Table of contents

Brand History...1 Brand Analysis.2 Objectives....3 Competitors.4 Market Research.6 Primary Research....8 Brand Capsules.10 Big Idea..12 Print.....13 Social Media..14 Online.18 IBP... 20 Direct Mail..21 IBC Training.......22 Budget/Media...23 Recommendation/Evaluations......24

Strategy 1 team
olivia romero jackie willman austin vance Leo Bewley david m. johnson nick thee

Brand History
Mary Kay Cosmetics Inc. began in a 500-square-foot storefront in Dallas, Texas in 1963. The company, which was created by Mary Kay Ash, began with five initial products and a dream to inspire women while transforming their lives. Mary Kay Cosmetics recently celebrated its 50th birthday, making it one of the most established limited-supply beauty companies to date.

"People are definitely a company's greatest asset. It doesn't make any difference whether the product is cars or cosmetics. A company is only as good as the people it keeps." - Mary Kay Ash
As of 2012, the companys total retail sales in the United States reached $3.1 billion, allowing Mary Kay to be ranked as the 16th largest global beauty company. Mary Kays business is based around a direct selling principle, which allows for Independent Beauty Consultants (IBCs) to contact their customers directly. Mary Kay is home to more than 3 million IBCs in over 35 countries. A customer must work directly with an IBC in order to purchase products rather than obtaining them from their nearest retailer. Currently, Mary Kay is the sixth largest direct selling enterprise worldwide.

Brand analysis
Being one of the worlds largest direct sellers of skin care and cosmetics, Mary Kay has infiltrated the market with more than 500,000 IBCs serving as the face of the company in the United States. These beauty consultants have been successfully hosting in-home cosmetic parties since the companys start 50 years ago, which allows customers to test products before purchasing them. Each IBC works on behalf of herself, allowing for individuality and versatility amongst the individual buying processes. The consultants place full emphasis on their customers and their buying experience, as the IBC is the sole connection between the consumer and Mary Kay itself. The company prides itself in its ability to provide exceptional customer service by giving each customer the personal attention he or she deserves.

Objectives

Our campaign heavys up in the areas our target will be looking. We are emphasizing on social media, online and IBP marketing tactics in order to effectively increase awareness.

Increase awareness among female consumers ages 18-25.

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Our campaign is something that can easily go viral. It is all about Mary Kay wanting to be a part of the big moments in your life. We then encourage them to share those moments with us.

Increase positive perception among female consumers ages 18-25.

Increase consideration for product purchase and for the Mary Kay business opportunity among female consumers ages 18-25.
Our campaign embraces the IBC to make the target more comfortable with Mary Kays business strategy. We aim to create a partnership between the IBC and consumer, where the relationship is only getting started after the purchase.

Competitors
, eal LOr
Founded in 1909 in the suburbs of Paris. Second largest beauty company in the world. Focuses on the sales of both commercial and professional products. Serves as an umbrella for more than forty individual product lines. Included on the SBF 120 and CAC 40, which are two of the most prominent stock listings in France. On July 2013, LOral was also ranked 62nd on the Financial Times Global 500, which comprises an annual listing of the worlds largest, top-performing companies. The largest direct selling enterprise in the world. An international manufacturer and distributor of a number of products, including both beauty and personal care lines. Headquartered in New York City. Is ranked fifth in size compared to all beauty companies worldwide. Was ranked 252nd on the Fortune 500 and Fortune 1000, and listed on the Standard & Poors 500 all within 2013. Included on the Global 2000 and is currently ranked seventh on the Most Powerful Brands list. The second largest global direct selling enterprise. Has a wide focus of products, ranging from personal care and cosmetics to dietary supplements and insurance. For the past 17 years, Amway has reported continuous a growth trend and also took home the 25th spot on Forbes Largest Private Companies in the United States list.

