Presents...
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NTRODUCTION
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.A.C Cosmetics is a Canadian make up brand founded in 1980’s by Professionals for professionals. The idea to create a matte make collection in a variety of colours that would suite vibrancy and zest for life of the time. The report studies the success of M.A.C Cosmetics, shows how the company has grown from strength to strength over the past 30 years. It will explore the recent history of the company, its competitors, customer profile and also introduce its new promotional campaign idea for AW2014; a brand product line as well brand new social media adventures and online presence.
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ISTORY
1982 Cofounders Frank Toskan (creative director) & Frank Angelo (marketing director). Frustrated because of the lack of colours that would shoot well with photography; their aim was to develop a studio line makeup line that would fulfill their professional needs.
1986 Begin styling fashion shows in Toronto, creating extreme looks, including several bald brides.
1984 MAC is offically launched from a single counter of a Toronto department store. Later that year the first stand only reatil store i open in New York’s Greenwich Village
1995 Participates in its first New York Fashion Week runway, working with Matsuda. For the show, creates Haku, a lipstick that appears sea-foam green in the tube but goes on pink.
1994 Launch of the “Who is the M.A.C. girl?” campaign starring RuPaul. Sales of Viva Glam lipstick raise the first $1 million for the M.A.C. AIDS Fund. In December, Estée Lauder acquires 51 percent of the company, while Toskan and Angelo retain creative control.
2009 Becomes one of the major sponsors at New York Fashion Week, offering a full-service venue at Milk Studios, with top hair, makeup, lighting, & casting pros all working under one roof.
1998 The first M.A.C. Pro Store opens in SoHo, exclusively serving professionals keen to test out the brand’s new products. Frank Toskan resigns.
2014 MAC announce two collaborations, ’The Simpsons’ inspired range to celebrate the shows 25th anniversary & ‘Venemous Villains Collection’ to celebrate the release of the disney film Maleficent.
2010 Lady Gaga brings the power of her millions of Facebook fans & Twitter followers to the Viva Glam campaign. 2000 “All That I Can Say” singer Mary J. Blige poses as poster girl for Viva Glam alongside rapper Lil’ Kim. The duo will help raise more than $41.3 million by 2005 for M.A.C.’s AIDS Fund.
2012 “Pound the Alarm” pop-star Nicki Minaj & singer Ricky Martin become the new faces of Viva Glam, touting a new shade of flamingo-pink & a unisex lip conditioner. Early in 2012, the M.A.C. AIDS Fund totals its contribution at $236 million.
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AMPAIGNS
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iva Glam is M.A.C’s longest running campaign and remains to this day heart and soul of the company., The first Viva Glam was introduced in 1994 to help raise profits for the M.A.C Aids fund with 100 percent of the purchase price of Viva Glam Lipstick and Lipglass to the fund. M.A.C Cosmetics underwrites all of the production costs of the Viva Glam line, donating the full sale price to the Fund, including would-be profits for retail partners. Over the past 18 years, it has launched seven exclusive Viva Glam product lines – including Lipsticks and Lip-glass – each featuring a limited advertising campaign with celebrity superstars such as RuPaul, k.d. Lang, Lil’ Kim, Sir Elton John, Mary J. Blige, Shirley Manson, Linda Evangelista, Boy George, Christina Aguilera, Missy Elliott, Pamela Anderson, Lisa Marie Presley, Debbie Harry, Eve, Dita Von Teese, Fergie, Cyndi Lauper, Lady Gaga, and most recently Ricky Martin, Nicki Minaj and Rihannan. All of the artists that repersent the Viva Glam campaign are chosen because they embody and represent M.A.C’s motto of “all ages, all races, all sexes”. One of the most successful campaigns was in 2012 with the ‘Nicki and Ricky’ They both created their own cosmetics, Nick’s being a light pink lipstick and Ricky’s being a lip conditioner. Due to Nicki Minaj’s Viva Glam Nicki becoming the best selling Viva Glam lipstick of all time, Minaj was invited back in 2013 to front the campaign solo. Over the past 18 years the Viva Glam project has raised over $270 million dollars and continues to rise. The latest ambassador of Viva Glam is superstar singer Rihannan.
