After my initial ventures into researching the status and potency of Lush Cosmetics' social media presence, I was able to solidify the fact that the brand is of the cult variety. They may not be the most well-known cosmetics provider, but they know how to capture a passionate and excited crowd of consumers that will support them for years on end. Being a cult brand as opposed to a popular, commonplace brand, how does this effect their social media strategy? How does it hurt them? What does it do to separate them and make them stand out?
First, let's look at another round of statistics for comparison against what we already know.
Analytics and Data pt. 2
Social Mention
Previously, Social Mention provided data confirming the loyalty of Lush's customers. They had a high sentiment ratio and their passion was almost at 50%. The amount of new people talking about the brand (reach) was their weakest category. In the weeks following the initial observations, here is what Social Mention had to show:
Above are Social Mention charts from October 27th. Comparing them to what was gleaned from the week before, the sentiment has increased significantly (previously it was recorded at 24:1) and the strength has increased as well. Also, the reach has increased significantly while the passion has decreased. Hashtags and sources remain similar, rooted in beauty bloggers intel and image heavy social media. Before making any conclusions, here are data sets from this week:
The week of November 2nd shows that the trends are stabilizing. All four examined categories remain within a couple of points of each other, and the hashtag and sources remain fairly the same. The strong changes from the initial observations are very telling though. The holiday season begins its consumer takeover around Halloween. Even as the holiday approaches, Christmas products begin to take over the shelves. As we will see from analytics of blog searches, it is no longer just Lush that is on people's minds, but Lush's holiday products. The reach increases while the sentiment stays the same because more people shop at Lush only for their holiday products and they are likely to come back season after season.
Previously, Google Trends revealed the prevalence of Lush and how it increased throughout the years, but also in correlation to news stories on the brand's philanthropy and political statements. In this second installment I wanted to used Google Trends to compare "Lush Cosmetics" to "Lush Cosmetics Holiday" to see specific spikes involving their Christmas and winter products promotions.
As the graph demonstrates, interest in Lush increases around the holidays and in correlation to when they release their Christmas products. What should also be noted is that the dips are fairly severe. Lush does a great job promoting their holiday products but they seem to take a break during the off-seasons.
Comparing the top searches relating to Lush Cosmetics and Lush Christmas proves a couple of new things. When people are searching for Lush in general they associate it with handmade, fresh, products, and reviews. Lush is successful in promoting themselves in the basic terms of their ideals - providing fresh, handmade products. On the other hand, Lush Christmas connotes gifts, specific time frames (a lot of searches are based on specific holiday seasons), and seasonal jobs. There seems to be a specific divide between two groups of people that shop with them: the passionate, loyal customers that have faithfully bought from them for years and the holiday opportunists that see their Christmas promotions and are swayed by their beneficial and quirky products.Ice Rocket
Ice Rocket showed yet again that a lot of the blogs refer to Lush in terms of hauls or reviews. Blogs are one of the most influential and important subsets of Lush's clientele because they often have loyal readers that will buy anything that they say they like.
As seen from the graphs above, posts and interest in Lush Cosmetics and Lush Christmas follow the same trends. Lush Christmas gets a higher spike around mid-October which is when they release their Christmas products in stores and online. When comparing specific numbers, Lush Christmas is blogged about a lot more than the brand by itself. For Cosmetics, there are an average 12.4 posts a day, but Christmas gets an average of 38.9 posts a day. Again, we see that Lush's online presence is heavily influenced by their holiday lines.
Conclusions on Target Audiences
In Part One of my analysis I mentioned how the "environmentally conscious consumers" that are aware of sustainability and using natural resources. As I have been gathering more data though, there is another very strong subset that composes one of Lush's most important customers: the beauty blogging world. These are the people that are talking about the brand and they are the ones that carry on the hype during the lulls between holiday releases. By doing reviews of the products, vlogs, and haul videos (a popular phenomenon in the beauty vlogging world, where the vlogger will go through things that they have recently bought and say their first impressions) these bloggers and vloggers are doing a lot of promotion and press for the brand. As these "beauty experts" can have millions of subscribers, they have a considerable influence over possible consumers.
omg i went to pick up my mail and @lushcosmetics have sent me a Halloween goodie box! 😲❤️ http://t.co/RPJwWvrLr3 pic.twitter.com/xkKaLO8Wyw
— Emma Blackery (@emmablackery) October 28, 2014
Above is a tweet from popular YouTuber Emma Blackery who will occasionally review beauty products on her alternate beauty channel. Lush took the time to send the top YouTube beauty bloggers a gift box of Halloween products four weeks before the actual holiday. This promotes them because the vloggers are more than likely to open the box on their channel and show their viewers the new goodies, as Emma did. Lush is apparently aware of how they can essentially take advantage of crowdsourcing and vloggers to promote their products for them.Another interesting target audience for Lush is possible employees. Lush is known for having a welcoming and fun work environment and they take the time to hire people that will carry what they stand for. When searching for Lush on Twitter, there were a surprising number of tweets about working for the brand.
