*October’s Top 10 Skin Care Brands With Highest Earned Media Value

 

1. CLINIQUE

$2,045,861.85 EMV

 

2. DOVE

$1,042,396.05 EMV

 

3. NEUTROGENA

$936,440.60 EMV

 

4. OLAY

$904,405.75 EMV

 

5. SUAVE

$791,044.55 EMV

 

6. SHISEIDO

$772,873.00 EMV

 

7. SOAP & GLORY

$635,652.30 EMV

 

8. CLARINS

$620,025.50 EMV

 

9. KIEHL’S

$616,188.30 EMV

 

10. BURT’S BEES

$582,033.30 EMV

 

For October, Tribe found that mass-market brands collectively inspired greater content creation across all monitored channels (Blog, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest) with the excep­tion of YouTube. These brands experienced significant increases in earned media on Pinterest and reclaimed the channel from prestige, whose performance declined from September to October. Prestige maintained its overall lead, based on the perfor­mance of these brands on YouTube. The channel is responsible for some of the more valuable content being created because it incorporates elements of brand awareness, community building, as well as e-commerce, each validated by a trustworthy beauty influencer. A majority of the top beauty vloggers, with audiences upwards of one to two million subscribers, will now include a list of the products used in their videos along with shoppable links to third party retailers such as ULTA, Sephora, and Target.

 

Clinique dominated four of the six channels (Blogs, YouTube, Instagram and Pinterest), with its greatest margin on YouTube achieving an impressive $993,742.25 EMV, 3,668,693 views and 62 videos mentioning its brand. A majority of these videos were published by some of the top influencers within beauty who included Clinique’s products in their October and fall favorites posts. Although some of these endorsements were for the brand’s cosmetic products, there seems to be a growing consensus amongst these top influencers that the Clinique name promises products that are dependable, universally beneficial regardless of skin type and irreplaceable staples within their daily beauty regimens.

 

For the three-month period beginning in August, Tribe measured that Clinique, Dove and Kiehl’s experienced the greatest gains in earned media performance between September and October (35%, 39%, 36% respectively). Dove’s month-over-month improve­ment can be attributed to its performance on Facebook, where the brand benefited from a variety of content from blogger give­aways, posts in response to sponsored campaigns and hashtags, as well as more organic endorsements from beauty influencers. Newcomer to the Top 10, Kiehl’s posted impressive EMV numbers on both YouTube and Pinterest. On YouTube, Kiehl’s was includ­ed in similar videos as Clinique, showcasing the staple skin care products in an influencer’s everyday regimen. On Pinterest, some of the brand’s most valuable content was created by influential fashion magazines and publishers including Vogue, Allure and the online beauty destination Byrdie Beauty.

 

For the three month period in its entirety, Kiehl’s and Burt’s Bees showed the greatest overall improvements with 118% and 86%, respectively. Burt’s Bees also excelled on Pinterest, in addition to Instagram and Facebook, where bloggers celebrated the brand’s extension into skincare-conscience cosmetic products.

 

Neutrogena and Clarins both experienced decreases between September and October, as well as from August to October. Af­ter leading in EMV across the board for September, Neutrogena failed to claim the number one seed for any of the channels in October. The brand experienced its greatest loss on Instagram, where it had excelled with content from fashion publishers, when Bella Thorne’s celebrity endorsement became officially “last month’s news”.

 

Ingredient branding has in many ways come to define the state of competition in skin­care. On one hand, it creates a significant barrier to entry for new brands, making it all the more difficult to enter today’s market with a skincare product that contains recognizable chemicals or that lack specific ingredients based upon the desired/promised solution. On the other, for existing brands, product ingredients are essential points-of-parity for entry into the industry’s ring of elite brands.

 

Ingredient branding succeeds where the consumer has strong rational and/or emo­tional associations with specific components of a product. Beginning with the more rational, emphasizing a product’s scientific makeup gives customers a measurement by which to compare brands based on quality and performance. At the point-of-pur­chase, when a consumer recognizes an ingredient displayed alongside a brand name and logo, he/she subconsciously makes an assessment about the quality of the prod­uct and the experience they will have before trying it for themselves.

 

In terms of emotional associations the sheer presence of ingredients on the exterior of a package, drives conclusions about the credibility and trustworthiness of a brand. Additionally, for those consumers that have come across these ingredients before, they may have their own personal understanding and imagery associated based on past experiences or reactions to specific chemicals. Specific ingredients may take on an imagery themselves of happiness and satisfaction, or disappointment and pain. Al­beit abstract, these secondary associations about performance and quality, can often be determining factors for consumers choosing between similar products and lacking additional information.

 

A focus on appealing to consumers through ingredient branding has been substan­tiated and reinforced by skincare brands. If you look through the various products Sephora houses, you’ll see on almost every physical product a list of attributes: “par­aben-free”, “sulfate-free”, “organic”, in lettering only just smaller than the brand name. The retailer’s e-commerce experience affirms the added importance of these touchpoints, including a filter that allows shoppers to search for products containing or without specific ingredients.

 

To access Tribe Dynamic’s data please visit: http://www.tribedynamics.com/insights/#la-mode-monthly.