Hello beauties!
Beauty community may come as a whole when we share our passion for makeup but when you look more closely, the U.S. beauty market is completely different compared to Europe or especially Asia. Today I’m going to talk about Differences between U.S. and European Beauty Markets because this is a starting point in Getting to Know your Audience. Knowing these differences is important because you need to know the preferences of your targeted audience, which will later impact your revenue. You need to know the audience you are targeting, their preference and shopping habits so you can provide the best content and built a strategy for your business.
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Differences between U.S. and European Beauty Markets that impact Content Creators Revenue
The entire beauty industry was built on differences between customers and it’s easy to spot them. You may be creating content from Europe but you want to target the U.S. audience so what you’ll need to do is to learn about American beauty market. This goes both ways, so no matter where you are based, you need to prospect the beauty market of your targeted audience and start thinking like you actually live there.
Getting to know you audience is key to creating not only great content but to be able to sell your products! Get to know the trends, their preferences, shopping habits, everything that you can use to help you create the right content.
For anyone who’s new here let me make a quick introduction and tell you that Chicprofile was born in 2008 in Romania. A country where even today beauty content creators have very limited access to products and information.
Now I’m based in London and I’m still an independent content creator who doesn’t count on brands for PR or sponsorships. If I’ve been doing it for over 12 years, then you have no excuse not to succeed as well. Times have changed, that’s true and the competition is higher than ever but you can still make it if this is your passion. Check out my recent post on 7 Smart Ways Content Creators Can Grow Their Platforms (What’s Working Now).
Get to Know your American Audience
The beauty world in America revolves around quick solutions, new procedures, fast results and flawless makeup looks. Women are more impatient with products, demand new releases and are more interested in limited editions. They want to see fast results on how they look and that’s why the marketing is more accelerated.
If you are targeting U.S. audience then trying to keep up with new releases will be challenging so make sure to invest a lot of time and money as well. There’s one way around it, just to get started and not dry up your bank account so check out my tips on how to grow your platform today.
You’ll need to keep a fast pace and constantly be updated with the latest releases as in U.S. brands are launching something everyday and American women are more inclined to shop new releases rather than permanent products. Get to know the most important department stores they like to shop from, the perks that Sephora.com offers or mark your calendar for ULTA 21 Days of Beauty when then good deals take place.
Basically get to know everything about your segment, either if it’s makeup, fashion, jewelry, fragrance and so on. Shopping habits, preferences and trends are different from country to country.
When it comes to beauty American women are impatient, they want to see a change in how they look and they want to see it quick. It’s no secret that in U.S. women are obsessed with looking younger. This doesn’t mean that the rest of the women worldwide are careless about how they look but they don’t put the same effort into trying to reverse the aging process.
Photo by Raphael Lovaski on Unsplash
The American beauty world puts a lot of accent on changing how you look so you may see women who are really trying to look different. Playing with makeup and making yourself look different is very common in U.S. I’m not talking only about special occasions and events, but day to day life when many young girls want to change their natural features completely by using makeup.
I bet you’ve seen makeup transformations on Youtube where you don’t even recognize the person anymore when she’s finished with her makeup. This means you need to pay attention to the fact they prefer a full face makeup and enjoy using more products at once.
While if you were targeting a French audience you’ll need to learn they prefer a minimalist makeup style and like to shop for multi-use products. French women often like to use the same product in multiple ways and you’ll be surprised to find out then can pull out an elegant yet simple makeup look by using only five products.
Targeting European Audience!
In Europe, women are more focused on prevention and upkeep so a beauty routine is seen as an ongoing investment with results that may be visible within weeks or months. The trend in Europe is towards permanent products, especially in France or Italy where women restock on their favorite products before they get discontinued. So don’t be surprised if you hear someone buying 2-3 foundations or lipsticks before they get discontinued. I know I had. 🙂
It’s important to understand how women around the globe perceive the beauty industry, because we can see how they impact its development, predict the tendencies, therefore we can customize our platforms accordingly to the targeted audience.
