MKTG/406

IBS Center for Management Research

Influencers: Key Voice in Driving Brand Value of Beauty Products

This case was written by Jitesh Nair and Bitra Vasudev, IBS Hyderabad. It was compiled from published sources, and is
intended to be used as a basis for class discussion rather than to illustrate either effective or ineffective handling of a management
situation.

License to use for IBS Pune

Prof. Sruthy Sara Mathew
Adjunct Faculty - Marketing
Semester III - Digital Marketing

 2020, IBS Center for Management Research. All rights reserved.

To order copies, call +91 9640901313 or write to IBS Center for Management Research (ICMR), IFHE Campus, Donthanapally,
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 MKTG/406

Influencers: Key Voice in Driving Brand Value of

Beauty Products
“But it is not only about the numbers, but it is also about the quality of those
numbers, the cohesive feel of those numbers, and the call-to-action response that
the celebrity influencer is able to create with a post”1
– Harish Bijoor, Founder, Harish Bijoor Consults Inc.
“Provide good content and you’ll earn the right to promote your product.”2
– Guy Kawasaki, American Author, Marketing Specialist and Silicon Valley
Venture Capitalist

INTRODUCTION

In January 2019, there were 4.4 billion internet users in the world, a rise of 366 million when
compared to January 2018. Of the total number of global internet users, 3.9 billion accessed the
internet through their mobile phones while 3.5 billion were active on various social media
platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and WhatsApp.3 A similar growth was visible
even in the relatively underdeveloped South Asian region4 where internet penetration5 had
increased from 36% in January 20186 to 42% in January 2019.7 With more and more people
logging on to the internet, digital marketing – an umbrella term used to describe the process of
marketing goods and services using digital technologies – had emerged as an important component
of a company’s marketing mix (Refer to Exhibit I for different digital marketing practices).
One of the widely used social media marketing approaches was influencer marketing, a more
professional form of word-of-mouth marketing aimed at converting the social media audience into
loyal customers through authenticity and trust (Refer to Exhibit II for various steps in influencer
marketing). In 2018, Instagram was the most sought after channel for influencer marketing
followed by Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.8 Several companies across the world, from

1
Shreshtha Verma, Is 30k followers all you need to be a social media influencer?, https://www.
exchange4media.com/digital-news/is-30k-followers-all-you-need-to-be-a-social-media-celebrity-97989.
html, July 10, 2019.
2
“99 Inspiring Influencer Marketing quotes,” https://vozni.me/influencer-marketing-quotes/, July 23, 2018
3
Simon Kemp, “Digital 2019: Global Internet Use Accelerates,” https://wearesocial.com/blog/2019/01/
digital-2019-global-internet-use-accelerates, January 30, 2019.
4
The South Asian countries include India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Bhutan, and Afghanistan.
5
Internet penetration is the total number of internet users to total population.
6
Simon Kemp, “Digital In 2018: World’s Internet Users Pass the 4 Billion Mark,” https://wearesocial.
com/blog/2018/01/global-digital-report-2018, January 30, 2018.
7
Simon Kemp, “Digital 2019: Global Internet Use Accelerates,” https://wearesocial.com/blog/2019/01/
digital-2019-global-internet-use-accelerates, January 30, 2019.
8
“Influencer Marketing Outlook – 2019,” Buzzoka, https://www.thedmti.com/wp-content/ uploads/2019/
01/Buzzoka_Influencer_Marketing_Outlook_2019.pdf, Accessed on November 7, 2019.

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 Influencers: Key Voice in Driving Brand Value of Beauty Products

cosmetics manufacturers to confectionery makers, used influencer marketing to create/improve

brand awareness and increase sales of their products, and they had tasted significant success.

