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A true depiction of putting the customer at the heart of your business

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A true depiction of putting the customer at the heart of your business

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I absolutely adore this Maybelline campaign. The thing that stood out to me and what made Maybelline generate brand equity over time, was they put their consumers first and really tried to understand the market by diving deep into market insights to create a completely new strategy and brand for Maybelline.

The insight was that the makeup shades were not diverse enough, and through India, many consumers have different skin tones that weren't necessarily fitting into the product range they offered. Identifying this and then developing the product solution of increasing their shade options is a customer centric approach and in turn is a great way to increase brand equity.

This was also something that was done when Fenty (Rihanna's makeup brand) was launched and many people were highly engaged in her brand as it represented diversity, inclusion and was a brand that fit to the people, not one that consumers needed to fit into.

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The thing I love and think is very smart about this Maybelline campaign is that it managed to build brand equity with a much broader consumer base than existing Maybelline customers in the India market. Naturally by identifying the issue (limited foundation shades in a diverse market) and then presenting the solution (more shades), this campaign would resonate with any existing Maybelline customers, and broader consumers of makeup too. At the same time it manages to reinforce it's brand value, to celebrate diversity by creating makeup "for every look, style and skin tone", to global makeup consumers (existing customers and other). They built brand equity by putting customers first and making their products as inclusive as possible. They also tapped into the cultural zeitgeist more broadly, which helps position them inline with other brands taking a strong stance on topical issues and reinforcing that they have a set of brand values that they truly live by.

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Maybelline: How was brand equity built? How was it sustained? 

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Maybelline: How was brand equity built? How was it sustained? 

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Maybelline traded on legacy brand awareness to launch the Fit Me! 18 Shades campaign in the Indian market.

Improved brand equity was achieved by product research, research to understand the consumer’s needs (a diverse range of foundation colours) and her consumption, building brand association with youth icon Alia Bhutt (adding meaning and leveraging trust) and a creative campaign that had a balance of freshness and consistency for appeal (young women owning their destiny).

Maybelline also maintained salience with creative campaigns across numerous digital touchpoints, and instore and in print media.

Maybelline showed it didn’t take consumers for granted by providing useful information (make-up tutorials) and samples (free) so consumers could consider the products thus developing awareness and interest.

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Maybelline – Foundation of fairness

Over the course of their “Foundations of Fairness” campaign, Maybelline was able to shift their brand equity from 96 to 107, along with significant improvements in brand awareness, trust and product trials in their target category of millennial consumers.

The key to their success was rethinking their strategy to place the consumer at the centre and building brand equity around this through product innovation and a well thought out promotional strategy.

Product innovation was driven heavily by their new consumer focus and took the form of a youth ethnography study into the market, identifying a gap in the Foundation product category. This was paired with social listening, which found the reason behind this was current products were not meeting the consumer need for product that suited them and recognised their desire to be celebrated for their diversity and individuality.

Once they had a solid foundation (pun-intended) for how they wanted to build equity, Maybelline launched an integrated promotional campaign to build a strong relationship with consumers based on creating a strong brand meaning. The campaign leveraged a number of the insights mentioned in the WAR reading including:

New need states: Maybelline identified the emerging emotional need in the market for consumers to be recognised for their non-conformity and diversity. They met this through celebrating individuality in initiatives such as thematic film which championed the narrative of diverse women, and Humans of Bombay, which showcased confident women who made their own way. In a practical sense they also meet the rational needs of women in the category who had little or no experience buying and using foundations. This was done through how-to-videos, advertorials, and on-counter aids that assisted women in applying foundation and picking the correct tone for them.

Delivering a relevant brand promise and fresh consistency: Maybelline’s promotions were based on robust research and insights into the marketplace. These were then clearly communicated, beginning with celebrity and social endorsement on how the Foundation product supported women’s needs and individuality. Maybelline then consistently and gradually built on this brand promise in their promotions, incorporating different formats and channels (e.g. Fit me Fridays, pre-rolls). This ultimately moved beyond just make-up with the development of their Humans of Bombay platform, tapping in their brand promise in a new and fresh way while still delivering on their core value proposition of supporting women’s individuality.

Ensuring meaning as well as salience: Any product innovation needs to ensure market presence, as evidenced through Maybelline’s focus on encouraging consumers to trial their products. The organisation ensured good physical market coverage through on-counter aids and sampling. However, the key focus of the campaign was creating a meaningful connection with their target market – achieved through creating engaging content (implement through their Fit me squad, social media presence and Humans of Bombay platform).

Visa – it’s not just a plastic card, but a payment method

Visas rebrand was based on the need to respond to changing consumer payment behaviours.

This approach largely reflects the WARC insight of new need states emerging from the pandemic driving brand growth. As a result of the pandemic transactions have become increasingly cashless and often remote (largely a result of social distancing and the growth in online purchasing). Visa saw the opportunity to meet the rational need to conduct transactions in a post-COVID world as well as the emotional need to feel confident in their payment system. Visa’s new branding aims to positioning the organisation at the top of mind when people are seeking a safe and trusted payment provider that can fulfill their business needs anywhere in the world.

Visas new approach to brand equity also works to mitigate the growing risk of brand dilution in the digital world. Rather than simply highlighting their ability to conduct business efficiently, Visa focuses on what this means to the consumer creating a realistic sense of purpose. The promotion features a diverse set of people, products and partnerships coming together from all over the world, demonstrating the essential role Visa plays in connecting these elements and how the organisation fosters relationships, not just transactions.