Avon y a w m A

Market Research
Mary Kay and its identified competitors only make up a small portion of the entire beauty industry, which, when calculated in its entirety, closed 2012 with $426 billion in total sales. The term beauty industry is comprised of 5 different elements, but for the purpose of comparison, weve only decided to focus on the areas in which Mary Kay competes: skincare, makeup and fragrance.

With those three areas taken into consideration, we are only comparing a total of 57% of industry sales for 2012 in our market share calculations. This leaves us with comparable industry total sales of $242.82 billion. Of this comparable industry total, Mary Kay contributed $2.635 billion, a 1.09% market share.

Market Research
Reasons for purchasing

t c u d Pro ality Qu

l a n o s Per ands Br

Each individual IBC serves as the face of the Mary Kay organization. Each customer has a personal relationship with a company representative and in July 2010, Mary Kay took the number one spot on an annual survey for the most trusted brand that knows me. The incorporation of the IBC and personal selling nature has women believing that Mary Kay provides some of the highest quality products. 44% of women believe they can find higher quality products at home parties than they can at other retailers.

y l i m a F ame N

With this being Mary Kays 50th Anniversary, its easy to say the company has made their mark on society. The company has brought millions of women into the Mary Kay family over the years IBCs and even more as repeat customers.

Primary research

s u c o F roup G
We decided to sit down with our target audience to really get an understanding about how they make their purchasing decisions. These women are into exploring both fashion magazines and social media in their free time, and claim to be actively engaged in cosmetic advertisements distributed through these mediums. When asked about their current perceptions of Mary Kay, the women agreed that the company provided high quality products. They claimed that they would be willing to attend Mary Kay parties, but they wouldnt necessarily host one of their own. These women also said they would would be willing to consult an IBC if they were about to embark on a new life adventure (i.e. prom, graduation, interview, wedding, etc.)

"I love the confidence that makeup gives me."

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y e v r u S
What we found is that 80% of our target audience is purchasing their cosmetics at places like WalMart and Target, while 64% are purchasing from independent retailers like Sephora and Ulta. Another large factor for our target audience is the influence they are getting from others prior to making purchases. 65% responded by saying their friends were their greatest influence, while 50% claimed their mothers. Most respondents also said they preferred CoverGirl and Maybellene products, but 16% also said that they prefer using Mary Kay products.

83% of respondents said they enjoy trying new products and 99% said they would be willing to take advice from a cosmetic specialist.
In order to get a better understanding of our target audience, we decided to conduct an online survey asking women about their typical cosmetic consumption and brand preference. We asked them about their outside influences on cosmetic purchases and where and how they like to buy their products. We reached 100 women within our target audience.

Brand Capsules

Prom

Caroline is an 18-year-old in high school looking forward to her senior prom. This is a special day for her because she wants to look her absolute best. She is looking for makeup that will not only complement her new red dress, but that will give her the look of a glamorous Hollywood movie star that she has always imagined looking like. She is looking for makeup that she can count on during the night when she will be sweating from all of the dancing and moving around all night. She wants to be reassured that her makeup wont run or cake up on her during the middle of the night because she wants to look good for every picture and special moment that prom has in store for her. Ultimately, she wants to look back on her senior prom and remember how beautiful and confident she felt that night because she used Mary Kay makeup.

Nora is a 22-year-old senior about to graduate from college. This is going to be her last time crossing the stage with a diploma in her hand, and she wants to make sure she looks her absolute best. She wants to keep a very simple and natural look for graduation, and is looking for makeup that will highlight her natural beauty. This is a very special day for Nora because she wants to look back and remember how Mary Kay makeup made her feel beautiful because she didnt need a lot of makeup to show off her natural beauty.

e t a u Grad

l a n o i s s e f o r P

Lauren is a 23-year-old girl just out of college looking for a job. She has her first big interview this week and she is looking for makeup that will give a lasting impression all day long. She wants a new look that makes her stand out during the interview, but yet keeps her looking professional at the same time. Lauren is looking to pick more nude based makeup, but also add a splash of color that will highlight her lips and eyes. She doesnt want to overdue her makeup, but she wants to look back on that job interview and remember how confident she felt walking in because she used Mary Kay makeup.