INFLUENCER MARKETING USED BY BIG BRANDS AND STARTUPS ALIKE

With an increase in Internet penetration rates, many cosmetic companies had used influencer
marketing to improve their brand image,9 launch new products, and increase product sales.
L’Oreal, a global cosmetics manufacturer; Avon, a direct selling10 brand; and The Man Company,
a male grooming company, had implemented influencer marketing campaigns in India.
L’Oreal – NYX Product Launch in India
NYX, a global makeup brand of the L’Oreal Group, launched its products in India in 2016 using a
digital only product launch campaign. The launch campaign was designed to ensure that
prospective consumers engaged actively with the brand. The makeup products were launched by
leading beauty influencers in India, among them Shreya Jain and Pratibha, through Facebook
Live.11 Each influencer hosted a Facebook Live event on their page at which they unboxed
different products of NYX, interacted with their audience, applied the products, and gave live
feedback. The influencers urged their audience to shop for NYX products at Nykaa.com, a beauty
e-commerce site in India, and attend NYX’s store launch in Mumbai that was due in the latter part
of the year. The launch event also comprised several contests and the winners had to collect their
prizes at the store. The event was viewed by 1 million people.
The Avon True Make Up Marathon
In April 2017, Avon India launched an 8-week social media campaign called “The Avon True
Make Up Marathon” for marketing Avon True makeup products. The primary objectives of the
campaign were to increase brand relevance12 among consumers by getting influencers to offer
suggestions on using the products in innovative ways and to highlight the brand’s core ethos as
well as increase market penetration13 of products. Avon chose to engage consumers across
different social media platforms, including YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram by conducting
contests and awarding prizes to contest winners.
The campaign included a contest in which leading beauty, fashion, and lifestyle influencers
namely Ankita Srivastava, Anam Chashmawala, and Bhumika Thakkar, encouraged women from
all walks of life to buy Avon True makeup products. They urged their followers to try out 4 new
makeup looks, and share their photographs on Avon’s social media handles. The influencers not
only curated the makeup looks but also selected some of the best photographs. These were later
collated in a book called Avon True Look Book. The book was launched by Renuka Pillai, Avon’s
make up expert, at Phoenix Market City, Kurla, Mumbai. Several beauty influencers and experts
attended the book launch event and participated in beauty makeover workshops conducted by
Renuka Pillai. The book launch was streamed on Facebook Live, Instagram stories14, and Twitter

9
Brand image is a mix of the associations consumers make based on every interaction they have with a
business.
10
Direct selling is the process of selling products directly to customers in non-retail environments such as
homes, workplaces, online, and various other non-store locations.
11
Facebook Live is a feature on Facebook that enables users to broadcast videos live from the Facebook
mobile app.
12
Brand relevance measures customers’ preference for or predisposition toward a brand.
13
Market penetration is the measure of how much a product is utilized by consumers compared to the
estimated market for that product.
14
Instagram Stories allows Instagram users to capture and post videos and images in a slideshow format.

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 Influencers: Key Voice in Driving Brand Value of Beauty Products

Periscope15. The influencers also promoted the event through their respective social media handles
(Refer to Exhibit III for a snapshot of Ankita Shrivastava promoting Avon makeup products
during the Avon True Makeup marathon campaign).
The Man Company’s Valentine’s Day Special Gift Boxes
In 2018, The Man Company, a manufacturer of men’s grooming products in India, came up with
limited edition Valentine’s Day gift boxes. The gift boxes, which contained an assortment of
grooming products including wooden hair combs, soaps, body washes, shave gels, and perfumes,
were targeted at urban, social-media savvy consumers. The brand’s management team adopted
influencer marketing for promoting the gift boxes as they did not have the luxury of a big
marketing budget. The brand approached Qoruz, an influencer marketing agency, for development
and execution of the influencer marketing campaign. Qoruz devised a campaign titled ‘Show, Tell
and Sell’ wherein 50 female and male micro-influencers specializing in fashion and lifestyle on
Instagram were brought onboard to share their first-hand experience with the gift boxes. The boxes
were door delivered to the influencers – Ashwini Dixit, Shyam Tyagi, Samidha Singh, among
others, who then wrote about their experiences on their Instagram accounts. Further, the
influencers were given special discount coupons which they shared with their audience. By
showcasing the contents of the gift boxes and sharing their personal experience of gifting the
boxes to their Valentines, the influencers were able to pique an interest in the product (Refer to
Exhibit IV for a snapshot of the influencer campaign).
Start-up Frank Body’s First Product Launch
Some companies, especially bootstrapped16 ones, had taken the influencer marketing route to
launch their products due to the low costs involved in creating and running an online campaign.
Frank Body, an Australian beauty products start-up that started operations with just AUD$5,000,
took the social media route to promote and launch its products. Frank Body was started by Steve
Rowley, Bree Jhonson, and Jess Hatzis in Melbourne, Australia, in 2013. The idea for the start-up
was born when several women customers asked Steve Rowley, then a coffee shop owner, for
leftover coffee grounds to use as a natural body exfoliator. The founders realized the immense
potential that coffee-based cosmetics had and started making and selling coffee grounds-based
body scrubs under the brand name Frank Body.
The founders sent the body scrubs – before their official launch in the market – to micro-
influencers17, including makeup artists and beauty bloggers, across Australia asking them to
demonstrate the way the scrubs were supposed to be used and give their frank opinions on their
respective Instagram handles. This strategy generated a lot of interest among potential consumers
who purchased the products when they were launched officially in the market. In addition, the
company asked regular users to post their reviews using the hashtag ‘#frankeffect’. Each
individual who had some influence over his/her friends and family became a brand ambassador for
the company. This further helped in amplifying the brand’s following on social media channels
(Refer to Exhibit V for a snapshot of the influencer campaign).

