Beauty executive recruiting firm the Mazur Group hosted its 19th Beauty Biz Roundtable (BBR) at the Le Méridien Delfina Santa Monica Hotel in Santa Monica, California several weeks ago. BBR is a three-hour evening event where beauty executives and professionals network over hors d’oevres before meeting with featured speakers in a series of three roundtables on different industry subjects.
The night featured talks and presentations from some of the top executives in the industry. Chief among them were Jenna Habayeb of Ipsy, Liz Elert of SugarBearHair, Betsy Scanlan of The Good Patch and keynote speaker, Huda Beauty’s president of North America, Nathalie Kristo.
The leaders provide key insights about social media with attendees. Beauty Store Business sat in on two roundtables.
The first roundtable, hosted by Liz Elert of SugarBearHair, focused on building brands during the social media age and what this means for marketing strategies. Elert made a provocative point during her discussion: How companies market themselves online is entirely subjective. She contrasted subjectivity, or what she calls “subjective wants,” with more objective human needs, such as water and shelter. Everything outside of these essential “needs,” she said, are considered a subjective want—and that is where companies needs to focus. Specifically, each company, she said, must take hold of their subjective qualities and consider how these products and brands make consumers feel and appeal to those feelings and what consumers care about.
Norel Mancuso of creative content studio, Social House, led the second roundtable on experiential marketing. She posed the question: What happens when you merge social media and experiential marketing? The answer is social experiences. At time when consumers are immersed in social media, they are craving more and more social experiences offline, Mancuso said. This is directly translating to how consumers interact with online branded content, especially after having an offline experience with the brand. She pointed out that consumers are quick to ignore company-branded content and are now focusing on user-generated content (UGC) with a sense of authenticity behind it. While bloggers and influencers are posting about in-person brand experiences, she said, consumers are more inclined to seek out that experience and produce their own UGC, further promoting the brands.
For more information on the next Beauty Biz Roundtable, visit mazurgroupla.com/beauty-biz-roundtable.