Lindsay is a 25-year-old bride to be. She has been planning for this special day for months and now its finally here. Lindsay is looking for makeup that will compliment her natural beauty, but will also make her stand out on her wedding day. She wants makeup that she can count on lasting all day long and wont run off. She is also looking for someone to do her makeup that day because she wants a professional to make her look and feel beautiful. She is leaning toward more of a natural look so she doesnt have to worry about her makeup through the wedding and reception, but she also wants to highlight the special parts of her face at the same time. Lindsay ultimately wants to look back at her wedding photos and remember how beautiful she felt on her wedding day because she had a professional do her makeup with Mary Kay products.

e d i r B

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big idea
Our mission behind our campaign is to embrace the IBCs. Mary Kay is one of the few skin care and color cosmetics in the world that uses Independent Beauty Consultants, and we thought why not embrace the IBCs and use it as a positive in this campaign. Mary Kay has proven the direct selling method to be effective in creating the overall impact that Mary Kay has created with its brand.

Introducing the

"face your moment"

campaign.

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tone & Manner

Our campaign uses an edgy, yet feminine feel to help our target engage with the Mary Kay brand. Executions feature prominent moments in a young womans life, which we aim to highlight by incorporating an image of a strong woman facing a bold opportunity. By incorporating these two features, we hope to empower women to feel confident enough to face their biggest life moments.

Visual Engagement

Each image appeals to one aspect of our overall target, all of whom are facing a moment in their life that other women would be able to relate to.

Headline

The headline is written in an extremely bold fashion that will easy grab our target because it gives off a feeling of overwhelming confidence for each big moment a woman might face during her lifetime.

Body Copy

The body copy will incorporate a bit of humor to draw our target in and will either remind her of a big moment she has faced before, or one she is soon to face.

Hashtag

The hashtag will be a uniform element throughout the entire campaign. It will essentially help to link our elements back to our online and social media.

print
Rationale
Our campaign will place some of our marketing efforts in print magazines that have a high circulation amongst our target. This decision was based on the fact the females 18-25, not only read the magazines themselves, but share them with friends. This will give our print ads a long shelf life. It also provides the perfect forum to encourage our target to look into Mary Kays new branded social media. Glamour reaches a total of 11.4 million. 68% of their 96% female readership is college educated and 67% are employed. Those characters aim to reach the psychographics of our target audience. 1 in every 10 American women reads Glamour, allowing us to reach a large portion of our target market. Teen Vogue reaches a print audience of more than 5.4 million, with 93% of their audience being primarily female. The median age of Teen Vogue is 23, the median age of our target market. Only 25% of Teen Vogue readers are currently attending a college or university, allowing an opportunity to reach those not pursuing a secondary education. Teen Vogue hits our target market directly.

Cosmopolitan is the lifestylist and cheerleader for millions of fun, fearless females who want to be the best they can be in every area of their lives. Among college women, Cosmopolitan is the best-selling magazine, according to College Store Executive. Cosmopolitan aims to reach women 18+, career oriented women and educated working women.

Seventeen reaches 1.2 million females enrolled in a college or university, ranking higher than Allure, Lucky and Marie Claire, just to name a few. Although Seventeen identifies the median age of Seventeen as 16.5, this media outlet allows us to reach a market before they are in our target market thus influencing purchasing decision at a younger age. This media outlet also allows us to reach the younger end of our target market.

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Social media

Rationale

Females, aged 18-25 are avid social media users. Based on our research, our target spends most of their time using social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat, which gives us reason to believe that this would provide the perfect setup for our target to look into Mary Kay and increase purchases. We will update Mary Kays Instagram by sending out message, which the target is looking for. Our research suggests that many females in our target like to favorite and repost quotes that resonant with them. Mary Kays handle will post inspirational quotes and use the hashtag #FaceYourMoment 70% of Snapchat users are female. By advertising on Snapchat, we believe our target will find relevance in facing their moments. Although Snapchat currently has no set advertising model, we foresee them implementing an ad model in the future.

