Information over Impulse: Different skins call for different cures, time to end blackmail marketing

The sad reality in the marketing of beauty brands is that they tend to exploit insecurities to trigger purchases. Image Courtesy: iStock

When it came to beauty advertisements on television, the message was always the same: A girl walks into an interview. Gets rejected by grim management for being ‘non-attractive'. Cut to her using a life-changing skin cream. And voila! She is ready to ace every interview in life.

After watching such advertisements, even an alien would be brainwashed to believe that fairness creams can land them a job. The idea being promoted here is that women seek nothing less than a genie who can magically transform them into Greek goddesses. While the reality is that most people just need a confidence boost to help them look and feel better.

In the case of beauty brands, customers want to understand how effective those products are in fulfilling their needs. But the sad reality in the marketing world for beauty brands is that they tend to exploit insecurities to trigger purchases. Beauty brands still believe in the approach of inciting women to buy products through emotional impulses.

The ambiguous marketing manners of most skincare brands being sold in the country were archaic and demeaning. However, in line with the unrealistic beauty standards set by such advertisements and on other social media platforms, consumers chased after their products.

Now emerging are new-age brands that are willing to smash conventional marketing standards. Malini Adapureddy, founder and CEO of a beauty brand - Deconstruct shares, "I, as a consumer, was not happy with the results of these products. They lacked innovation and did not yield the promises those labels made. This drove me to build a brand that I and its consumers could identify with and trust."

A growing number of beauty brands are realising that skincare brands need to get real. A lot of traditional brands flood the media with an overdose of fairytale marketing. They project an image of young women failing to live up to their potential because of the way they look and how a magic potion was the answer to their prayers. However, the reality, at that moment, was a consumer's need for honesty in skincare.

Another failed marketing tactic was populating the Indian skincare market with the concept of natural and ayurvedic products. Most products were being sold with assumptions, without proper logical reasoning or proof behind their ingredients and chemical compositions. Consumers were made to believe that everything natural is good. As a result, many beauty brands used to hide behind the illusory veil of ‘organic and natural' leading consumers to believe that chemicals are bad. What they failed to understand was that even in organic products, it is the root chemical that delivers the difference.

As a result, new-age skincare brands find an increasing need to bring clarity to their delivery and their formulations. The consumers' increased knowledge, need for information and curiosity are three aspects that brands cannot ignore. With the rampant transfer of information via social media, it has become imperative for brands to provide scientifically backed evidence to support every claim they make. This is why brands now dive deeper into research when working on formulations and ensure to communicate the same with their consumers.

It is also often witnessed that brands tend to sacrifice innovation at the altar of scale - one cure for all concerns. However, the fact of the matter is that science and research are evolving quickly and no two sides of the coin are the same. Different skin concerns call for different remedies, thus making it vital to bring forth the latest and most innovative formulations. As a result, transparency and honesty have become a way of communication for most brands, competing to highlight their products as superior, moving from fad to factual marketing.

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