Rare Beauty: 6 Parts of its Strategy to Emulate
The era of celebrity beauty brands is here. With Rihanna’s eyewatering success with her Fenty beauty and skincare brands many celebrities from Lady Gaga to Selena Gomez to Jennifer Lopez are jumping into the beauty space hoping to emulate Rihanna’s success.
While it will be hard to match what Rihanna has done, Rare Beauty by Selena Gomez is a brand consumers love. Many see it as the new Glossier which once had a cult following. If are curious about why you keep seeing Rare Beauty videos pop up on your For You page on TikTok then consider these six elements of Rare Beauty’s strategy.
1. Lean into diversity. Taking cues from Rihanna’s Fenty Beauty line which launched with 40 shades of foundation in 2017, in 2020 Selena Gomez launched Rare Beauty with 48 shades of foundation and concealer. Gomez’s goal, similar to Rihanna’s, is to provide makeup for all.
2. Have a successful brick and mortar partner. In 2020 Rare Beauty launched exclusively in Sephora stores around the world and on Sephora’s and Rare Beauty’s websites. While Gomez has a large online following, having a presence in brick and mortar stores is still important. In the United States in the second quarter of 2023, 84.6% of retail sales took place in stores meaning if you want to launch a brand you have to meet consumers where they are. Partnering with Sephora is one of the reasons why Rihanna’s launch of Fenty Beauty was so successful. Sephora called its Fenty Beauty launch: “the first-ever global beauty launch in history.” Haus Laboratories, another celebrity brand, backed by Lady Gaga, initially launched exclusively on Amazon but after poor performance the brand relaunched in Sephora earlier last year.
Sephora has said that the “beauty junkie” is more likely to shop at Sephora to get Rare Beauty products while Gomez’s super fans are more likely to shop on the Rare Beauty website where they can buy other items like merch. “We’re very, very happy with the Sephora relationship. And we’re not in a rush to go to other retailers,” said Scott Friedman, Rare Beauty’s CEO. “There will be a time where we would. We’re considering different things.”
Gomez says her dream is to have a Rare Beauty store. “I mean that would be the highest of high dreams,” said Gomez. “I would love for it to stand on its own and be that. I think as of now, I’m really happy with where we are, and I want to continue to just stay where we are for a bit, and then I think that, ideally, I would want nothing more than to see it become beyond beauty.”
3. Have a broader social mission. From Warby Parker to Patagonia many brands are focusing on important causes that are outside of their core business and Rare Beauty is no exception. When Rare Beauty launched in 2020 it launched the Rare Impact Fund at the same time. One percent of all of Rare Beauty’s sales are donated to the Rare Impact Fund. The goal of the initiative is to raise $100 million over a ten-year period and use those funds to provide underserved communities with access to mental health services.
“I wanted to create a safe, welcoming space in beauty that supports mental well-being across age, gender identity, sexual orientation, race, cultural background, physical or mental ability,” Gomez said. “I really hope that the brand can continue to make quality products that people feel happy using and knowing that we support them.”
Do you like this content? If you do subscribe to our retail trends newsletter to get the latest retail insights & trends delivered to your inbox
4. Make the brand and its founder relatable. Gomez’s vision for Rare Beauty is to create a brand that allows customers to love themselves for who they are instead of using makeup to distort their natural features. “I’ve stopped trying to be perfect. I just want to be me,” said Gomez. “I think Rare Beauty can be more than a beauty brand. I want us all to stop comparing ourselves to each other and start embracing our uniqueness. You’re not defined by a photo, a like, or a comment. Rare Beauty isn’t about how other people see you. It’s about how you see yourself.”
Gomez has done a good job of tapping into the current cultural zeitgeist where consumers want brands that make them feel included and good in their own skin. “I think the most rewarding part of creating this line is that we create a place for people who don't necessarily want to get work done or change their face. They just want to embrace what they are and what they have," said Gomez.
5. Leverage TikTok to aid awareness. Rare Beauty launched just as TikTok took off in 2020 and the brand has had success on the social media platform with 8.8 billion views of videos with the hashtag #rarebeauty. “Historically if you look at traditional social [media], the key KPI has been, from a leadership perspective, ‘How many followers do we have? What is our follower growth? Are we continuing to grow that following’? And the reason that was so important was because the only people that would see your content were the people that followed you,” said Ryan Sasaki, vice president of product for Dash Hudson. “The beauty of TikTok is that follower growth doesn’t really matter as much anymore, because the TikTok algorithm is really focused on presenting an individual user like any of us with the content that they’re most likely to find entertaining,” said Hudson.
Rare Beauty believes that “if the community is dying laughing in the comments section [of a TikTok video], that is a home run,” said Ashley Murphy, vice president of consumer marketing at Rare Beauty. “The content that works on Instagram is not going to work on TikTok,” said Murphy. “You really are rewarded for that lo-fi content.”
6. Make high quality products. If you have tried it yourself or seen TikTok videos about it then you already know how great Rare Beauty’s blush is. In 2022 the best selling blush sold 3.1 million units which amounts to about $70 million in sales. “Shortly after our Soft Pinch blushes, we launched a Stay Vulnerable Melting Blush,” said Kim Magee, Rare Beauty’s chief sales officer. “Now we’re a blush brand and that just never crossed our mind, but when you think about how much blush can change your face in terms of giving it kind of life, just a flush of color, it makes sense. “We had no idea that that was going be such a hit for us.” Rare Beauty’s eyeliners and products for lips have also performed well at Sephora.