Our target uses Facebook on a daily basis. By redesigning the Mary Kay page to be more cohesive, our individual IBCs will get the chance to create individuals pages that match the tone and feel of Mary Kay.

In order for our campaign to be successful, all communication from Mary Kay must be connected and cohesive. We have redesigned a Twitter profile for Mary Kay, tying the Twitter page to other parts of the campaign.

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Online
Our target market spends the majority of her time surfing the web, reading the latest gossip and spending the majority of her paycheck through online shopping. By purchasing web space, we believe our target market is more likely to engage in the Mary Kay brand.

Rationale

t s e r t Pin
We will redo Mary Kays Pinterest page with specific boards which will be tailored to assisting our target with their makeup. The idea is to have event-specific boards to give our target tips on using Mary Kay products. YouTube will be used in two different manners: an advertising portal and a cosmetics tutorial. We will pay to have Mary Kay ads displayed on the YouTube homepage. We will also create makeup tutorials for our potential customers to use as at-home self-help guides, with hope that they may purchase the highlighted products being used.

e b u T You

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Web Banners

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Online

n o z a m A

Since our target spends a large amount of her time shopping online, especially on Amazon, we want to place banner ads on the site to increase their awareness of Mary Kay. By doing so, we can effectively reach our target audience while they are shopping online and give Mary Kay a better online presence at the same time.

We decided to place banner ads on Buzzfeed because our research suggests that not only is our demographic reading these articles, but they are also sharing them on their social media pages. This creates a web of Mary Kay presence between online and social.

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d e e F z z u B

n I d e Link

Our campaign aims to provide the encouragement to face the big moments in your life. For our target, a lot of these goals are career focus oriented. Mary Kay wants a presence right next to our targets online portfolio. When thinking about your future and career, we want our target to consider Mary Kay products being there for them.

Similar to Pandora, we want to place side banner ads on Spotify because our research suggest that our target spends a good amount of their time listening to music. Some of our target chooses to listen to Spotify because it allows them to have more say in what they want to listen to by creating playlist. By placing ads on this site, Mary Kay will have a better online presence to reach our target.

y f i t o Sp
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IBP

p U Pop hops S

Our target market places heavy emphasis on the concept of going viral. She constantly looks for the latest video fad and articles that buzz around the internet. Thus, our IBP tactics are all prepared to go viral. By combining the use of social media and the creativity and innovation of our IBP tactics, we are confident the individual IBP campaigns will go viral, generate awareness of Mary Kay and drive purchases of Mary Kay products.

Rationale

Strategy Tactics

The Mary Kay pop-up shops will provide our target the unique opportunity to experience what a Mary Kay retail store would feel like. Mary Kay will set up pop-up shops in major cities where are demographic are located. IBCs from the area will serve as the makeshift retail consultants for the day.

Rationale

These stores will serve as a way to get our target involved with Mary Kay, in a traditional manner they are familiar with. Once they have a positive experience with a Mary Kay representative, they will continue to contact them, in order to purchase the product.

w o d n Wi linqs C
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Strategy

The Mary Kay window clings will create buzz around the Face Your Moment, campaign. The idea is to have women remember through the day that they are beautiful and to take a moment to stop and remember Mary Kay in that instance.

Tactics

The window clings will be placed on store fronts in bigger cities where our target will walk up and see an oval mirror with, Face Your Moment across the top. Mary Kay branded footprints will instruct them where to stand, in order to see themselves in the mirror.

Rationale

During the hussle of living the big city life, sometimes you need to stop and take a moment to make sure you are still put together. Mary Kay wants to be there when you decide to look at your reflection. They want to be the boost of confidence to Face Your Moment.

r u o Y Face ent Board Mom

Strategy
The Mary Kay, before I die list would provide a unique way for Mary Kay to become a part of their target achieving their dreams.

