Digital Asset Management for the Beauty and Cosmetics Industry

Marketing a beauty brand requires more than just generic statements about empowering women. Today’s informed consumers seek authentic and precise information about what the brand offers. An honest, inspirational brand story can play a significant role in gaining consumer confidence and loyalty, and helping a brand stand out amidst the growing competition. And in this world of beauty and cosmetics, the importance of engaging visuals as part of the brand story can't be overstated. A well-crafted social media post by an influencer wearing products from your latest line can inspire a customer to embrace their individual beauty. A TikTok video demonstrating the correct way to use a palette can foster trust and loyalty toward a brand.

But managing these vast collections of digital assets — images, videos, lifestyle photos, graphics, and other brand content — can be daunting.

Beauty and cosmetics brands increasingly rely on digital asset management (DAM) systems to tackle these challenges and deliver high-quality, relatable digital experiences. DAM software is an indispensable tool that provides a streamlined, organized, and efficient way of storing, finding, and distributing digital assets from a central hub.

Imagine offering your customers an experience that's connected, consistent, and personalized, transcending channels, devices, and touchpoints. A DAM system, like Acquia DAM (Widen), enables this by ensuring that your approved assets are readily accessible and consistently used. The result? Streamlined workflows, a quicker time-to-market, and a leap in accuracy and consistency.

DAM provides beauty and cosmetics brands the capacity to accelerate creative and operational workflows, swiftly bundle and distribute approved assets to partners, and update or remove assets at lightning speed. Here's what you need to know about DAM in the beauty industry, including a look at how the global cosmetics brand, Laura Mercier, uses it.

The beauty industry’s shift to digital

As with many industries, the COVID-19 pandemic catapulted beauty and cosmetics brands into a digital-first world, introducing unanticipated challenges to online selling and service. Luxury beauty brands, accustomed to physical retailing, where exceptional service justified their high price points, had to pivot.

Today, they rely on omnichannel marketing to guide and influence consumer choice. Brands like Lancôme have made strides in this arena by creating engaging consumer experiences. For instance, during the lockdown, Lancôme unveiled a virtual retail store in Singapore, featuring live chatbots and hotspots to guide consumers across various themed zones.

However, online stores have their limitations and can't replicate the in-store brand experience completely. To address this gap, brands have launched initiatives like Estée Lauder's WhatsApp chatbot “Liv,” that provides seamless, customized beauty advice while reinforcing the brand's high-touch identity.

While the pandemic may have compelled the beauty industry to adapt rapidly and digitally to changing circumstances, in the post-pandemic world, success hinges on being able to connect with consumers through any channel – physical or digital.

By Terry, a renowned luxury makeup and skincare brand, understands this shift firsthand. The brand began its digital transformation journey years ago, even before the pandemic. The company had to reinvent its online presence via the company website and e-retailers, as well as its internal operations from product development to marketing. To create impactful digital experiences that satisfy the expectations of today’s online beauty shopper, By Terry wanted to empower its teams with new tools, like a digital asset management system, to speed up its digital transformation, meet the expectations of their new partners, and provide access to content, regardless of geographical location. 

The importance of DAM in the beauty and cosmetics industry

In today's digital age, the beauty and cosmetics industry has been investing substantially in advertising, with an estimated budget of $7.7 billion in 2022 alone. This reflects a massive shift toward digital advertising, which now claims a whopping 34.1% of the total ad spend in the industry. Despite the tactile nature of beauty products making the transition to online sales a bit slower, brands are racing to catch up with their target audience's increasing digital presence. And with good reason: Omnichannel customers – those who interact with brands across multiple platforms – don’t just shop 1.7 times more than single-channel shoppers, they also tend to spend more. Capturing these customers requires brands to offer a seamless experience that's consistent and personalized across channels, devices, and touchpoints.

Notably, the power of social media in the beauty industry can't be downplayed, with one-third of beauty product buyers actively interacting with brands on social platforms. Instagram, in particular, has become a hotbed for beauty shoppers, with an astonishing 82% of them using it at least once per day.

Moreover, the power of social media influencers is hard to ignore. In fact, 67% of beauty shoppers say influencers are their go-to source for discovering new products. As brands strive to move faster to capture the omnichannel beauty shopper, they must not compromise on the accuracy and quality of their marketing efforts. 

This is where DAM systems come into play, enabling brands to optimize their digital assets to create memorable customer experiences while maximizing efficiency. With DAM, you're the custodian of your content, ensuring that only approved, timely, accurate, and high-quality content reaches your customers across all touchpoints. 

But DAM systems are more than just central storage locations. They're equipped with advanced features like metadata, automations, analytics, and integrations that transform them into powerful tools for managing, optimizing, and leveraging digital assets. These features make them indispensable for beauty initiatives, setting the stage for efficient and accurate marketing efforts that speak to diverse, global audiences. Let’s take a look at an example.

Laura Mercier: Managing a global brand with DAM

Laura Mercier is a global cosmetics brand that inspires women to embrace their individual beauty. The company was initially struggling with disorganized assets in their cloud storage tool Box, which made finding content to quickly activate marketing activities daunting. Duplicate, outdated files were scattered everywhere, and file names were confusing, making it hard for teams to locate the required photos, videos, and other creative assets. Something had to change.

In response to this, Laura Mercier hired a dedicated manager of digital assets, Anna Raugalis, who was tasked with implementing Acquia DAM. With Anna in charge, the company managed to overcome its DAM challenges and make a successful transition from Box to Acquia DAM.

Through careful organization of the DAM system in a user-friendly manner and by listening and adapting to user feedback, Anna created a robust system where users could easily locate and understand the assets they needed. This led to a more efficient use of resources and a higher return on investment (ROI) on the assets they created.

Furthermore, Laura Mercier can now control the distribution of their assets more effectively and efficiently, providing global support with region-specific content as required. By creating user groups for each of their global regions, Laura Mercier can ensure compliance with geo-specific rules related to product labeling, language usage, and more.

The future of DAM, beauty, and beauty technologies 

In 2021, beauty tech revenue reached $3.8 billion across seven prominent markets. By 2026, this figure is expected to reach $8.9 billion, increasing beauty tech’s share in the traditional cosmetics market from 1.8% to 3.1%. Brands are already using augmented reality (AR) apps for virtual makeup trials, data-based personalized beauty content, voice assistance for product recommendations, AI-driven beauty product search, and data-driven demand and supply forecasts. With the rise of beauty tech like these, companies are looking for ways to personalize experiences and drive engagement. This requires an organized approach to managing beauty content.

Leveraging a DAM system like Acquia DAM allows beauty and cosmetics brands to quickly bundle and distribute approved assets to retailers and resellers, update or remove assets across their sites in minutes, and ensure that only approved, up-to-date, accurate, and high-quality content reaches their customers. In a fast-paced industry like beauty and cosmetics, DAM provides the balance between speed and accuracy, allowing brands to deliver an unforgettable customer experience while maximizing efficiency.

To learn more about how a DAM system like Acquia DAM can help your beauty and cosmetics brand get ready for the ever-changing beauty marketing landscape, schedule a demo.