How Boutique Beauty Companies are Breaking the Beauty Model

Today, as I was browsing through social media, I noted amongst the dog Instagram accounts, plates of food and selfies, a post which stopped me in my tracks. This was something important - a real canary in a coal mine moment.

The post was from Brandon Truaxe, the co-founder of Deciem cosmetics. For those of you who do not suffer from my own beauty product addiction, Deciem considers itself, "The Abnormal Beauty Company". This Canadian-based company, founded in 2013, has grown fast in the last 18 months and is beloved of Vloggers, beauty specialists and Jo Shmo's like yours truly. We are intrigued by its no-nonsense, does-exactly-what-it-says product range and its unconventional take on designing and selling products. They launched 10 beauty brands in under 3 years; unlike many 'boutique' brands, they don't cost the earth: indeed last year they launched The Ordinary, a range with a top price of around ￡10. And they have cult status: the launch of The Ordinary Colour range (foundation make up to the rest of you) sold out within hours, leaving a 70,000 waiting list. (Londoners will find their flagship store, now fully stocked in Covent Garden). Just yesterday they announced that due to the success of The Ordinary they have more negotiating power with their suppliers of one of their most expensive ingredients, so they are not only reducing the price of some key products, but they are donating the difference, multiplied by 5, to a children's charity. Oh, and by the way, they are removing all their brands from North American and European pharmacies as they have noticed an inequitable behaviour they would like to stamp out. This is not your Mother's beauty company.

The post that caught my eye was a somewhat emotional follow up to the price-saving post of the day before. After expressing his gratitude for the warmth of response this "giving back" post received, Brandon Truaxe delivered the following message:

"You shared those beautiful emotions because that post wasn't from a company to a consumer, but from a human to another human. I've now cancelled all of our marketing plans, all of our marketing strategies, because I've realised what we all know, that marketing is simply a way to try to convince people to buy things they don't want or don't need. From now on, I'm going to communicate personally with you on our social channels and share my thoughts with you. Speak to you soon."

Wow.

My jaw dropped. No marketing plans?! I mean, when an indy brand starts to grow, surely that's exactly when the marketing big bucks spending starts - often, granted, with the help of larger corporate investors who have a keen interest in continuing that growth. I wonder what Estee Lauder, who recently invested in Deciem, made of this. Announcing the investment, Fabrizio Freda, President and Chief Executive Officer of The Estée Lauder Companies Inc, said: “Through its unique business model, DECIEM has produced some of the most creative independent brands on the market, capturing the passion and trust of devoted fans around the world – and they are just getting started.” In other words, disruption is exactly what he was expecting and that's what he's got.

After all, for more conventional Estee Lauder brands, glossily filling the pages of Vogue and Elle, cutting marketing spend would be commercial suicide. They are locked into the traditional mechanisms of beauty marketing: display advertising which funds the magazines, in return for copious amount of shrewd editorial product endorsement and placement. But this is not the way the new, cool beauty brands have grown up. They have built their following without the conventional armoury of big company beauty marketing.

The most recent Google analysis of beauty trends in US shows how much traction brands like Glossier, Tarte and Morphe; powerful You Tubers like Jeffree Starr (6+million subscribers), Jaclyn Hill(4.8m) and bloggers like Emily Weiss (founder of Glossier) have. They have built this through social media followings, expert endorsements, personal stories and endless live reviews, tests and testimonials. Likewise, Deciem have also built up their reputation through these means. Cancelling their marketing plans may, in practice, have very little effect.

Deciem and the other boutique beauty brands are masters of the much discussed "PULL" model. It isn't a marketing tactic they have employed but fundamental to their brand DNA. They are brands conceived in a connected, access-all-areas world, for consumers who can find out anything at the touch of a screen. In this oh-so cool world, conventional marketing "PUSH" techniques are a quick way to flush your style credentials down the pan. It's just so obvious! With this latest move Deciem is essentially saying what all new beauty consumers want to hear: "We'll keep you posted, entertained, intrigued. Just come and find us. You'll love it. No pressure." In other words communications catnip for millennials.

For me, Truaxe's recent posts couldn't be more Millennial friendly if a whole puzzle of Planners had strategised them. Today's post showed - sincerely, personally, earnestly - that Deciem earnestly wants to do good in the world and is prepared to stand up for what it believes in, even if it costs the company to do so. That is exactly how Millennials want brands, companies, political systems, well, the world, to behave. And when they set up, or run, companies themselves, that is how they aspire to do it.

So with most of these brands backed, at least in part, by the big beasts of the beauty world, will these lessons spread to the more conventional brands? Are these smaller brands simply experimental marketing petri dishes? Or are they a way for Big Beauty to keep skin in this passion brand game while they see how the dice fall? Who knows? But while it may mean none of us may be landing that job as Deciem marketing director any time soon, the little guys may end up out-marketing us all.