Social Media

Blair Fowler, YouTube beauty influencer

Kao USA is a prime example of a company plugged into the New General Market, but also inclusive of all of its consumers’ needs. With its finger on the pulse of changing consumer trends, Kao USA has rebooted classics to introduce them to the millennial market, while not losing its loyal base. A component of its success has been teeing up with the right social influencers to convey authentic brand messages.

Transactional business is over; brands must connect heart and soul. Today’s new consumer is more informed, more independent, more curious and more conversational than ever before. They want to be talked with — not talked to. It is about “share of heart,” not just “share of wallet.”

Above all else, today’s consumer wants to be listened to. To get new insight into how top companies are uncovering the changing needs, motives and interests of the new consumer, executive director Dan Mack moderated a panel discussion of leading marketers as part of its April 6 New General Market Forum, a one-day leadership event co-hosted by Drug Store News and Mack Elevation.

For 25 years, my family and I have built our business based on one premise — that the beauty industry should fully serve all women. Since then, we have advanced a mission and vision to change the social dialogue about how we’re looking at beauty as a society, and how those archaic structures and views are debilitating to the establishment of new and more inclusive ways of viewing beauty.

Lornamead is a vivid example of a company successfully transforming its legendary brands into icons coveted by a younger audience.

Henkel not only has one of the highest engaging brands with millennials, but the company is making sure its team is as up to date with social digital tools as its youthful fans.

Millennials present challenges to marketers. They use multiple devices, sometimes simultaneously, making them harder to reach than individuals in other demographic groups. They engage with social media to a higher degree than any other demographic group. This audience wants to be heard; social listening, as well as conversational marketing, can provide insights for product functionality and messaging.

“There is a danger in bifurcating the customer base into these nice names: boomers and millennials. As a proud member of Generation X, what ever happened to my generation? I think about it in terms of how do we understand customers as individuals.”

That’s what CVS VP marketing George Coleman had to say in December, at the annual Drug Store News Industry Issues Summit. I have been thinking about that a lot in the last couple months, as we worked on the New General Market report that appears in this issue.