Has the Skincare Industry been immune to COVID-19?
By Rachit Juneja
Dec. 30, 2020
“The Skincare Industry has witnessed a surge with the onset of COVID-19” - Arushi Thapar, Brand Head - Plum Goodness.
Plum is India's first 100% vegan brand, which also happens to be India’s first online-only beauty brand. Their beauty products are all about “being good” - to your skin, to your senses, to others, and to the environment. Plum believes people look the prettiest in the skin they were born in. Plum’s products are formulated with love to protect, repair, nourish - and delight, using some of the richest sources of natural nutrients, in sync with “good science”.
Plum is also a PETA certified cruelty-free brand, that encourages diversity and endorses healthy, natural skin as the prettiest. As evident in Sheeko’s Brandscore ratings presented in the graph above, Plum has been very active on digital platforms in the past one year. During the month of December, they launched a new campaign called #ThePlumHoliyaySale2020. With 2020 as the year of its inception, they plan on making it an annual tradition.
“The Skincare Industry has witnessed a surge with the onset of COVID-19.” - Arushi Thapar, Brand Head - Plum Goodness
We interviewed Ms. Arushi Thapar, Brand Head at Plum, about their latest campaign - #ThePlumHoliyaySale, and here’s what we got to know:
What was the brand’s objective with the campaign - #ThePlumHoliyaySale2020?
Our main objective with this brand-level campaign was to build holiday excitement and cheer around the holiday season, which we plan to make an annual tradition. Our focus was also on our website as the sales channel, which was also one of the main sources for establishing this campaign as an annual tradition, and creating awareness about the same. We aimed to incentivize purchases through the deals and exciting offers we had going on, with the larger objective towards sale orientation.
How did you decide on the influencer marketing for this campaign?
As this was a sale campaign, we decided to stay closer to home, i.e. our choice of influencers was made from the beauty category itself. We decide on a budget and an impression target before each campaign, which we aspire to meet with each campaign that we adopt, through which we make our trade-off. Apart from that, for the choice of influencers we look at metrics like engagement rates, view rates, and a few subjective parameters like quality of content and quality of engagement.
Has Covid 19 impacted your market? Have you taken any steps to battle it over the last few months?
When Covid 19 first hit the Indian market, there was obviously a temporary impact. As we are a digital-first and Skincare/Cosmetic brand, the impact has been for the better. Since we were well poised to leverage digital, which became the platform of focus for most consumers, the phase of the pandemic turned out fairly well. With the onset of Covid 19, the Skincare Industry has witnessed a surge as people spend more time at home and are concentrating on taking care of themselves. As for the steps taken for the backend challenges, we took initiatives in terms of the supply chain, etc. to alleviate any sort of impact. We also noticed a transition in consumer surge behavior, so had taken steps to alter our digital presence in accordance with the requirement of the hour. But largely, we have not seen a huge negative impact, apart from the temporary setback during the initial stages.
How do you leverage the uniqueness of each influencer?
We believe in giving our influencers the onus to disseminate their honest reviews/feedback to the consumers and always specify if they are indulging themselves into a paid association with us, as we don’t believe in misleading customers by stating something as “organic”, when it is not. Since we largely stick to the beauty arena for our influencer choices, this is something we also take into consideration during our shortlisting. So, if there is a particular communication agenda that we want to drive, we choose influencers that best fit that content style. Apart from that, if we are doing a macro level campaign, in which we are involving influencers from other categories as well, such as comedians, then we would obviously allow them the agency to present content their own way.
How has #ThePlumHoliyaySale2020 stood out as opposed to your other campaigns?
This campaign has been unique for us because our focus was on building a property that we will be using recurringly over the coming years, as an annual tradition during the month of December. So, the idea was to spread awareness and drive recognition towards the annual event of the #ThePlumHoliyaySale2020, rather than a one-time campaign
What other activities apart from influencer marketing did you adopt into this campaign?
It was a full-fledged campaign for our annual sale, so we adopted an arsenal of digital tools - AR filters, giveaways, a lot of content on social media pages, and the mainstream methods of digital paid mediums - to drive digital traffic and digital conversions.
What is a recent trend in Influencer Marketing that you think is here to stay?
What I believe is here to stay is more of a consumer trend, which is that consumers nowadays are very well of their surroundings, and what they are looking for is more and more real content, and that’s what brands need to orient themselves towards. What they are looking for is genuine content, rather extremely sponsored content, and direct product clubs. People are now seeking information from the digital space, so anything that you do to add value to that, you’ve gotten hold of. So, it is this transition in consumer psyche that is definitely here to stay.
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