'We', Glossier
- hlc229
- Feb 23, 2020
- 4 min read
Updated: Mar 6, 2020
Glossier has become a cult favourite amongst the online beauty community. It has only taken Glossier 6 years to grow from a small blog to a business that is worth $1.2 billion (Berger, 2019). Glossier is unlike most beauty brands as they began, and still remain, an online company. Their digital business model is part of an extension practice whereby Glossier have used their digital platform to enable a new type of online business that interacts with customers (Li, 2018). Through this interaction online, it has enabled Glossier to set itself apart from the likes of drug store brands such as Maybelline and the higher end such as Chanel through the 'We Economy' (Daugherty, 2015) . Glossier have created a sharing experience through their use of the digital space which is the main factor which has propelled them to unicorn status, one of 300 start-up companies that value at $1billion or more (Berger, 2019). Their digital business model adds value to the consumer that other beauty brands cannot compete against. The digital route that Glossier has so cleverly adopted doesn’t suppress them to the physicality of a store, their digital presence lets them float the boundaries of the traditional beauty market. They have created a community through platforms that enable customers to interact with one another.
‘Beauty inspired by real life’
(Glossier, 2020)
Glossier has brilliantly utilised the rising digital space to become a business that is based on community:
1) The blog-Turning thought into action
2) A global Instagram trend
1) Turning thought into action
Emily Weiss, founder of Glossier, places upmost importance on the customer. Glossier boasts 'real life', if you and I weren't involved that'd be a bit of a contradiction wouldn't it? Glossier began as the blog 'Into the Gloss' where customers can comment and interact with each other and the Glossier team to discuss anything beauty related (intothegloss.com, 2012). The milky jelly cleanser was based upon what the Glossier community felt was missing in their beauty regime. Glossier heard this and acted on it, they’ve been able to build a community that feel involved which in turn increases the loyalty of customers towards Glossier (intothegloss.com, 2016). You and I as the consumer feel part of the club so to speak, we feel involved and listened to. Glossier have used their digital business model to extend beyond simply ordering products online and have created a community, something that the generic beauty brand cannot offer. Through this online community Glossier aim to please and retain customers. For Glossier the communication between the consumer and the company is crucial to their success in creating a product line that consumers desire. This communication is all facilitated through the internet, their digital business model is the foundation to their business and their unique communication with their consumers. Without the blog, Glossier’s products would not be the same, it’s all well and good having a forum but customers won’t stay around without action.
Retrieved from: https://intothegloss.com/2016/01/milky-jelly-cleanser/
2) A global Instagram trend
Glossier and Instagram go hand in hand. Without Instagram what would Glossier be? Instagram has given Glossier the global online hype. Glossier’s online aesthetic and perfect Instagram façade is what has really propelled Glossier into a talked about brand. The aesthetic is ‘millennial pink’ (Schneier, 2018), very 'Instagram basic bitch'. Their content follows suit. Their feed really represents the girls dream aesthetic, they have dogs for the cute factor, perfect golden selfies, and artsy product shots where packaging alone can really sway an impulse buy.
Retrieved from: https://www.instagram.com/glossier/
The digital space has enabled a trend to circulate faster and wider than ever before. For the beauty market the existence of beauty bloggers further propels this. Once an already trending beauty blogger reviews a product its popularity hits the heights resulting in every person interested in beauty to take notice of what could be the smallest brand. The Instagram channel has enabled Glossier rise in their popularity through what is now a loyal community. Using Instagram adheres to the current trends that attract the general millennial that follows the trend, and who nowadays doesn’t follow the trend?
Glossier's quick success stems from their digital business model. Creating a well knitted Glossier focused community that help to create products has ensured a loyal community. This part of the business is crucial in order to create a product that consumers desire and that those beauty fanatics have gained inclusion that no other brand can or will offer. Creating an Instagram hype is oh so relevant to the millennial of today and without this the global sensation that Glossier has become online would never have come to be. In one brilliant business model Glossier have created an amazing 'We Community' (Daugherty, 2015) which has allowed them to become an online favourite. Nowadays everyone is so caught up in what everyone else thinks and Glossier have created a brand that capitalises off the need to be involved and be like everyone else. Community is everything, ‘We’ are everything.