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Through the need to address average marketshare in the Indian market, Maybelline identified the need to transform from a 'western' brand to a brand that connected with the local market. They identified the problem (limited range of skin tones in their foundation range that did not suit Indian consumers) and presented the solution (a range of 18 foundation shades) through a multi-channel campaign that spoke directly to its market - Indian national millennials.
Visa, on the back of an upsurge in online spending and a move to a cashless society during the pandemic, sought a brand refresh - an example of building brand equity by applying freshness and consistency. The rebranding campaign served to present the established global brand as more than just a card, but as a global network working for, and allowing everyone to thrive.

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Maybelline launched 18 shades of foundation for the indian market after thoroughly researching its market which saw a hike of 25% of awareness throughout their market.

By doing this the brand grew its trust with its consumers by 35%

this campaign successfully helped Maybelline capture a market in the indian beauty market especially during Covid within the ecommerce industry as online shopping boomed during these times.

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Through market research and understanding consumers needs better, Maybelline was able to identity a gap in the market for a product that served the needs of many consumers who’s needs weren’t being met by brands today.  The developed a product that met the needs of the consumer (18 shades of foundation that matched the colour of your skin vs changing who you are to fit in).

Through partnership with influencers, emotive language in their campaigns and some innovation to promote trial, they were able to reinvent their brand for Gen Z, with the perception of being innovative.

Visa identified a new need-state post pandemic, ensuring that they were seen as being a powerful brand in a post-cash world.  They leveraged their brand equity through the brand trust that they have developed over many years and introduced some new elements around what Visa means (not just a card).

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Maybelline invested in market research to understand consumers wants and needs for using and applying foundation and to discover why Maybelline could not break through the Indian beauty market.

Once data insights had been collated and evaluated, Maybelline identified a key opportunity to develop a range of 18 foundations specifically designed for the demographic of the Indian population.

Maybelline also reinvented the brand equity by developing revised strategies focusing on “the foundation of fairness” creating awareness campaigns on key social media platforms with a specific target market in mind.

Developing a range of foundations to suit the needs of the demographics and communication programs have helped Maybelline capture increased market share of the Indian beauty market.

Visa have embraced experiences learned from the Covid-19 lockdowns where consumers were forced to use online shopping and have encapsulated learnings from consumer behaviour to re-invent their brand strategy.

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Maybelline pivotted when they realised there was a gap in their product offering that meant they weren’t reaching the full potential of the Indian market. Other makeup brands had already led the way in creating diverse skin tone palettes to provide for people with skin tones other than caucasian, so it wasn’t really a risk for them to roll out new foundation colours that worked for south asian (Indian) skin tones, calling them trendsetting is a bit of a stretch.

Visa saw an opportunity to capitalise on the increasing cashless and online nature of shopping and making financial transactions which have been hastened by the COVID19 pandemic and ensuing lockdowns, by building on their existing brand and educating consumers about the other options Visa offers beyond credit cards.

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How was this done? Maybellene has reimagined the product category to fit Indian natural colour. Then, using influencers like Alia Bhatt to communicate the product launch of 18 customs shades to celebrate Indian diversity tones and individuality of Indian women.

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How was this done? Maybellene has reimagined the product category to fit Indian natural colour. Then, using influencers like Alia Bhatt to communicate the product launch of 18 customs shades to celebrate Indian diversity tones and individuality of Indian women.

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- Leonard

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Maybelline were struggling to become a leader in the Indian make up market and as a result decided to change their approach. The ‘The foundation of fairness’ campaign allowed Maybelline to improve their ‘attitudinal equity’ by listening to the consumer and what the market needed rather than focusing on their own brand. By putting the consumer before the brand Maybelline were able to increase their market share in the Indian market improving their brand equity score along the way.

Visa took advantage of the ‘new need state’ that COVID-19 provided. As the world moved towards a cashless society Visa took the opportunity to build on the ‘trust’ people have in their existing 60 year old brand and showcase how ‘individuals, businesses and economies’ can thrive through their network.

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Maybelline achieved attitudinal equity in the Indian beauty market by evaluating how the brand could meet the needs of the consumers in the foundation category. Maybelline’s objective to bring in meaningful change addressed the issue of inclusivity in their brand positioning strategy, resulting in the launch of 18 shades of foundations to fit the diverse skin tones of the market. This new brand position enabled Maybelline to create salience-building digital marketing communication at all stages of the purchase funnel, which increased the brand’s equity score from 96 to 107.

With an increase in cashless transactions during the COVID-19 pandemic, VISA launched a rebranding campaign reminding consumers that it was more than just a source of credit. Rather, VISA is a purpose-driven brand that helps economies thrive by providing a global connection between people, businesses, and products through their digital money network. This brand builder campaign tapped into VISA’s existing 60-year-old brand strengths and applied “fresh consistency” to build brand equity.

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The right brand promise must be delivered over time through product performance, advertising, and pricing strategy in order to build brand equity. To ensure that brand plans ultimately increase sales and market share, it is necessary to continuously analyse in-market brand equity and growth drivers.

Maybelline foundation of fairness campaign was not hitting the In diverse Indian skin tones causing a shift in their market position. Instead of focusing on the brand itself Maybelline looked at the product and was able to cement its position as a trendsetting brand and grow their awareness and brand equity

Visa, on the other hand, launched a fresh campaign that utilised the "new need state" during the pandemic. The pandemic caused a cashless society. It released an app and broadened its brand to capitalise on the new consumers and network working with everyone.. As it was not just about a plastic card but a payment network

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Maybelline reassessed its market position by investigating why Indian consumers weren’t using its foundation products. It took a look at the category rather than focusing on its brand, unveiling the unspoken reasons, the consumer non-disclosed speech. By doing so, it untapped the real reason behind it, and it allowed them to remaster the brand. It improved the brand position and increased brand equity.

Visa used the “new need state” the pandemic provided, the cashless society. It used its brand equity to revamp it successfully. It launched an app and did a brand extension to capitalise on the new users and ride the cashless wave.