Lush does a lot of hires in the holiday season because of the increased demand. There were no visible complaints on Twitter about working at Lush, only glowing reviews such as these ones. Having such positive comments on being a part of the team shows that Lush is courteous and conscious of their employees, and therefore those who work there are likely to make a happier consumer experience for shoppers. It is a more subtle form of crowdsourcing, but one nonetheless.
Feedback on the Brand Image
The Positive: Lush takes advantage of the visual nature of social media. They exploit Instagram and YouTube to make full demonstrations to their customers of what the products look like in action. The brand knows that they gain immense popularity during the holiday season and revamp their website and social media extensions to reflect the holiday campaign (almost all posts done after Halloween/Christmas items are released have to do with the holiday line or the current charity they are supporting). Lush also recognizes that beauty bloggers and vloggers have a considerable influence over the buying demographic that is their readers/subscribers. They link to and mention original content from bloggers that mention their products through their social media and even give them free goodies to show their appreciation and promote themselves further. Their Facebook is always posting interactive questions and encourages fans to post their own photos and remarks, showing that they take the time to embrace the groundswell and foster their community. The brand makes it clear that they understand what makes them popular and try to showcase that through exciting visuals and sincere posts on social media.
Just opened a box from @lushcosmetics & was so excited to see what was inside just before jumping in my bath! 😍 pic.twitter.com/hk7qKzlQyY
— Zoe (@ZozeeBo) October 30, 2014
The Negative: Cult-status can often lead to consequential exclusiveness and can intimidate those who aren't in the know. Even though it is an obvious positive that Lush sends exclusives to bloggers and celebrities, it can have the adverse effect of appearing that they only care about their well-known and popular customers. There is also an adverse effect of their popularity during the holiday season. As seen from the data provided by Google Trends and IceRocket, there are fairly major dips in mentions and popularity during the off-season. It is apparent that Lush puts a lot of time into holiday promotions, but during the time off their social media marketing is not as present. They will still post and interact, but it is more on somewhat related topics or charity campaigns instead of their products. Also, in terms of interacting, Lush will feature other posts from people but won't often respond directly to questions and comments on their posts.
Goals and Suggestions
Lush already has a strong social media presence and is taking progressive steps in using it to their marketing advantage. Being a cult brand has its benefits (strong sentiment, loyal fans) but Lush could set their sights higher and make a more inclusive and well-known image by gathering more followers and subscribers.
Based on my observations and gathered data, here are my suggestions for Lush in the future:
- Continue reaching out to blogs but not just blogs: Giving bloggers and vloggers attention and items to review is extremely beneficial. But what if Lush did the same thing to random subscribers and followers? Many brands have success with online contests and giveaways. Lush could do the same through Twitter and Facebook and it would help eradicate ideas of favoritism and elitism (as well as introduce consumers to new products and create hype).
- Find ways to promote non-holiday products: Yes, a lot of the non-holiday products are cult favorites that people have been buying for years, but how awesome would it be if more people and new consumers found out about them? Lush rarely posts about products that aren't related to their holiday lines, but by putting the spotlight on oldies but goodies can help prove that the brand isn't just good for a fun holiday gift. Also, this might even out the spikes in popularity that the brand falls into.
- Talk back: As mentioned before, Lush is good at featuring and engaging fans and consumers but they don't tend to talk directly to anyone. They will retweet posts on Twitter but will rarely respond to anything directly. By taking the step further and talking directly back to those who talk to them, Lush will strengthen their online community and show humanity and good faith towards potential and current buyers.
- Film in store experience: Lush is known for having a bright and exciting store experience for customers, from cheery employees to in-store demos. I think that filming quick clips (quick enough to be on Instagram even) of customers experiencing products in the store, or snippets of people's initial thoughts, can emphasize the experiences that customers can have. This could bring more people into the physical stores instead of buying online.
Final Conclusions
Overall, Lush Cosmetics has embraced the groundswell. On a base level, the listen to and talk to the groundswell (asking questions on Facebook, highlight bloggers on Twitter) as well as energize it through a rich visual presence online.
It is a blessing and a curse that Lush is a cult brand. A blessing because they will always have high sentiment and loyal consumers, but a curse because this can lull them into mediocre efforts on social media. It is apparent that Lush is venturing into taking more and more advantage of the groundswell, now they need to go even deeper into communication with customers. Because of blogging and vlogging, combined with Lush's current efforts, the brand is gaining popularity and notability. What if they embraced the groundswell a little further? What if they venture a little bit out of their comfort zone (of holiday promotions) and have a more inclusive view of what they have to offer? They have the potential and the beginnings of being a world-recognized brand.
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