Undressing a Makeup Success

By Sonya Winterbotham, Wizard of Ads Associate (Australia)

I hadn’t seen women so crazed to throw money at something since Manpower toured… Hundreds of dollars leapt over the counter in an effort to snatch one brand… one very cleverly marketed makeup brand… Napoleon Pedis.

And it wasn’t even on sale.

A success story like this always makes me curious… how’d he do it?  The two hours I spent at the launch of their latest point of sale outlet gave me my answer.  A quality product being very intelligently marketed.

Ok… not exactly the mind blowing answer you were hoping for… But his marketing strategy got me spending $170 on my first encounter with the product.  So let’s break it down.

Packaging:-  The first big difference I noticed with NP was when I started reading the product packaging.  Ever done it?  You should.  I compared NP with two other leading brands – the competitors packaging contained lines like “looks and feels fresh all day”, “moisture balanced, oil free formula”.  NP’s packaging said snore bore to that let’s have fun and put you up in lights with lines coming to life like:- “not to prime is a crime” “get (even more) gorgeous” “your skin appears beautifully bright… up, up, up and away”.  It actually sounded like someone enjoyed writing it. 

But what if you own a business not a product?  Well aren’t your staff part of your product, think for a minute – how are they packaged?  

Language:-  Napoleon Perdis is makeup… so it’s a very visual product… but through a brand vocabulary created for presentations they could have sold it to me with my eyes closed.  Our presenter spoke metaphorically with a list of words that melted every woman in the room.  She made NP a fashion brand and an artistic craft… Referring to products as “accessories” for your clothes… or layers of colour used in a painting.  And they name their products the same way – so you end up with “camera finish” powder, “china doll” foundation, “mosaics” and “primers”.  Getting the picture?  It’s hard not to.  And the beauty of it is every brand ambassador is selling in the same language – sounds likes repetition to me. 

Here’s an exercise - Ask your staff what words they associated with your business… If you get mixed answers your internal branding needs work.

Brand protection:-  If you want to stock and sell the NP brand… you’ve got to pass the test.  Napoleon Perdis has a minimum “buy in” to stock the product.  There needs to be certain floor space, certain aesthetics, a Napoleon Perdis counter in Napoleon Perdis colours and Napoleon Perdis trained staff.  It’s basically protection so that this brand is represented in a similar fashion in every store.  Sounds like consistency.

Brand association:-  Napoleon Perdis doesn’t sit on the sidelines waiting for publicity to show up on the doorstep.  He’s appeared on Australia’s Next Top Model, he’s created his own reality tv show, he’s on youtube, myspace… and within less than 10 years since it’s inception, Napoleon Perdis makeup is THE makeup brand now associated with events like The Emmy’s.  

It appears that while the giants in their white lab coats and secret ingredients were sleeping, along came a colourful little Aussie… who’s proved through clever marketing he’s worth the big bucks… and women of the world agree.

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