Retrieved from: https://media.giphy.com/media/65ASn3FUPY21l52jbX/giphy.gif
Reference list
-Berger, S. (March 20, 2019) Glossier: How this 33-year-old turned her beauty blog to a $1 billion brand [Weblog] Retrieved from: https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/20/how-emily-weiss-took-glossier-from-beauty-blog-to-1-billion-brand.html
-Daugherty, P. (Match 9, 2015) Retrieved from: https://www.forbes.com/sites/ciocentral/2015/03/09/the-rise-of-digital-ecosystems-in-the-we-economy/#7c7b41f55514
-Giphy (2020) Retrieved from: https://media.giphy.com/media/65ASn3FUPY21l52jbX/giphy.gif
-Glossier (2020) Retrieved from: https://www.glossier.com/
-Hall, V. (October 10 2017) You've heard the hype about cult beauty brand Glossier, but do the products actually work?, The Telegraph, Retrieved from: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/beauty/skin/heard-hype-cult-beauty-brand-glossier-do-products-actually-work/
-intothegloss.com (2016) The Glossier cleanser: Milky jelly is here! Retrieved from: https://intothegloss.com/2016/01/milky-jelly-cleanser/
-intothegloss.com (2020) Retrieved from: https://intothegloss.com/
-Li, F. (2018). The digital transformation of business models in the creative industries: A holistic framework and emerging trends. Technovation, 102012.
-Schneier, M. (November 7, 2018) Glossier will see you now, The New York Times, Retrieved from: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/07/style/glossier-new-store-new-york.html
A very interesting insight into Glossier! It is particularly interesting how their community plays such an important role in their success. How do you think Glossier will respond to the trend of men's beauty products becoming more prominent and accepted? Would their business model of engaging with a community work in the same way or would it have to adapt?
Hi, I was impressed by this blog. When a beauty brand is combined with a digital platform, a huge advertising effect will appear, and the Glossier makes me think the innovation is that the product is based on user needs. It began to collect online data and finally turned into a specific product. The whole process is also very attractive to customers. There are also many well-known bloggers' own beauty brands on Instagram. These brands are also designed to better improve customer demand for beauty products. Compared with these brands, Glossier is there a greater advantage?
Loved this post! I completely agree that Glossier have revolutionised the online beauty community. I work in a cosmetic store and have undoubtedly seen a loss in physical sales to online buying, the recent closure of House of Fraser is an example of this threat’s outcome. You mentioned Glossier’s model not suppressing them to a physical store like other brands. This said, I found an interesting article on Glossier and the importance of experiential and intangible interactions that only physical stores can offer. Glossier opened its first pop-up shop in London last year, previously set to close this February but kept open until the end of 2020 due to its popularity. The pop-up has an on-brand pink theme and is…
Hi! Thank you for your post! It was nteresting to read about this brand and its digital strategy of building the brand admirers community. I decided to read more about the brand and found out that the fans of Glossier are mainly the Millennials and they even call themselves the “Glossier mavens” (Arps, 2017). However, despite the perfect image online, the brand still has certain issues to work on. One of the issues to enhance the brand loyalty of the customers is to expend the product range in terms of shades and color to embrace the diversity and different skin colors (Arps, 2017). Besides, in some of its Instagram publications, it has aggressively attached and criticised the competing brands and…
Very Interesting article! Although you did not state it in the article, it sounds as though Glossier's digital business model is e-commerce, which is one of the most popular digital business models with the likes of Amazon, Zappos, and Alibaba. With these success stories, and Glossier's prominent social media strategy, do you think that Glossier could grow to overtake the industry leaders in this department? Also, when it comes to makeup, do you think Glossier is missing out on potential customers due to the fact that consumers or prospective customers can't test out and see the makeup physically before ordering? Do you think this will affect them in the future?