New York City.
Tower 28
To promote a new blush, the brand debuted an original three-episode sketch comedy series titled 'The Blush Lives of Sensitive Girls' on social media, inspired by a similarly named popular HBO show. The high-quality and entertaining production distinctly stands out from other, more informally created content on platforms.
Carolina Herrera
The Puig-owned brand engages on TikTok by transforming its perfume bottles and lipsticks into playful characters in a series of videos, tapping into viral trends and sounds whilst grounding the content in its hero products. References to the New York City skyline, for instance, give the videos a sense of place and identity. Brands can lean into the element of surprise and experiment with channels to capture attention
Showing up across a variety of marketing channels and touchpoints can enable brands to stay close to their target groups, unlock new audiences and deliver powerful brand marketing campaigns. Originality, not copying what worked for others, will be key.
Labels that are creative and willing to experiment with new and unexpected channels can generate significant attention. Thanks to the oversaturation of digital channels, traditional media like TV, billboards, truck advertising and radio can generate strong returns, offer an element of surprise and imbue more personality.
Engage in the unexpected Vacation Inc. uses experimental marketing channels and reimagines traditional ones in creative ways.
It offers 'sunscreen sponsoring' for corporate events and summer festivals and invites consumers to events like its 'Walk Clubs' in Miami to socialise and receive free samples.
For its email marketing, Vacation breaks with present-day conventions by creating long-form content in a 1980s aesthetic. It intersperses product information with entertaining guides to 'Poolside Etiquette' and includes webinars on topics like parrot training.
Integrate into culture L'Oréal leaned into the broader zeitgeist through its sponsorship of the US sketch comedy show 'Saturday Night Live,' in which brands appear in comic skits.
Singer Ariana Grande parodied actor Jennifer Coolidge using a Maybelline liquid lip product in an October 2024 sketch. The clip has since amassed close to four million views on YouTube.
L'Oréal Paris similarly appeared in a mock advert with Lady Gaga for an 'Easy Run Mascara,' as a comedic inversion of its real long-lasting claims. While faux, the skit entertained viewers while still educating them about the L'Oréal Paris product. Creating consumer segments based on needs, not demographics, will be more effective
Many marketers still segment consumers by demographics such as age or ethnicity. While useful at a surface level, these groupings rarely explain how, when or why people actually shop. They often obscure real differences in behaviour and mindset, limiting strategic impact. For example, four out of five of the top claims that US beauty consumers look for are the same across age and ethnicity groups.
Shifting the focus to attitudinal segmentation reveals distinct subgroups and offers a more actionable approach. By examining what people want and how they make decisions, brands can uncover overlooked needs — like a skincare product that does not irritate eczema or a fragrance that lasts all day.
To do it well, brands need large volumes of regularly refreshed behavioural data. Tracking how people interact with content or describe products can help shape more accurate personas. AI tools can accelerate this process, scanning reviews and comments to identify common desires or pain points. Jones Road used this tactic when launching a lightweight foundation, scraping online feedback to uncover priorities like sweat resistance or a natural finish. These insights helped the brand refine both product design and marketing, making the campaign more attuned to real consumer needs. Luxury brands should elevate offerings with higher-touch brand marketing
In ultra luxury, consumers expect a higher level of sophistication and integration — the products may not be bespoke, but the price point is often the beauty equivalent of haute couture.
There is an even greater impetus to appear customisable and unique — around 50 percent of consumers are interested in personalised beauty, and with luxury beauty brands' higher margins, they are best positioned to deliver on these cost- and time-intensive products.
As consumers seek longer, healthier lives, a link to longevity can demonstrate exclusive value. While currently centred on skincare, longevity has the potential to influence haircare and fragrance, for example through new technologies that can stimulate hair growth.
Luxury brands would do well to consider themselves in the broader zeitgeist: their consumers are likely interested in design, art, wellness and collectable or extraordinary items. Extensions to hospitality, such as hotels, clinics, spas and membership clubs, should receive special attention given the expected average annual growth of 10 percent in luxury travel over coming years. Dior L'Or de Vie Le Cérémonial. (Courtesy) Dior L'Or de Vie Le Full Range. (Courtesy) The La Prairie Spa at Montauk Yacht Club. (Courtesy) The La Prairie Spa at Montauk Yacht Club. (Courtesy)
Dior
The brand has appointed a Reverse Aging Board to support its R&D efforts, aiming to highlight scientific credibility and exclusive, high-performance ingredients for biological skin rejuvenation.
La Prairie
The brand offers permanent branded spas in luxury hotels such as the Dolder Grand in Zurich, a seasonal floating spa in the Hamptons as well as a one-off global Cobalt pop-up tour starting in Aspen, Colorado.
Guerlain
Its cosmetics and fragrances are marketed with a focus on quality and craft. Marketing spotlights designers of lipstick cases or moisturiser jars, while fragrances have varying levels of customisation, scaling with price. How should executives respond? Push the boundaries on novelty and unconventional placements to stand out.
Double down on brand storytelling and user-generated content as social algorithms prioritise content over creators.
Invest in getting to know the consumer beyond demographics, engaging in two-way dialogues. Carefully employ AI to marry behavioural insights with hyper-personalisation.
This article first appeared in The State of Fashion: Beauty Volume 2, an in-depth report on the global beauty industry, co-published by BoF and McKinsey & Company.