IMPACT OF INFLUENCER MARKETING CAMPAIGNS

Influencer marketing campaigns had a significant positive impact in terms of product awareness,
consumer engagement, product sales, and revenues. In the case of Avon, more than 4,000 women
sent their photographs for “The Avon True Make Up Marathon” contest; Avon True’s share of
15
Twitter Periscope enables Twitter users to live stream videos.
16
A bootstrap is an entrepreneurial venture with very either very little outside funds or support or none at all.
17
They are individuals who specialize or work in a particular field and regularly share their interests on
social media. Unlike typical social media “influencers,” micro-influencers have fewer followers – in
thousands or tens of thousands -- but they have highly engaged audiences.

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 Influencers: Key Voice in Driving Brand Value of Beauty Products

voice18 increased from 7% to more than 53% during the campaign period (April to May 2017),
which was higher than that of Maybelline, Colorbar, Lakme, and L’Oreal; the marketing campaign
reached 16 million people, registered 28 million impressions19 across social media platforms, and
resulted in a 114% rise in sales. Also, more than 30 leading beauty bloggers tried the makeup
products, gave reviews, and covered the launch of the Avon True Look Book on their social media
handles. The contest led to higher consumer engagement on Instagram. Further, according to
Campaignindia.in20 and Unmetric,21 the Avon True Make Up Marathon was the among the 20
leading Facebook posts during April to May 2017.22
The Facebook live launch event conducted by NYX reached 1 million people and more than
100,000 people actively engaged with the video either by commenting on it or by liking or sharing
it. More than 1,000 people started following NYX on Instagram after watching the Facebook live
launch and the two flagship products of NYX, Liquid Suedes and Soft Matte Lip Cream, were sold
out within the first 3 hours of the launch campaign commencing. The influencer strategy also
helped generate footfall at the brick and mortar store. More than 700 people stood in queue from 5
am in on the day the NYX brick and mortar store being inaugurated in Mumbai and nearly 85% of
the displayed makeup box sets were sold on the first day.23
The AUD$20 million Frank Body’s success story was entirely attributed to influencer marketing
as the company depended solely on influencers for marketing its products. Since the company
launched its products in 2013 through influencers, over 690,000 people started following it on
Instagram; the company’s website registered 80,000 visits every month; and over 2 million body
scrubs were sold in 149 countries.24
Over 151,000 people on Instagram watched The Man Company’s influencer marketing campaign
and over 42,000 people liked, commented, and shared the campaign. This incredible reach helped
the company’s management realize its objective of creating awareness about the limited edition
product.25

WHAT NEXT?

Despite the numerous challenges posed by influencer marketing, more and more brands and
marketers were turning toward it. The influencer marketing industry is on track to be worth up to
US$15 billion by 2022, up from as much as US$8 billion in 2019. .26 According to influencer.in,

