By pairing up with pop icons and TV personalities, South Korea’s beauty brands have been able to tap or break into foreign markets at home and abroad.
While Chanel is known for winning over consumers with nostalgic branding that evokes emotion, the luxury player is shaking things up with a Korean inspired strategy with its latest colour cosmetics launch.
The brand is showcasing its versatility with an eye make-up range ‘Rouge Coco Stylo and Le Vernis’ where a trio of models take on the role of rock stars, opting for lip and nail products as their instruments.
Fusing together East and Western marketing concepts
Another major cosmetics player in Europe; Estée Lauder has also been influenced by Korean marketing, having recently signed up YouTube star, Irene Kim as its 'international beauty voice'.
Kim hosts popular South Korean fashion and beauty TV shows in both English and Korean and has also collaborated with K-Pop stars - highly regarded by the younger generation.
"Manufacturers know that celebrities play an important role in people’s lives and offer consumers the chance to create a perceived link between them and the celebrity,” confirms analyst, Safwan Kotwal at research firm, Canadean.
Is celebrity endorsement old hat with European consumers though?
While there is a strong interest in celebrity culture in Asia with three in ten consumers looking for a personal care product endorsed by a famous person, those days may be gone in Europe as consumers would rather see a person who represents their own age in make-up ads.
According to research from Mintel; 44% of UK consumers would side towards this, followed by an individual who is known for being a strong female role model (28%) and one who is known for their beauty (23%).
Mintel’s research shows that there are still sceptical attitudes when it comes to advertising in the colour cosmetics category.
Half of women who use colour cosmetics say that photo shopping makes it difficult to know what a product will look like in real life; and a third say they don’t believe looks in adverts are created by the cosmetics they advertise.