If you’re targeting European audience you may think you’ll have a steady ride and can be a bit more relaxed when it comes to beauty updates. Don’t get to comfy because you’ll may have to keep up in another way. Many European women see their beauty routines as something fun rather than necessary so they enjoy going to beauty salons for a facial quite often. They prefer to take a day off and head over to a SPA with their friends or just get serious about a skincare consultation or shopping the best skincare products.
Comparison between U.S. / Europe & Asia Beauty Trends
We all know Asian women are focused on skincare, brighter skin with a flawless complexion and when it comes to makeup, sheer shades are definitely top of the list.
In the U.S. the makeup trend is different and I’m not surprised when women rank a sheer eyeshadow as having low quality since they prefer high color payoff, opaque pigmentation in a single swipe, dazzling highlighters, shimmery colors. Therefore even the shopping habits are different.
European beauty trends are between U.S. and Asia, because many women are still focused on “less is more” and prefer a “no-makeup makeup look” or “natural makeup look” that is elegant and wearable throughout the day. Here in Europe we don’t always choose the more pigmented shades and we love if we can build up an eyeshadow in two layers without coming to bright or dark just in one swipe.
Photo by Content Pixie
Brands looked at customers desires and tailored makeup collections and releases accordingly. A collection with super shimmery, colorful and pigmented shades and bling bling packaging may not sell so well in Europe like it does in the U.S. … therefore it may be released as U.S. exclusive.
Very few U.S. customers are interested in Diorsnow collections, Chanel Le Blanc or MAC brightening series as they are not into soft shades with a sheer pigmentation or products that may whiten their complexion when they actually love a good tan. The makeup trends in Europe changed over the past few years and I’m happy to see Asian exclusive beauty collections and more Asian beauty brands showing up on the counters.
So depending on your target audience you must be aware of these trends and tailor your content accordingly, otherwise you may not see results.
Make Friends in the Industry
This is another great way that you can get to know your audience. Make sure to befriend people from your niche who are targeting the same audience as you and exchange impressions or talk about the beauty trends. You’ll find out new things but also make connections that will help you in the future.
Makeup Artists
Interact with makeup artists who’s work you’ve been familiar with can prove to be a great asset in the future. I’ve met many senior makeup artists or creative directors who are traveling the world and giving makeup consultations, workshops or attention events or launches for a new collection.
Booking a makeup consultation or showing up for that launch gave me the privilege or talking face to face with some of these worldwide known makeup artists. I had so much to learn from them and I also got to ask questions about the preferences in makeup of my target audience because they do attend beauty events and launches worldwide.
Content Creators
Connect with bloggers, Youtubers or Instagrammers and exchange impressions, talk about differences between beauty markets, trends and communities. It will be very helpful to get the pulse of the audience you are targeting directly from content creators who live in those countries or target the same audience as you.
Read their blogs, watch their Youtube channels, follow them on Instagram and see what type of content they are providing. Make sure to read the comments left by their readers so you can get an idea of what type of content they prefer. Often readers comment about their preferences, leave suggestions and ideas that can be very helpful if you are targeting the same audience.
Beauty Community
If you want to write for the European public then make sure to join forums or communities from that region so you can have a better understanding of their preferences. Soon after I created Chicprofile, I joined Specktra.net, the biggest beauty community in U.S.. For me it was a huge source of information, being able to keep up with beauty trends and collection launches. It helped me see what type of content should I provide if I was going to target U.S. audience.
Just make sure to diversify your sources of information and look for forums, groups, platforms where you can learn as much as possible and get to know your audience. Start conversations with other makeup addicts or beauty collectors and learn about their preferences.
Ask Your Readers
This is the easiest and most accurate approach you can take once you have a decent amount of readers.Keep in touch with them, reply to their comments with challenging answers so you can create a discussion and find out more about their beauty preferences, shopping habits and opinions.
Once you have created an email list and your number of subscribers starts to grow, make sure to send them a survey where you’ve included your top burning questions. Don’t make the survey too long otherwise they will get bored and lose interest in answering all your questions. Give them options and add several answers but also create questions where they can elaborate on the answer.
