PR and the Beauty Biz

Perhaps no other industry is better suited for PR than the beauty world.  There are countless outlets both in the traditional media world and online.  There are product stories and human interest stories.  There are feel good and transformational stories.  There are stories and pitches for different target markets.  There are visually compelling make over stories and there are seasonal and make over stories.  Yep, if used wisely public relations is the beauty industry’s best friend.

In many ways the cosmetic industry can be recession proof and therefore should be marketed during both good and bad economic times.  The industry was born in the Great Depression. This is one industry where it pays to promote even more aggressively during tough times. As in most of the industries that deal with style including entertainment and fashion, a strong media relations campaign is critical when it comes to establishing a skin care line, or cosmetic brand.

Initially, your most important job is to come up with a number of media hooks, i.e. compelling stories. For example come up with interesting stories which define how your product is different? Do any celebrities use your product? How does it make your customers feel? Is there a visual component you can add to the pitch?  Is there an interesting story around how you developed and launched the company? The trick is to come up with as many angles, stories and pitches as possible. You want to make sure that you have strong visuals, both of your products and of people using your products.  Strong before and after photos are always a plus. If you’re going to be the spokesperson, you also want to have photos of you ready to go.   Once you have your stories ready to go, come up with a strong target media list including local, regional and national media.

Once you begin to land print coverage in magazines and newspapers, use social media and blogging to amplify that media online.  That helps generate media interest and starts establishing the brand. Develop a social media strategy in order to capitalize on your TV and print media coverage.

It’s important to develop a steady build and to have the pieces in place to be able to capitalize on the media as it comes. It’s important to be realistic and launch a campaign that will offer you a slow, steady manageable build.  Remember the world of beauty, cosmetics and skincare is one that is tailor made for PR, develop and implement a strong media relations and marketing strategy and it will pay off in the long run.

Copyright © Anthony Mora 2012