18
Share of voice is the share of exposure which a brand gets. The share of voice metric can be used for
measuring brand awareness and gauging brand visibility in a particular medium among a specific
audience.
19
Impressions are the total number of times a particular content is displayed on the social media channel. It
does not take into account sales generated by the content.
20
Campaignindia.in is a media website reporting on media, advertising, and marketing verticals in India.
21
Unmetric is a social media analytics firm.
22
Vinaya, “How Avon True Makeup Marathon leveraged influencers to transform consumers to brand
advocates,” http://lighthouseinsights.in/avon-india-influencer-campaign.html/, October 25, 2017.
23
Prasant Naidu, “How Foxymoron stole young hearts for NYX Professional Makeup launch in India,”
http://lighthouseinsights.in/how-foxymoron-stole-young-hearts-for-nyx-professional-makeup-launch-in-
india.html/, October 12, 2017.
24
“How Frank Body Used Content Marketing to Make $20 Million in Sales,” https://www.coredna.
com/blogs/ecommerce-content-marketing-frank-body, August 21, 2019.
25
“How The Man Company used Qoruz Rewards to boost sales of its V-Day Gift Boxes,” http://www.
socialsamosa.com/2018/03/man-company-qoruz-rewards-boost-sales/, March 15, 2018.
26
“The Influencer Marketing Industry Global Ad Spend: 2019”, https://www.businessinsider.com/the-
2019-influencer-marketing-report-2019-7?IR=T.

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 Influencers: Key Voice in Driving Brand Value of Beauty Products

an India-based influencer marketing platform, videos would overtake blogs, photographs, and
tweets as the most preferred format for influencer marketing in future as a majority of consumers
preferred to watch live videos of influencers rather than read their blog posts.27 Influencer.in also
opined that videos were more eye catching and fun to watch due to their visual nature, and so the
probability of their getting shared was much higher than that of blog posts. Further, the influencer
marketing platform suggested that brands were expected to incorporate contests, meet & greets,28
and giveaways in their influencer marketing campaigns as these events had a proven track record
of generating higher customer engagement.
Last, influencer.in predicted that marketers would increasingly prefer micro (non-celebrities with
10,000 to 50,000 followers) and nano-influencers (non-celebrities with 1,000 to 10,000 followers)
on social media with expertise in a particular field such as fitness, photography, etc.) to macro-
influencers as the former were more approachable and showed genuine interest in the brand. Also,
consumers trusted the opinions of micro and nano-influencers as they were highly skilled in a
specific field.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION:

1. The number of influencers is at an all-time high. How can companies identify the right
influencers and develop successful collaborations with them?
2. Brands are allocating big budgets for influencer marketing, enticed by the opportunity to
amplify their content and attract new business. Do you think influencer marketing is a
sustainable strategy for brand success?
3. How can a marketer measure the impact of an influencer marketing campaign?
4. Is an influencer a contemporary opinion leader? Please justify your answer.

27
Pooja Manoj, “Top Influencer Marketing Trends To Look Forward To In 2019,” https://www.influencer.
in/blog/influencer-marketing-trends-2019/, December 21, 2018.
28
Meet & Greets are events where a celebrity socializes with people, press members and other guests.

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 Influencers: Key Voice in Driving Brand Value of Beauty Products

Exhibit I:
Different Digital Marketing Practices
1. Search Engine Optimization
2. Search Engine Marketing
3. Content Marketing
4. Social Media Marketing
5. Pay-Per-Click Advertising
6. Affiliate Marketing
7. E-mail Marketing
Source: Neil Patel, “Digital Marketing Made Simple: A Step-by-Step Guide,” https://neilpatel.com/what-is-
digital-marketing/, 2019

Exhibit II:
Steps in Influencer Marketing
1. Outlining Campaign Goals
2. Selecting the Type of Influencer Marketing Campaign
3. Identifying and Defining the Audience
4. Finding the Right Influencers
5. Implementing the Campaign
6. Tracking and Analyzing the Campaign Results
Source: Kim Kosaka, “Your Complete Guide to Creating an Influencer Marketing Strategy,” Alexa Blog,
https://blog.alexa.com/influencer-marketing-strategy/, Accessed on October 29, 2019

Exhibit III:
Ankita Shrivastava in the Avon True Makeup Marathon Campaign

Source: Vinaya, “How Avon True Makeup Marathon leveraged influencers to transform consumers to brand
advocates,” http://lighthouseinsights.in/avon-india-influencer-campaign.html/, October 25, 2017

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 Influencers: Key Voice in Driving Brand Value of Beauty Products

Exhibit IV:
A Snapshot of the Man Company’s Influencer Campaign

Source: “How The Man Company used Qoruz Rewards to boost sales of its V-Day Gift Boxes,”
http://www.socialsamosa.com/2018/03/man-company-qoruz-rewards-boost-sales/, March 15, 2018

