The beginning of a new year always brings a wave of nostalgia for years past. It’s exciting to look back on what was once the norm and what improvements have been made over the years to get to today’s trends. The beauty industry has changed quite a bit, especially with the rise of the internet, but marketing in the industry has arguably stayed the same. Comparing past and present strategies for beauty marketing shows that the most effective strategies from decades ago are still being used in today’s digital world.

Let’s take a look at the evolution of past and present strategies for beauty marketing!

A New Kind of Celebrity Endorsement

The 1990s saw an epic rise of celebrity endorsements across all industries, but brands of the beauty industry tended to only cast incredibly white and incredibly supermodels for campaigns. RuPaul’s “I Am the Mac Girl” Viva MAC campaign from 1994 stands out as an iconic celebrity endorsement from the 90s because of the mold-breaking endorsement it was to have a drag queen as supermodel. This campaign catapulted RuPaul to continue her success as beauty guru and Supermodel of the World today, and the endorsement definitely still pays off with Ru’s relevance today! Just look at Winnie Harlow recreating the campaign a couple years ago.

 

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A post shared by ♔Winnie Harlow♔ (@winnieharlow)

These days, however, anyone can be a supermodel and find their way into a beauty brand’s campaign. In fact, User-Generated Content is a leading marketing strategy in the digital age because of its ability to connect users to brands in a more personal way. This call for more personalization with brands also inspired the beauty industry to embrace more than one face, diversifying their campaigns with influencers and products to reach more audiences.

The Wild World Wide Web

As mentioned already, the internet has come a long way in 30 years. And although social media took a while to take off (RIP, Friendster) and become the monolith it is today, there are still so many original strategies we use to great success today. Most people are shocked to hear that email marketing continues to be a marketing MVP, but email marketing campaigns still reach consumers today — 42.3% of Americans subscribe to email lists in order to receive savings, discounts, and special news. And that’s not just automatic subscriptions, people put down their email addresses because they want these messages!

Beauty blogs continue to dominate today as tastemakers select their favorite brands to work with on getting their products to more consumers. But do I really need to go into the continuing success of blogs? I mean, you’re reading this, aren’t you?

The More Things Change…

…the more things stay the same! Some marketing strategies are just too good to let go of, especially when our understanding of technology and the internet has advanced so much in 30 years. Are you surprised to see any strategies of the 90s still thriving today? Try to implement these strategies for your brand and see the success for yourself!

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