Embracing Digital Darwinism
Most of us are familiar with Darwin’s theory of evolution – his explanation of organic change that states evolution is driven mainly by natural selection. Digital Darwinism, a phrase first made popular back in 2011 by digital analyst Brian Solis, is “the evolution of consumer behaviour when society and technology evolve faster than some companies’ ability to adapt. The point of natural selection is that only some businesses will survive.” In other words, brands that fail to manage change, embrace evolving technologies, and harness data to help them adapt and thrive in the face of disruptive innovations, face extinction. Fact: Luxury fragrances are no longer the exclusive domain of the higher end of the high street. Compared to older generations, Millennials are completely at ease buying everything they need online. This is causing significant disruption in the luxury market, which has historically shied away from online retail. The wisdom behind this strategy was that no one would be prepared to pay top Dollar for something they couldn’t see, touch or, in the case of fragrances, smell. You only have to look at premium brands such as Apple to know that line of thinking no longer applies. Once considered a more “bottom-end” platform better suited to mid- and lower-priced goods, the online marketplace is now exploding with luxury brands. And, where once perceived as a threat to a premium brand’s image, global online sales of luxury brands are set to more than triple by 2025 to around $86 billion, accounting for almost 20% of all luxury purchases made. (Source).
The future of marketing for luxury fragrance brands
To drive growth in this increasingly Millennial-dominated, online market, luxury fragrance brands must embrace big data to connect with their customers and drive growth. Data is the key to crafting insight-led strategies for your beauty brand. It forms the essential framework on which the majority of your future sales – particularly those of your older, slower-moving, and lower ROI lines – should be built. It’s vital though, not to lose sight of your overall brand positioning, equity, and reputation. Any new marketing strategies must align with the traditional values of your brand and blend seamlessly with your broader digital strategy.
The Beautynet advantage
Beautynet’s Strategic Sales Programme does exactly this – skilfully blending strategy, AI analysis, fulfilment, and transparency, driving incremental sales and elevating brand value and awareness. Battle-tested and proven over 15 years, the programme harnesses state-of-the-art, real-time intelligence and analytics modelling, and uses strategic data insights to identify unexplored marketing opportunities that will revitalise the underperforming areas of your luxury fragrance portfolio. With negligible financial investment, our programme offers an incremental revenue stream whilst giving you complete control over your brands – with no impact on your existing distribution channels. Here’s how it works:
- We use proprietary technology, AI and analytics-based portfolio and market trend analysis to find appropriate opportunities, specific to your brand(s), to maximise ROI within your portfolio.
- We use this same technology to identify “Whitespace” market opportunities for brand growth. Years of market data is crunched to identify opportunities you didn’t know existed.
- Our comprehensive Sales Management strategy includes distribution planning and purchase forecasting, through to order fulfilment.
- Our Sales Portal drives real-time data by market, channel, line, type and size, and gives you full transparency into the entire process, end to end.
The benefits speak for themselves:
- Incremental, forecastable revenue from those lines that would otherwise take up expensive space in your warehouse or be flagged for discontinuation.
- Control of otherwise unmanaged markets.
- Low cost of programme management.
- New revenue streams to support R&D and marketing investments.
- Strengthened portfolio Strategy.
Don’t just take our word for it:
- In 2011 we presented an opportunity to a client that has since resulted in €20M in cumulative purely incremental sales
- We had identified a line with a Male and Female reference that met two core criteria:
- Our analytics suggested unusually high demand for the flanker line in an Eastern European market
- This line was over 10 years old and had been experiencing falling sales for 6 years. It was therefore in line for discontinuation
- In an incredible show of confidence, the manufacturer agreed to offer Beautynet exclusive distribution of the line, removing all internal marketing expenditure and almost all operational cost
- Targeting pre-agreed retailers in the data-identified market exclusively has resulted in sales growth of 55k per year to over 150k
It’s all about cutting through complexity to save you time and money as you add incremental revenue. Contact us if you’d like to know more about how our programme can breathe new life into your luxury beauty brand.