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n 2011 M.A.C was involved in a mega collaboration with British fashion designer Gareth Pugh. The collection was made up of 2 lipsticks, lip-gloss, nail lacquers, graphic false lashes, lipsticks, creamy eye-shadows, beauty powders and a make-up bag, All branded with Pugh’s signature name and unusually for M.A.C using a very small colour pallet of deep berries tones, pale nudes and metical mixes of blues. The collection although short lived sold well in the Uk and USA and made profits for sides and recieced rave reviews.
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ack to M.A.C was an incentive set up in 2010 to help reduce some of the companies watse of recycleable products. The idea behind the programme was to encourage their customers to bring the selected recyleable packaging and for every 6 containers they brought back they would recieve a free lipstick of their choice the only expemtion are the Viva Glam colours. Since the incentive first started they have seen their waste of plastic and card dropped dramatically.
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fter the great success of the Gareth Pugh collection and the Daphne Guinness collection boosting new year sales/ M.A.C where quick to announce their newest partnership with Iris Apfel the 90 year old interior designer and fashion icon faced a collection that was truly exclusive. It was up of 5 lipsticks 4 of which where limited addition and only avaliable to buy for a shot period of time (January 3rd - February 9th 2012) from selection of stores around the world.
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.A.C BY REQUEST was of M.A.Cs biggest soical media campaigns, it gave the public the chance to vote to bring some the best sellers from past collections. Each product category had 4 possible winners with the lipstick group including Ra Paul original Viva Glam ‘Passionate Red’ rouge lipstick. The was made up of a month of voting and a month of sales while stocks last. By the end of the second month every single product that had been brought back into production was sold out. With online profits rising around 10%.
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his is M.A.C’s most recent campaign, released May 2014 is a collaboration with Disney to celebrate their new film Maleficent. A special colour collection was created to match and reflect the characters on screen make up. The collection includes eyelashes, blush, eyeliners and of course lipstick and gloss. The packaging is designed with illustrations from the original Disney cartoon film of ‘Sleeping Beauty’.
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n April 2014 M.A.C announced that it was going to release a special collaboration with The Simpsons to mark the 25th anniversary of the show. M.A.C’s iconic electric blue eyeshadow will a heavy part in the collection as the collection will take direct inspiration from the matriarch of the show Marge simpson and her classic blue beehive. The collection is due to hit stores in September 2014 and already is drilling up major interest from beauty bloggers around the world.
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OMPETITORS
Nars is probably M.A.C’s biggest competitor, in terms of both variety of products being sold and wide colour range and textures that both of the brands use make them very close competitors. The photo shoots and advertising is also very similar in terms of styling and glamour and richness that comes from the images.
BOBBI BROWN is a competitor for M.A.C in the range of products that a lot of their customers also come ethnic backgrounds like M.A.C however I feel that they do have the same slickness and sense of brand awareness that M.A.C does. Their price points for singular items like a lipstick and single eye shadow pot is higher yet the quality and styling of their products counters within a store is much lower than M.A.C’s
Smashbox are M.A.C biggest competitors when it comes to skincare. Smashbox have a much wider range of bases and before makeup skincare these are in fact their best sellers where as M.A.C’s is its makeup colour collections. They also sell alot more pallets than singular products the consumer may be more encouraged to buy a pallet for less money at the same quality rather 3 separates colours or more money.
The reason why Benefit is a competitor for M.A.C is because it has very a good brand identity. It is very retro and vintage almost the complete opposite to M.A.C this would mean that all the customers that don’t shop at M.A.C because they like the branding and aesthetic would probably being here are the most different in terms of style and their prices are around the same price.
The graph below shows how many more of the luxury high street and lower end hight street cosmetics brand fair up against M.A.C. The graph is based on price and style with M.A.C being in the top left hand corner for high style and at the luxury high street price point. This graph helps to show where M.A.C sits in the market sector of cosmetics.
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WOT
STRENGTHS
WEAKNESSES
+ Diversity within the products - colours and shades that are made to suite all skin colours.
+ Price piont is quite high for the target consumer they are aiming to target
+Numerous awearness campaigns - strong/ postitive community engagement
+Isolate some of their products to the public with their Pro collection.
+Unique and distinctive design esthetic and brand image
+Minimal press and media coverage via print/ digital advertsing.
+M.A.C Aids/HIV Fund - over $270 million raised for charity over the past 18 years
+M.A.C stores are in very central areas in cities - unreachable to some consumers.
+High profile embassadors and spoken people for ad campaigns OPPITUNITIES + Advance to wider spread omni chanel advertising. E.g. online, billboards.
