Avon's Mark Brand Uses Social Media to Promote Grass-Roots Sales

The Avon brand is the archetype of traditional grass-roots marketing. And according to a recent article in the New York Times, Avon has been expanding their grass-roots business model to the youth and young adult market with their brand Mark. 


Avon's attempt to reach the youth market focuses on three key components:

• A celebrity spokeswoman, Lauren Conrad, former star of MTV's reality show "The Hills"
• Mark Representatives, i.e. the younger version of Avon Ladies
• A "Social Beauty" campaign to strengthen the brand and promote representatives through Facebook, blogs, an iPhone application, and other social media tools

According to Annemarie Frank, director of digital media and strategic alliance of Mark at Avon, “Mark Girls can advertise their ability to sell products right on their Facebook profiles, and the widget functionality of Mark’s e-shop enables us to drop the shop into other places to give the brand a presence wherever people hang out online."

Individual representatives are encouraged to get creative with their individual campaigns. Last fall, Mark Rewards Program advertised a contest for all-expense-paid trips to the Sundance Film Festival for the two highest-selling Mark Girls. One representative, Hannah Parish, created a Facebook event, “Send Hannah to Sundance,” and invited 600 people in her network to join, as part of her strategy. She sold $6,000 worth of products and won the contest.

Mark's social media strategy works well because it is consistent with the company's overall strategy. Additionally, Mark does a great job of giving its representatives both tools and incentives, and then gets out of the way. It trusts that Mark Girls to promote the brand in an effective way that resonates with their local communities while also providing a larger framework and message. I think it is a great model that other large corporations, not only direct selling companies, could learn from.

Seventeen Beauty Smarties

Seventeen recently elicited the help of 10 teenage beauty experts. The girls, all in their teens or early twenties, post their makeup tips on YouTube. Seventeen enlisted the girls for their Beauty Smarties series, which featured step by step tips in their August issue, as well as how-to videos on Seventeen's website. Seventeen did a great job of selecting girls who not only have varied tastes but also different ethnic backgrounds, ensuring that all readers will have makeup tips that work for them.

"The great thing about real girl experts is that they’re not afraid to experiment — they’ll try trendy new looks and products without any ulterior motives, and when they give you beauty advice you know it’s coming from a real and authentic place. I also think the similarity in age and getting advice from someone who is going through similar experiences is always a plus-- our Beauty Smarties are still living our readers’ lives," said Yesenia Almonte, Beauty Director at Seventeen magazine.

Check out their photo shoot, below:

Modelinia: Fashion, Beauty and Lifestyle Tips from Models

After attending the Metropolitan Museum's Model as Muse exhibit, I decided to check out Modelinia for fashion and beauty advice to add some glamour to my look.

Modelinia is rich in video content from the sources themselves. The Beauty Secrets features first person interviews with makeup and skincare tips for every look, from punk rocker Agyness Deyn to girl next door Miranda Kerr. The Fashion section offers style advice for women on every budget; they showcase runway styles but also overall trends. There was even a Shopping Challenge that gave a model $60 and 10 minutes to put together an outfit. Modelinia also features behind-the-scenes footage, model blogs, slide shows, and access to the lesser known aspects of models' lives. The site provides fun interviews with models about their personal lives and charitable works.

As a marketer, I was particularly interested in the clever, unintrusive advertising. Although it's hard to tell if the product placement in the videos was sponsored, the beauty section certainly provided endless opportunities. The ample focus on Victoria's Secret models, many of whom were interviewed in Victoria's Secret stores, showcased an easy but subtle way to promote an advertiser without overdoing it. Even the pre-roll video ads from Maybeline were kept short.

Overall, Modelinia provides engaging content in a way that seems fresh. Given how unoriginal the initial idea was- using models to promote fashion and beauty trends- that is no small feat. Fashion magazines should take cues from Modelinia for their websites.