The presence of global technology and media has grown in all aspects of our lives, and this has strengthened the influence that celebrities wield on individual purchasing habits across various industries, particularly in beauty.
The past few years have seen a dramatic increase in the number of beauty brands launched by celebrities, many of them in conjunction with large contract manufacturers that work behind the scenes, creating the beauty formulas consumers love.
This article will explore how celebrity beauty brands are influencing global beauty. It will analyze the global cosmetics market, looking at current market size, segment distribution, and projected market growth. The article will then highlight the key celebrity-owned beauty brand trends that beauty retailers should follow to achieve success for their own businesses.
Table of Contents
How celebrity beauty brands are influencing global beauty
Overview of the global cosmetics market
Top celebrity-owned beauty brand trends to follow
Create hype around your beauty business
How celebrity beauty brands are influencing global beauty
Celebrities can be said to be the original influencers as they have acted as brand ambassadors and been the faces of product and service campaigns since the phenomenon of celebrity began. When it comes to the beauty industry, celebrities have received the assumption of expertise as they have spent countless years consuming beauty products, sitting in makeup chairs, and having access to the world’s top makeup artists and dermatologists.
So when celebrities began to venture into the beauty industry with their own brands, they were largely welcomed by keen fans and followers who wanted access to their favorite celebrity’s beauty secrets. Consequently, celebrities have been able to wield a great deal of influence in the beauty industry.
Icons from Hollywood and the music industry have established their own beauty lines, from Rihanna’s Fenty Beauty to Kylie Jenner’s Kylie Cosmetics, and have millions of adoring fans keen to recreate their looks.
Celebrity endorsements have become an essential part of the beauty industry. On top of that, the reach and influence of celebrities when it comes to selling beauty products have been amplified by social media, reality television, and media generated by paparazzi.
Through these media, consumers are now able to follow the latest celebrity beauty trends or find the latest celebrity-endorsed beauty products and skincare routines. In turn, consumer beauty buying patterns are influenced by the content they are exposed to.
Overview of the global cosmetics market
The global cosmetics market was estimated to be valued at US $380.2 billion in 2021 and is expected to reach a market value of US $465 billion by 2026. It is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.5% over the 2021–2026 forecast period.
The fashion and entertainment industry has been flourishing over the past few years, and this has served to significantly increase the demand for the latest cosmetic products. Consumers have a growing awareness of the beneficial properties of using certain cosmetics on a regular basis.
Both the rapidly growing fashion and entertainment sector and the trend towards using cosmetics to cultivate healthier skin are major driving factors in the growth of the global cosmetics market and demand for both synthetic and natural cosmetic products.
On the supply side, technological advancement has been seen in the manufacturing of cosmetic products. This, coupled with economic development in emerging economies, is helping the global cosmetics market grow rapidly.
Top celebrity-owned beauty brand trends to follow
1. Harnessing social media
With online following, celebrities are able to have direct access to their target buyers. Social media has erased many barriers to launching a brand. Before the rise of social media, when celebrities wanted to launch beauty brands, they would have to partner or cooperate with legacy beauty brands in some capacity, but now, celebrities are able to go directly to their consumers.
This is a game-changer as celebrities are able to monetize their fan bases, which are often within tens of millions or hundreds of millions globally. With this immense social media reach, a celebrity who launches a beauty brand is able to use their social media as the primary marketing platform, and consumers consider this communication authentic and credible as it would be coming directly from the source.
A report from DMR Group, which monitors, tracks, and analyzes the PR strategies of brands globally as well as their data communication activities, shows that in just the first five months of 2020, the amount of beauty content that had been published on social media had increased 5% on average. Spikes of 12% and 13% were seen in March and April, respectively, at a time when lockdown mandates were being enacted in most countries.
The amount of beauty-related content shared by celebrities and influencers, along with media and journalist accounts, also saw a 5% and 4% increase, respectively, over the first five months of 2020. Social media has certainly become a game-changer for celebrities, and harnessing the power of the channel for your own will help you reach your target customers directly and in a way that seems authentic to them.