+Promotions or discounts on non-Pro products +Devlope more into the BRIC emconamies particually devloping blushes and base colours to fit Asian skin types. +Larger free standing stores.
THREATS
+ Cheaper more accessible cosmetics brands are speeding up with trends and colours. + When selling in deparment stores other brands at the same price piont and style are may tear customers away from the M.A.C stand. +Their target audience have alot more brands avaliable to them and at a lower price piont.
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E PEST C
egal:
M.A.C products are manufactured and distributed from Canada to stores all over the world. This kind of transportation of goods provides many legal implications such as; aviation and motoring taxes, import tax, foreign exchange rates, interest rates and fuel duty. As the laws change around these issues due to uncontrollable factors the prices will rise and rules and restrictions become higher and potentially make it harder to ship and transport to some countries.
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nvironmental:
As more and more reports and discoveries are being made about carbon emissions, carbon footprints and state of the planet’s environment. Because of these factors shipping fashion products such as cosmetics to 15 different countries around the world could be seen as unnecessary.
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olitical:
As the M.A.C brand branches out into the BRIC economies and further into the middle east they encounter political issues such as waring government parties which in turn lead to revolutions and upraising from the public causing unrest and harm within the country.
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conomic:
Double dip recession in the UK means that consumers are being more spearing with their money. In particular the younger generations that M.A.C aim to sell to are the generation with the least money. Because of this they are more likely to buy cheaper alternatives more often and only treat themselves to a M.A.C occasionally.
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echnological:
Online shopping is becoming the preferred way of shopping for most people in the UK and with M.A.C seeing a lack of internet sales this could hit them hard for profits. If there consumers are dissatisfied with the website and are starved time then whey will simply look somewhere else instead of making the trip to the store.
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ompetitive Advantage:
M.A.C has many competitive advantages one is their M.A.C PRO programme. The programme reinforces the heritage of the brand; that the products are made for and used by professionals in a industry environment this makes the products for appealing to consumer as they know for sure they are using the same colours and products as people they idolise. Another of advantage for the company is their endless work with their charities, for the consumer this makes the brand seem more appealing as they are trying to make a difference to issues that their company might contribute to.
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ARGET MARKET
ustomer Profile: Gender: Female
Age: 18-35
Geographical Location: Big central middle class cities like New York, Toronto, London, Brighton.Cities with a strong heritage of fashion, art and culture with a young and playful demographic.
Education: In higher education and or have aleady recieved some type of degree or equilivent.
Charcter Traits: Outgoing, confidenat, fashion foward and a stong sense of 21st century technogly and soical media.
Level of income: Older customers yearly salary range from ÂŁ25,000 + Younger customers on an average allowance or weekly budget of ÂŁ50 + for non staple products (E.g. Food/bills/rent)
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tore Visit:
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.A.C Cosmetics have stores in 200+ locations in 15 countriesa round the world. With 9 stand alone M.A.C and M.A.C PRO stores and over 20 department store counters in London alone.
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mbience: When first feeling that comes from the store when you first enter is sense of luxary and glamour. The store gives off a rich appeal. The slick lighting and music gives the impression of a photo shoot or fashion show. Customers are doted from the moment they step in the store by the make up artists who work there.
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isual Merchandising: The first thing you see when you eneter the store is massive TV screen floor to cieling with the newest campiagn poster and right in the middle of the entrace a stand deicated to that product. The stores are very stream line, always running down the center of the store are make counters displaying and holding the products. Each stand dedicated to particular product or a current campiagn. Apart from tester products there are no other products avaliable for you to see ot touch. Around the egde of the store there are numrous showbiz style mirrors with lights and makeup chairs. These are for the customers to sit and try out new products applied by professionals. This is what adds a the touch of glamour to the store.
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roducts: There is a good selection of products on offer the newest campain of the moment takes up about 1/4 of the floor space with 3/4 floor space dedicated to the different ranges of sub-brandss available.
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bservations: When I was in the store i saw about 70-80% of people in the store where mothers and daughters or sisters/aunts/cousins; related to each other in one way or another. Even though there was a higher percentage of young people in the store (18-24) there was a higher percentage of the older customers that actually brought items from the store. All of the consumers in the store seem to be part of the same belief system of being an individual and being quite forward thinking with the make up and confident with what they want and what they know suites them.