Exhibit V:
Frank Body’s Influencer Campaign

Source: Renata Dominik, “5 Ways 'Frank Body' Became Famous on Instagram,” http://webcache.
googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:AcbMzMlZJzAJ:www.dreamanddo.com.au/blog/2015/7/26/5-ways-
frank-body-became-famous-on-instagram+&cd=12&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=in, August 17, 2015

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 Influencers: Key Voice in Driving Brand Value of Beauty Products

Suggested Readings and References:

1. Renata Dominik, “5 Ways 'Frank Body' Became Famous on Instagram,” http://www.

dreamanddo.com.au/blog/2015/7/26/5-ways-frank-body-became-famous-on-instagram,
August 17, 2015
2. Prasant Naidu, “How Foxymoron stole young hearts for NYX Professional Makeup
launch in India,” http://lighthouseinsights.in/how-foxymoron-stole-young-hearts-for-nyx-
professional-makeup-launch-in-india.html/, October 12, 2017
3. Vinaya, “How Avon True Makeup Marathon leveraged influencers to transform
consumers to brand advocates,” http://lighthouseinsights.in/avon-india-influencer-
campaign.html/, October 25, 2017
4. “How The Man Company used Qoruz Rewards to boost sales of its V-Day Gift
Boxes,” http://www.socialsamosa.com/2018/03/man-company-qoruz-rewards-boost-sales/,
March 15, 2018
5. Joel Mathew, “Understanding Influencer Marketing And Why It Is So Effective,”
https://www.forbes.com/sites/theyec/2018/07/30/understanding-influencer-marketing-and-
why-it-is-so-effective/#769dca4671a9, July 30, 2018
6. Simon Kemp, “Digital 2019: Global Internet Use Accelerates,” https://wearesocial.com/
blog/2019/01/digital-2019-global-internet-use-accelerates, January 30, 2019.
7. Shradha Agarwal, “Huge denominator in influencer marketing in India is too good to
be true,” https://www.financialexpress.com/industry/huge-denominator-in-influencer-
marketing-in-india-is-too-good-to-be-true/1480702/, February 8, 2019
8. Shreshtha Verma, “Is 30k followers all you need to be a social media influencer?”,
https://www.exchange4media.com/digital-news/is-30k-followers-all-you-need-to-be-a-
social-media-celebrity-97989.html, July 10, 2019
9. Anumeha Chaturvedi, “Influencers score as brands step up social media play,”
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/70506845.cms?utm_source=contentofint
erest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst, August 3, 2019
10. Ananya Bhattacharya, “It’s a great time to be an influencer on Instagram or TikTok in
India,” https://qz.com/india/1720880/instagram-youtube-tiktok-stars-are-clicking-with-
indian-brands/, October 11, 2019
11. “How Frank Body Used Content Marketing to Make $20 Million in Sales,” https://
www.coredna.com/blogs/ecommerce-content-marketing-frank-body, August 21, 2019
12. Kim Kosaka, “Your Complete Guide to Creating an Influencer Marketing Strategy,”
Alexa Blog, https://blog.alexa.com/influencer-marketing-strategy/, Accessed on October
29, 2019
13. “What are the Chief Influencer Marketing Challenges in 2019?” https://mediakix.com/
influencer-marketing-resources/influencer-marketing-challenges/, Accessed on November
6, 2019
14. “Influencer Marketing Outlook – 2019,” Buzzoka, https://www.thedmti.com/wp-content/
uploads/2019/01/Buzzoka_Influencer_Marketing_Outlook_2019.pdf, Accessed on
November 7, 2019
15. Kristen Matthews, “The Definitive Guide to Influencer Targeting,” https://neilpatel.com/
blog/guide-to-influencer-targeting/, accessed on November 18, 2019

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 Influencers: Key Voice in Driving Brand Value of Beauty Products

16. Suzie Blaszkiewicz, “The Dos and Don'ts of Identifying the Right Influencers,”
https://brand24.com/blog/the-dos-and-donts-of-identifying-the-right-influencers/, accessed
on November 18, 2019
17. Holly Hamann, “5 Tips for Finding the Right Social Influencers for Your Brand,”
https://www.convinceandconvert.com/digital-marketing/5-tips-for-finding-the-right-social-
influencers-for-your-brand/, accessed on November 18, 2019
18. Neil Patel, “Digital Marketing Made Simple: A Step-by-Step Guide,” https://neilpatel.
com/what-is-digital-marketing/, 2019