2. Fostering brand community
It’s not enough to just have a social media marketing and sales channel; it’s also important to cultivate a community around your brand through that channel. Celebrities have been using their social media platforms to connect with their followers and audiences directly and actually foster community.
This has been a crucial aspect behind the success of certain celebrity-owned beauty brands. Consumers are becoming more savvy and cautious of content being marketed to them through social media. This has led to a growing proportion of online consumers seeking out what they see as authentic engagement with brands and personalities online. The element of authenticity is what is enabling certain celebrity-owned beauty brands to gain consumer loyalty.
Kylie Cosmetics and KKW Beauty are examples of celebrity beauty brands that have amassed massive following based on the celebrity founders’ follower counts, which were above 50 million when the brands launched. The brands now each have above 100 million followers on Instagram as well as dedicated fan pages across all the major social media platforms. In this way, Kylie Jenner and Kim Kardashian have been able to successfully capitalize on considerable global fan bases to build large brand communities.
In many cases, celebrity social media follower bases are actually greater than those of the average mainstream beauty brands, thus giving celebrities significant influence. But beyond the numbers, another way that celebrities are able to cultivate brand community is by rallying behind a cause.
Music icon Rihanna launched Fenty Beauty in 2017 and received praise for the wide range of shades the brand offers for its foundations and concealers. Each of them comes in an unprecedented 50 shades, allowing people of different skin tones to find something that works for them. As a result, brand community has been formed around the cause of inclusivity and beauty for all.
Actress and singer Selena Gomez also launched her beauty line, Rare Beauty, in 2020. The collection boasts a range of products for eyes, lips, and the face. Selena Gomez has been able to leverage her existing fan base to cultivate a highly enthusiastic and loyal community around her brand as she champions mental health and self-acceptance.
Beauty retailers can cultivate community around their brands by intentionally and authentically embedding a purpose or cause into the brand identity. Consumers who believe in the same cause will gravitate toward the brand, and these types of consumers will create a loyal base of brand followers.
3. Thinking beyond beauty
Another key trend that has been seen with celebrity-owned beauty brands is the shift from purely focusing on beauty products to encompassing other aspects of health and wellness. This has been seen by the growing number of celebrities that have started to enter the home care space. Kim Kardashian has expanded her brand to also incorporate a home accessories collection.
Over the past few years, the focus on wellness has evolved as people are taking their wellness outside of the bathroom and bringing it more into their homes. This trend is only going to increase as more celebrities see opportunities of branching out of beauty to encompass the full range of wellness.
The past few years have been tumultuous for many as a result of the global health scare and the resulting lockdown measures. This has left a number of people seeking out self-care as a way of regaining balance and wholeness within their lives. When it comes to celebrity brands, many of them will pivot to cater to this need for wellness and they can do this authentically by telling their own stories as a way of seeming more relatable to consumers.
Actress Gwyneth Paltrow has been one of the celebrities at the forefront of bridging this gap between beauty and wellness and has successfully built a one-stop wellness and lifestyle brand, Goop, that shows how lucrative it can be when celebrities think beyond beauty.
Beauty retailers can also consider branching out in a similar way by expanding their product portfolios to offer consumers curated products that span beauty, health, wellness, fitness, and lifestyle.
Create hype around your beauty business
With the success and recognition of celebrity-owned beauty brands, there is no doubt that we are going to see more celebrity-driven beauty brands cropping up soon.
But it doesn’t just have to be celebrities who benefit from this growing wave, beauty retailers can also leverage the trends and strategies that have been used by celebrity-owned beauty brands and harness them for their own brands.
The top trends and strategies that will help you create and sustain hype around your beauty business are:
1. Harnessing social media
2. Fostering brand community
3. Thinking beyond beauty
Learn more about the shift toward natural and sustainable beauty and discover the top trends and products consumers are looking for when searching for beauty products here.