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ONCEPT & ART WORK
oncept Idea:
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he concept idea that I am proposing for M.A.C AW14 is a new product collection aimed at the youngest demographic in their consumer profile (18-21). The new range has been put together and designed around the research from the store visit, LE PEST C, and customer profile. Many of M.A.C’s younger customers go to the store regularly but only on a rare basis do they buy something with their own money. This collection hopes to encourage more independent shopping from this age group. The collection which is to be called ‘M.A.C JR’ will include four make up pallets, each pallet corresponding to a particular hair type/skin colour (blonde/brunet/redhead/dark skin). Each pallets contains: 4 eyeshadows - creating the perfect smokey eye for day or night 2 lip colours - 1 day colour and 1 night colour 1 blush 1 bronzer 4 make up brush set The price points of the ‘M.A.C JR’ collection will much lower than the main stream M.A.C products the starting price of a ‘M.A.C JR’ pallet will £19.50. Over time after the initial release of the four pallets a larger pallet will made avaliable for retail still the original eight products but with the chance to add there own colours and create their own personalised pallet.
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ogo:
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roduct:
Blondes have more fun!/ Blonde
Dark and mysterious/Brunett
Hot Chocolate/Dark Skin
Firecracker/Redhead
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ONCEPT & ART WORK
ebsite:
M.A.C JR will not have its own website but instead have its own section on the original M.A.C website. For the first 2 weeks of the launch the image above will be the opening page of macosmetics.com and maccosmetics.co.uk. The page that displays the collection will also keep the same layout as the current pages to keep consistency with the site but it will appear on of the news reel at ton the side bar.
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isual Merchandising:
For the in store visual merchandising I would want the opening stand to be in the middle in the Entrance to be and to be the main attraction. The front side of the main stand will be interactive playing a slide show of moving images E.g. logo, different camera angles of all the different pallets opening/closing, of the brushes being taken out of the pallet, being dipped in the pallet and being applied to a face of a young model. On top of the stand with a selection of the different pallets. On the back wall at the back of the store will have the same slide show of moving images to reflect the front of the store. On the first week of the launch the makeup chairs up the side of the side of the store will be exclusively used for M.A.C JR customers who will a free makeover and have a chance to use the in-store Instragram photo-booth.
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AMPAIGN STRATEGY
n Store:
Part of campaign strategy will include many in-store events. Both in the flagship and stand alone stores and the department store counters. In London the main event will take place in the flagship store. This will be a big launch party thrown for chosen beauty bloggers such as : www.britishbeautyblogger.com, www.viviannadoesmakeup.com, www.londonbeautyqueencom, www.essiebutton.com, www.stylebubble.co.uk, www.bipling.com as well as fashion journalists from publications like Grazia, Teen Vogue, Comapny Etc. Inside the party there will be makeup artists on hand to demonstrate the products, live music, refreshments, a photo booth and each guest of the event will receive a goodie bag containing the following: 1 M.A.C JR gooddie bag 1 M.A.C JR face pallet 1 M.A.C JR promotional gift voucher 1 M.A.C JR lipstick sweets On the first day of general release to the public the first 50 customers for any one the M.A.C stores within London will also receive a free goodie bag minus the make up pallet. With each sale of a M.A.C JR product after that every customer will receive a post card with the face chart of the pallet they brought showing them how they could work the pallet.
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oical Media:
For the first week of general sale in major M.A.C stores around the UK there will be fitted an Instagram photo-booth which will be linked up to a micro Instrgram page separate from the main M.A.C page. The photo-booths in the stores will allow customers have there make up by professionals using the new product and the upload their picture straight to the account with the #MACJR and their own Instrgram name. This will also be part of the ongoing campaign after the initial launch has finished and the photo-booths have gone the page will continue to update its viewers on news and events and allow them to use the hashtag to link themselves with page. Instagram is one of the better social media sites to use for this campaign as Instrgram has a strong 18-25 following the same age range as the M.A.C JR collection. Another part of the social media campaign is to create ‘How to...’ videos on the M.A.C Youtube channel for each colour pallet in the hope that this will encourage other beauty bloggers/customers to do the same; again using the hasttag and linking them to the brands channel. Some of the best videos will be chosen to reposted straight from the M.A.C Youtube channel.
