Maybelline Brand Persona

To be able to target a certain audience segment, it is crucial for a brand to create their brand persona. The brand persona includes a series of traits, values, attitudes that the brand in question would showcase to connect with its target audience.

Today we are going to talk about a brand that most of us have heard off: Maybelline.

The New York based multinational specializes in cosmetics, skin care, fragrance and personal care. Founded in 1914, it has been a subsidiary of the French cosmetics company L’Oréal since 1996. As off 2018, the brand captured 11% market share of total Mass Cosmetic Sales on Amazon. In addition to selling their products on Amazon, you can also find their product in a variety of stores like Ulta, Walmart, Target, CVS or also Walgreens. Maybelline is currently sold in 120 countries around the globe. Their target audience include young girls between the age of 14 and 24.

As mentioned before, Maybelline is a New York based company. Majority of their adds are also shooted in New York, or a big city in general, giving the company an urban style.

Ad for the Sky High mascara, Spring/Summer 2021

TV spot for the SuperStay Foundation, Winter 2018 Full ad here

In addition to emphasizing the “New York” aspect of the company, the brand shows of a variety of looks in their ads and through their models too. The international ambassador of the brand is the American Model Gigi Hadid who has been in the mediatic spotlight for a few years now. The brand also counts a variety of other diverse brand ambassadors like models Adriana Lima, Jourdan Dunn, Herieth Paul and I-Hua Wu.

Gigi Hadid, international brand ambassador for Maybelline

Herieth paul, Model for Maybelline

I-Hua Wu, Model for Maybelline

In addition of diversifying their model portfolio to represent the brand, Maybelline also showcases a variety of looks in their adds. As shown in the mention ads up above, you can distinguish some looks that a customer could reproduce easily for a day to day makeup. However, the brand also showcases a more urban style makeup in some of their ads:

Promotional poster for the New York Fashion Week

Maybelline Brand Persona

To be able to target a certain audience segment, it is crucial for a brand to create their brand persona. The brand persona includes a series of traits, values, attitudes that the brand in question would showcase to connect with its target audience.

Today we are going to talk about a brand that most of us have heard off: Maybelline.

The New York based multinational specializes in cosmetics, skin care, fragrance and personal care. Founded in 1914, it has been a subsidiary of the French cosmetics company L’Oréal since 1996. As off 2018, the brand captured 11% market share of total Mass Cosmetic Sales on Amazon. In addition to selling their products on Amazon, you can also find their product in a variety of stores like Ulta, Walmart, Target, CVS or also Walgreens. Maybelline is currently sold in 120 countries around the globe. Their target audience include young girls between the age of 14 and 24.

As mentioned before, Maybelline is a New York based company. Majority of their adds are also shooted in New York, or a big city in general, giving the company an urban style.

Ad for the Sky High mascara, Spring/Summer 2021

TV spot for the SuperStay Foundation, Winter 2018 Full ad here

In addition to emphasizing the “New York” aspect of the company, the brand shows of a variety of looks in their ads and through their models too. The international ambassador of the brand is the American Model Gigi Hadid who has been in the mediatic spotlight for a few years now. The brand also counts a variety of other diverse brand ambassadors like models Adriana Lima, Jourdan Dunn, Herieth Paul and I-Hua Wu.

Gigi Hadid, international brand ambassador for Maybelline

Herieth paul, Model for Maybelline

I-Hua Wu, Model for Maybelline

In addition of diversifying their model portfolio to represent the brand, Maybelline also showcases a variety of looks in their adds. As shown in the mention ads up above, you can distinguish some looks that a customer could reproduce easily for a day to day makeup. However, the brand also showcases a more urban style makeup in some of their ads:

Promotional poster for the New York Fashion Week

Maybelline New York Twitter Post, 2015

The overall variety of looks and models represent the brands mission: they believe in makeup for every look, style and skin tone. Maybelline’s popularity majorly arises from this diversity, their low prices but especially the empowerment of women that is represented in their advertisements. You can observe a variety of women being confident in their skin; and when customers buy Maybelline this is what they look for. To put on makeup and “so whatever the world throws at you, you’ll look and feel ready”.

Based on this quick study on the beauty brand, I was able to draft the following brand persona:

Abby

Abby doesn’t just go into a store and picks out the first mascara she sees on the shelf. She goes into the store and exactly knows which one she’s going to pick up. To her, the way she looks is crucial. Not in a pretentious, self-centered way. Abby wants to look good to feel good; to feel empowered, confident, to be able to go out and tackle the day in her busy life.

Abby lives in a small apartment in a small city where goes to college; she’s a marketing or communications Major. To earn a little money on the side she has started a side hustle, that she actively promotes on social media. I guess you could say that makes her an influencer.

Her favorite drink is an iced coffee and her biggest dream is to move to New York.

When she wakes up, she has a very strict routine she follows. First skincare then makeup. She follows this routine every day before going out to door. To her, makeup is a form of self-expression: who do I want to be today? This is the question she asks herself in front of her mirror before starting her makeup. And the great thing is, she can choose.

Abby is not a quiet girl. She’s loud and has opinions, she’s confident and not afraid to say it. She is full of ambition, bold and a feminist. She thrives to have the modern urban city look that she sees all the time on social media. Despite all of that, Abby sometimes lacks confidence, especially in her looks. Seeing all those perfect girls online sometimes makes her doubt herself. And when that happens, makeup is the way to fix it. Fake it until you make it. The makeup she wears is like an armor, a shield to the outside world that allows her to do what she wants confidently without any fear of judgment.

She watches closely the current trends on youtube, Instagram and tiktok where she follows her favorite influencers and beauty gurus who promote and try out all the new products. She would never tell that to anyone, but secretly she wants to be like them.

She loves when people compliment her, because even though she doesn’t put effort in her looks for them she likes to be validated like that. She’s the one girl out of the friend group who will promote the new makeup product she just tried, and the one everyone goes to when they have a question. She’s the one people go up to when they need advice because her makeup bag is three times as big as her friends bag.

The overall variety of looks and models represent the brands mission: they believe in makeup for every look, style and skin tone. Maybelline’s popularity majorly arises from this diversity, their low prices but especially the empowerment of women that is represented in their advertisements. You can observe a variety of women being confident in their skin; and when customers buy Maybelline this is what they look for. To put on makeup and “so whatever the world throws at you, you’ll look and feel ready”.

*Note: This article is a class assignment for BUS 465 — Integrated Brand Promotion and Advertising at NCSU Poole College of Management.