Tactics

This guerilla marketing tactic would be a before I die list. We would put up big chalk boards that have multiple lines that say Face Your _______ and provide a blank for whatever the target wants to fill in with the pink chalk provided.

Rationale

This list will provide an insight to what our targets hopes and dreams are. The idea is to have our target be reminded of how Mary Kay can and will be by their side for every special moment they may face in life.

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Direct Mail
Rationale
By sending out pieces from Mary Kay and the IBC nearest the potential (or current) customer, we believe our target market will engage in the Mary Kay brand and be more willing to purchase.

e t a r MK

Strategy

s t n i Mom
Strategy
Momints will have two main purposes. First, they should create an opportunity to discuss Mary Kay products with your friends. Second, they will give you more confidence to Face Your Moment.

The Mary Kay MKrate will provide a useful way for consumers to find all sorts of Mary Kay products coming to their door at anytime. Each IBC would be given four MKrates to give out to current, new or future customers of Mary Kay products once a quarter for a year. The MKrate will be offered as an opportunity for current, new and future customers to receive unique personalized samples of products to eventually buy.

Tactics

The MKrate will contain small individual samples of Mary Kay products that are personalized to the everyday makeupwearing consumer. The MKrate will feature 4 to 5 products in the box, and a chance to sign up to win another MKrate in the future.

Rationale

Tactics

Momints will be a direct mail piece sent to our target market. This package will be a black box with a pink ribbon tied around it, in order to stand out amongst the typical mail people are used to receiving. Inside the box, there will be a container full of pink mints.

The MKrate provides an opportunity to introduce Mary Kay product samples to current, new and future customers. The MKrate would increase awareness of the different products Mary Kay has to offer by adding the element of surprise and exclusivity of the brand.

Rationale

In our primary research we discovered that a large portion of women receive their makeup advice from their friends. Since its very common for a group of friends to share mints with each other, Mary Kay wants a to be a presence in this transaction. By having a branded material it will create dialogue about Mary Kay products. Having fresh breath can also be a source of confidence. Momints will provide our target the boost needed to Face Your Moment.

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IBC Training

a i d e M l a i Soc otcamp Bo

In order for Mary Kay to experience cohesiveness, every bit of their online presence needs to be cohesive, connected and of one mind. Because of the unique business model of the IBC, each IBC may present a different perspective and attitude of Mary Kay. During the beginning weeks of our campaign, we plan on implementing a Social Media Bootcamp. This event will give all IBCs the chance to enhance their individual social media pages, as well as understand why a unified voice and mind is imperative for the brand and success of Mary Kay.

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Budget/Media

Paid
Print - Magazines Direct Mail - Momints - MKrates Online - Snapchat - BuzzFeed - Amazon - Spotify - Linkedin

d e n r a E
Media Training - Social Media Boot Camp Product placements - Pop-Up Shops - Window Clings - Face Your Momen Boards

d e n w O
Estimated budget: $10M

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Mobile Sites - Youtube - Pinterest - Twitter - Instagram - Facebook

Recommendations
Sell in stores Promote exclusivity for the IBCs Have more of a relationship with the customer/IBC

Budget/Media Evaluations
Pre and Post Test
Before our campaign begins, an independent research firm will be hired to conduct an analysis of current attitudes toward the Mary Kay brand. After the campaign ends, the same research firm will conduct a similar survey to prove the effectiveness of our campaign. Mary Kay will see an increase of awareness in females ages 18-25.

Web

Click-through activity is one of the most effective ways to measure advertisement effectiveness. Throughout the campaign, we can gain insight into how often consumers, both return and first-timers, are visiting the Mary Kay site.

Web IBP

Mobile web accesses will be evaluated according to which apps drive web accesses. As stated multiple times throughout the campaign, our IBP tactics have the capabilities of going viral within a matter of weeks. Evaluating this area of our campaign can be seen through likes, shares and views on various websites. Interactivity can be measured by attendance at each event.

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