Product range tops cosmetic brand image factors

According to Promise Consulting, the brick-and-mortar and online shopping experience are equally important measures of brand image in beauty products and selective cosmetics distribution, especially for make-up. The international market research firm has carried out a survey of different labels that analyses and compares the factors contributing to brand image.

Product range is the main factor contributing to overall brand image (37%), with the brick-and-mortar and online shopping experience not far behind (31% and 32%). These results translate into "a need for a balanced split of marketing and communications actions and investment across all channels," said the firm.

Both the media and non-media environment have become complex, making communication options harder to choose from: "Consumers have a host of different information sources for deals and brands: they are less loyal, more volatile and more stimulated, and have learned how to hoodwink brands, to outwit retailers and to snub traditional media," said Promise Consulting.

The survey demonstrated differences among brands. Luxury make-up brands with fashion roots, such as Burberry, Armani and Chanel, are a cut above the rest in terms of customer perception, but also hold their ground in the other categories (except for Burberry which, according to the report, could strengthen by improving its in-store shopping experience).

Another finding was that U.S. label M.A.C Cosmetics leverages its website better than other brands for strengthening its overall brand appeal.

Finally, pure-player brands, or those founded by make-up artists, such as Bobbi Brown, Estée Lauder and Make Up Forever rely on the quality of their product range and their extensive colour palette to appeal to customers, "without however neglecting the contribution the web can give to their appeal, as in the case of Nars," concluded the survey.

Product range tops cosmetic brand image factors

See also