What beauty brands do that turns women on and off

The all-pervasive ability of the internet to provide every woman with instant beauty expertise is driving the beauty business to think about how to brand itself more effectively. Representing McCann Truth Central, McCaughan distilled the findings of the organization's 'Truth About Beauty' study, which set out to detail the role women around the world see for beauty in their lives. 

He has a dual role as its Asia Pacific director as well as the global strategic planning director for Johnson & Johnson Vision Care. The McCann Truth Central study involved deep-dive interviews and discussions with women of all ages in 15 countries, as well as an extensive internet survey with more than 7,000 respondents in seven countries.

"Beauty is universal and yet so transient in definition," said McCaughan, who pointed out that women around the world generally feel it is more important to feel beautiful than to merely look beautiful. That has brought complexity to what McCaughan calls a "whole beauty" ecosystem. The definitions of beauty are becoming more multi-faceted than before, divided into foundational, enhancement, wellness, and emotional categories.

"The notion that the inside shines through to the outside and that the outside affects the inside rings true," McCaughan said. The highest levels of dynamism in defining beauty are found in the emerging markets, where women change their beauty routines more frequently than those in developed markets.

"I'm perfectly loyal, though I'm always changing my beauty brands," McCaughan said, echoing a sentiment women in the study expressed. "I'm loyal to myself." These fluctuating decision-making processes mean that beauty marketers need to secure brand loyalty in the dynamic emerging markets, he said.

Nearly three-quarters of the women surveyed state they know more about beauty than their mothers do, and McCaughan said that is an obvious entry point for brands to begin new beauty conversations with younger women. Indeed, most women are thinking about aging earlier and earlier, due to commercialisation of the aging issue.

McCann's study uncovered five global beauty archetypes to help brands categorise the demands and desires of different demographics: Powerful peacocks, graceful swans, comfortable cats, seductive foxes, social butterflies.

While beauty has become more individualistic, in fact beauty that requires less effort is a universal aspiration for women. "Putting the effort into effortless" is the ideal equation, and McCaughan said beauty marketers should manifest that as their brand strength.

"Don't tell half-finished stories, don't tell women how they can look more beautiful but not what they can get out of it," he advised. "Marketers must unlock all the [tangible] benefits of beauty for female consumers." Practically, beauty brands that have products in more than one category could improve cross-fertilisation across categories, he added.

The problem with beauty marketing now is that although women are thinking in terms of a whole beauty ecosystem, brands are still thinking in products and categories.

That strategy is not gaining any traction with women, and is as unnatural as excessive photo-shopping, according to McCaughan. Women are spending more time scrutinising beauty advertisements nowadays. Only 44 per cent of survey respondents believe that celebrities actually use the beauty products they endorse.

"Celebrities who look beautiful in a way which is 'unfake' are more credible, and consumers don't mind seeing a naturally beautiful woman with a few lines," he said.

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