Is Essence Pampering Customers According to CRM Best Practices?

With a promising tagline such as “fun, confident, and cruelty free!”, their Relationship Marketing tactics must deliver

December 9, 2020

Welcome to PostFunnel’s 30th episode in the Seven CRM Commandments series! Today, we will be analyzing Essence Makeup – a high-quality cosmetics brand.

FYI: Cosnova GmbH is the German company behind Essence, CATRICE, and L.O.V. And it appears to be big in Japan China.

So, how do you think they score and rank against the other 29 brands that we analyzed to date?

1. Be Transparent 3/10

Though we couldn’t find any recent news on the makeup brand itself, its parent company – Cosnova – has been more out-there in terms of press releases.

For example, according to news from Alibaba Group, Cosnova boosted sales by 25% YoY by turning to more engaging and interactive shopping experiences using live streaming.

“Livestreaming is ideally suited to translate the haptic and sensory buying experience into the digital world,” said Cosnova Founder and President Christina Oster-Daum.

We like it because it shows the company has been innovating to attend to the changes in customer behavior.

But, beyond these self-hyping announcements, we could not find other instances where the company or the brand are letting us go behind the scenes.

2. Incentives and Perks 10/10

Essence Makeup offers 25% off deals and promos, as shown in the main banner on their HP:

The brand has a reward program, offering members various benefits:

They also have a newsletter signup offer, that reads:

All fantastic ways to provide customers with incentives and perks for shopping with you.

3. Be Relevant 7/10

The brand offers both “stocking stuffers” and “gift guide quizzes” for this time of year – both great examples of proper seasonal marketing.

Essence has also launched an online holiday popup store for customers this Christmas. An advent calendar, lash princess pack, shine holiday kit, spread the magic brush set, and so much more is currently on offer.

However, when it comes to acknowledging other current events that aren’t as festive, like the coronavirus pandemic and how it has affected their product – there was no mention of it at all on their site. Some of the other brands we have analyzed to date mention COVID-19 updates directly on their HP while others write about it in their FAQs – there are so many ways to show support.

4. Be Helpful 8/10

Essence is a cruelty-free cosmetics brand that does not test on animals, as they write on their site:

“Essence cosmetics is owned by Cosnova Beauty from Germany where animal testing for cosmetic products has not been permitted since 1998. All of Essence products comply with the European and American ingredient, manufacturing, and testing standards. Our suppliers are also held to these same standards and we only partner with the ones that do not test on animals.”

In their accessibility statement, Essence has the following disclaimer on their site:

“Please be aware that our efforts to maintain accessibility and usability are ongoing. While we strive to make the Website as accessible as possible some issues may be encountered by different assistive technology as the range of assistive technology is wide and varied. We appreciate your understanding.”

On social media, among other platforms, the brand strives to be an influential vegan and animal rights activist:

However, other brands we have analyzed to date have been showing support in ways that are much more substantial and timely – for instance, a monetary donation just in time for Christmas or directly supporting those who have been affected by the pandemic by any means. Still, what Essense is promoting and how they od it, is worthy of a perfect score here.

5. Realtime Personalization 6/10

The gift guide quiz is an excellent way to personalize a customer’s shopping experience. Before taking the quiz, which includes 6 questions to get that perfect beauty product, Essence writes:

“Finding the perfect gift is not always easy but with our holiday gift guide, we have you covered! Whether you are shopping for the teen who is just starting to play with makeup, the work from home mom who wants a low-key look or a friend who loves to get full glam, we have something for everyone!

Here are the results of the quiz we took:

Very personal, very unique.

Also, when adding mascara to our cart and going back to the HP, we were presented with similar eye product suggestions at the very bottom of the page:

However, no up-sell or cross-sell techniques were used here. Too bad! They’ve got the perfect product to do so and easily could have. For instance, Essence could have suggested we match the mascara with an eyeshadow (up-sell) or an entire makeup palette (cross-sell) that’s likely to be more expensive. And we’re not even talking about cross-selling to other brands owned by Cosnova.

Also, when exiting their site and hopping on to our social media accounts – no retargeting efforts were made by the brand, in realtime.

6. Master UX 8/10

Our experience with the brand was good overall. The website is colorful and filled with glam, perfect for its target audience.

Adding and removing items from our cart was simple – as well as the checkout process.

The brand has a clearly instructed contact us page:

As well as a well-elaborated FAQ section:

They do not get a perfect score here because we did not leave the site with a memorable experience. There was nothing about the experience itself that would make us want to come back.

7. Leverage Social Media 7/10

On Twitter, Essence has over 36K Followers. However, their last Tweet was in July, 2019! The role of Twitter in business is tremendous. Therefore, a few points were deducted here.

On Instagram, Essence has over 2.3 Million Followers. On this social media channel, the brand posts in very high frequency and uses all of its engaging features – like Instastory.

Obviously, Essence mostly posts its latest products – but also provides customers with beauty inspo, fun videos, motivational quotes, and more.

Also, this post, in particular, is a perfect example of a brand that caters to the customer and their needs:

On Facebook, Essence has over 4 Million Followers. Here the brand also posts in high frequency – mostly showing off their chic cosmetics, but also making sure to do so in the most delightful way:

The score is only 7 out of 10 here because there is still a lot more that brands can do with their social media account in order to nurture customer relationships, that Essense does not do.

Overall, Essence is getting a 49/70 here (70%) placing them 17^th. Once they really fine-tune and personalize their marketing strategy, and allow themselves to share more about the people behind the logo and the products, they’ll be on their way to mastering CRM best practices.

Here are the full rankings of all the brands we analyzed to date:

We publish a new analysis every week, so watch this space for more brand analyses coming your way!