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xculsives:
There will be several exclusives within the months leading up to the release of the collection. One monthly magazine, one weekly magazine and one supplement. British Teen Vogue will be the only publication to feature the colour pallets in a beauty spread prior to the release of the collection. Grazia will get an exclusive interview and profile with one of the M.A.C JR head makeup artists. The interview will be released the week before general sales to build a buzz around the product and make the in-store/online events along with the help of the brands social media networks. Stylist magazine will feature a M.A.C JR pull out advertorial/supplement in the form of a ‘How to...’ look book. This is a good way of reaching a wider audience as the magazine is free and most likely will be handed from person to person via public transport as they are normally read by one person and then left behind for the next person to read.
BRUNETT LIPS Prep your face using your usual base routine, then using the night lip colour and the small lip brush in the JR brush set work from the outter lip and work your way in filling in the lip until you have a perfect matte finish.
EYES Using all four colours in the pallet starting with lightest and using the flat ended eye brush cover you whole lid. Working your way up to the darkest shade use each shade and blend in the eye socket with the angle ended eye brush from the brush collection adding as much or little as youwish to create the perfect smokey evening eye.
CHEEKS
Final step in this look is to take blush brush and start with apples of the cheeks and work your way up in a diagonal motion to the hairline until you reach your desired colour.
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AMPAIGN TIMELINE
SEPTEMBER-DECEMBER 2013 +START DESIGNS FOR LOGO, PACKAGING, SOCIAL MEDIA CAMPAIGN AND STORE VISUAL MERCHANDISING. +TEST PACKAGING DESIGNS ON SAMPLE COLLECTION. +LIAISE WITH SOCIAL MEDIA NETWORKS AND CONFIRM PARTNERSHIP/INVOLVEMENT +FINALISE ALL VISUAL DESIGNS E.G. LOGO, PACKAGING, IN-STORE VISUALS. +MAKEUP ARTISTS TO CREATE LOOKS FOR EACH OF THE PALLETS.
JANUARY 2014 +NEED ALL SAMPLES BACK FROM M.A.C HEAD QUARTERS (PRODUCT AND PACKAGE) READY TO BE PHOTOGRAPHED FOR WEBSITE AND PRESS IMAGES. +START DESIGNS FOR WEBSITE AND FINALISE FACE CHARTS WITH M.A.C.
FEBUARY-APRIL 2014 +FINALISE ALL IMAGERY OF THE PRODUCTS AND SORT IN GROUPS FOR EACH SEND OUT. +WRITE PRESS RELEASE AND ORGANISE EXCLUSIVES WITH MONTHLY/WEEKLY/SUPPLEMENT PUBLICATIONS. +FINALISE FACE CHARTS AND START CREATING THE LOOK BOOK FOR COLLECTION, ‘HOW TO GUIDE’ AND THE YOUTUBE VIDEOS
MAY-JUNE 2014 +SEND OUT SAMPLES TO BRITISH TEEN VOGUE FOR ‘BACK TO SCHOOL’ BEAUTY SHOOT +RELEASE A GENERAL PRESS RELEASE TO ALL MAJOR UK AND US PUBLICATIONS ANNOUNCING THE NAME OF THE COLLECTION AND THE RELEASE MONTH PLUS A VISUAL OF THE LOGO +START TO PLAN AND ORGANISE THE BLOGGERS LAUNCH PARTY AND START ORDERING BRANDED GOODIE BAGS AND SEND OUT INVITES.
JULY 2014 +FINALISE ALL PLANS FOR THE LAUNCH PARTY. +SIT DOWN WITH GRAZIA AND STYLIST AND FINALISE RELEASE DATES AND ARTICLE CONTENT. +FINALISE ANY ALL OF THE SOCIAL MEDIA E.g. YOUTUBE VIDEOS. +CATCH UP WITH TEEN VOGUE TO CHECK ON BEAUTY SHOOT
AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2014 +EXCLUSIVE BEAUTY SHOOT WITH BRITISH TEEN VOGUE APPEARS IN THEIR SEPTEMBER ISSUE +START TO SET UP STORES FOR THE LAUNCH OF THE RANGE +EARLY SEPTEMBER INTERVIEW AND PROFILE HEAD MAKEUP ARTIST APPEARS IN GRAZIA AND LOOK BOOK PULL OUT FEATURES IN STYLIST (AT LEAST ONE WEEK APART) +LAUNCH PARTY AT FLAGSHIPS AROUND THE WORLD, SOCIAL MEDIA GOES LIVE!!!
ALexandra Miller BA Hons Fashion Promortion