Hot takes from DSN’s Inside Beauty Forum
Shekhar spotlighted a recent move at Walmart to make shopping easier for textured hair products by merchandising by hair needs. “We listened to the customer who said they don’t want to walk to a different aisle to find products for textured, curly or straight hair.”
Striking the balance between new and legacy brands is a mission of Jerrit Davis, Walmart’s vice president merchandising, personal care. He noted Walmart’s launch of newcomers like Lume and W while also supporting venerable franchises like Old Spice. “Old Spice is an example of a brand that keeps reinventing itself,” he said. “So, if you are a new brand or any existing legacy brand, it is important to ask, are you solving relevant customer needs?”
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One example of how Walmart connects to its community centers on America’s dental crisis linked to “dental deserts.” The retailer partnered with a supplier to bring 52-foot trailers into underserved areas for education, cleanings, extractions and other dental care. “Seeing how we gave back to the community was a highlight of my career,” Davis said.
Leveraging Real-Time Trends in an Asynchronous Supply Chain
Rachel Hardy, Pinterest; Megan Petrie Ramm, Uber Advertising; Allison Tepley, Reddit; and Rema Vasan, TikTok
Representatives of the buzziest social media platforms assembled for a deep dive into how they shape and address consumer beauty needs and how brands can benefit.
Allison Tepley, head of global audience marketing for Reddit, said her platform is where advanced trends get started because it is where influencers talk to each other. “Brands can use this for insights and trendspotting but also the idea of the folks who come in from search come in for answers from the people who are experts in the space.”
Brands can tap into Reddit’s data with a tool called Reddit Pro, which has a trendspotting resource segmented by category and brand. For example, there are almost four million people logging in to go “skin care addiction.”
Megan Petrie Ramm, head of Americas for Uber Advertising, discussed Uber’s vast reach. “If you have five apps on your phone, Uber is going to be one of them. It is a utility in everyone’s life. All of that scale amounts to a ton of data we can bring back to our consumers.”
TikTok was discussed virtually during every presentation at the forum. Rema Vasan, head of North American Marketing and Global Gaming Marketing, said people spend an average of eight hours a day online. That has upped the expectations from social sites.