Instagram, Pinterest Best Play Into How Millennials Shop – Branding Expert
This article was originally published in The Rose Sheet
Executive Summary
Beauty is well-positioned to capitalize on millennials’ growing fascination with visual social-media platforms, according to branding expert Jennifer Walsh. With Facebook use “falling off,” marketers would be wise to embrace Instagram and Pinterest to reach millennial beauty shoppers, she advised.
As millennial consumers embrace visual social-media platforms, beauty brands should look to Instagram and Pinterest as vehicles for engaging and marketing to that demographic, according to branding consultant Jennifer Walsh.
Walsh, who founded retailer and e-commerce site The Beauty Bar and consulting firm Behind the Brand, discussed millennial market trends during a June 10 presentation at the HBA Global Expo in New York.
Millennials, the generation considered to be roughly between the ages of 16 and 34, contribute approximately $200 billion in annual spending, and that figure is expected to rise to $500 billion by 2025, making them an attractive market to target, she suggested.
Pinterest has the highest conversion rate among all social-media sites, as 47% of those who pin brands or products report having made a related purchase online, according to a University of Massachusetts Dartmouth study.
Market research firm eMarketer estimates that 84% of U.S. millennials use social media. As they look to share with friends and post content to the online universe, Facebook use is “falling off” and millennials are spending more time with Instagram and Pinterest, according to Walsh.
Instagram, a photo-sharing site, boasts 200 million users who share 60 million photos a day, while Pinterest, which allows users to “pin” images to virtual scrapbooks, has approximately 70 million users.
“We’re lucky to be in such a visual place with beauty,” Walsh said, noting that the social-media sites present an opportunity for brands to deviate from traditional white background product shots on their websites to showing beauty products in unconventional settings to offer new perspectives and drive interest.
“If we can put our products in a different scenario, you can feel it, you can kind of almost smell it or sense where you are,” she suggested.
Because of the visual nature of Instagram and Pinterest, the sites are more commerce-oriented than other social-media portals. As consumers see products that catch their interest on the sites, “they search it, and then they shop it,” Walsh said.
Pinterest in particular lends itself to shopping, as brands can link pictures – and customers – back to their own websites for purchases.
“Make sure your website also has pinning ability so if there’s a beautiful picture or image or product shot, make sure people can use that and pin it back to your website,” Walsh recommended.
According to a recent study
from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, 11% of millennials pin brands on Pinterest. The site has the highest conversion rate among all social-media sites, as 47% of those who pin brands or products report having made a related purchase online, according to the study.
Meanwhile, Hair, Beauty and Apparel is the most socially influenced purchase category across all social-media platforms, “accounting for approximately half of all purchases,” the study notes.
Walsh also named “hyperlocalization” as a strategy brands can employ to stand out among others vying for the attention of millennial purchasers.
“The No. 1 thing millennials want from Instagram is for a picture [to indicate] where consumers can get it locally,” Walsh said. “So they want this accessibility not only to see it, but they want something hyperlocalized.”
She continued: “Hyperlocalization is just to be able to target the market exactly where they are” so that they say, “‘Okay, I can see it in a store two miles down the road from where I am.’”
“Participation Nation”
Walsh characterized millennial consumers as a “participation nation” for their desire to interact with the world – through a virtual medium anyway – including brands of interest.
“They just want to participate in everything,” she said. “If they love your brand, they want to be a part of it and they want to be a part of your voice.”
She elaborated: “They want to be talked to, they want to have a conversation with you, they want you to engage back [with] them. Millennial customers want to be a part of your brand story.”
At the same time, millennials “hate being sold to,” so brands would be wise in their conversations to avoid urging consumers directly to buy something, Walsh advised.
She noted that millennials do respond to loyalty rewards programs, which play into their inclination to participate in the brand.
“[If] you can find ways to incorporate loyalty points or a gift, they spread the love, they feel part of the company, and I think that’s what the millennials want to do,” Walsh said. “They want to feel they’re a part of something bigger than themselves.”