As creative marketers, our job can be simply stated: to educate the consumer about our clients’ product(s) and gracefully guide her through an informed and effortless journey to purchase. Our team at Base Beauty Creative Agency always, always, always keeps this top of mind.
How lucky we are to be working in a time when we can hear directly—and frequently—from consumers through social media. The ability to listen, interact with, and respond to consumers is a powerful tool not available to marketers even a decade ago. Base Beauty’s COO Aleni Mackarey, Ph.D., MS, and Emily Horrego, our Senior Digital Marketing Strategist, recently hosted a webinar in collaboration with Brandwatch, illuminating how to use community management to gain insights into what consumers want. Emily spoke of how community managers are on the front line of listening to consumers, hearing their questions (e.g., how do I choose a tinted sunscreen?), figuring out where they are confused (e.g., in what order should I use my nighttime skincare products?), fielding questions (e.g., which vegan moisturizer is best for dry skin?) and seeing what they are sharing.
If we ever become too entangled in combing through data or weighing this creative treatment vs. that one, I suggest to our team that they step back for a moment. I ask them to imagine themselves as a customer walking into a Sephora store and staring at the jampacked shelves or logging onto the Ulta Beauty or Amazon site and trying to figure out which moisturizer or mascara is right for them. It can be daunting to sort through the hundreds of products available. But if we have done our jobs and listened to what consumers are telling us, we can make it easy for them by putting clear, differentiating messaging front and center.
I call this consumer empathy. Focusing on who we are speaking to, listening deeply to what they are saying, and remembering that we are consumers, too, also looking for that smooth path to purchase.
What are some of your favorite stories as a consumer? Please share!