Target Markets of Estée Lauder and MAC Cosmetics

If you are not a female, probably you wouldn’t be aware that Estée Lauder and MAC Cosmetics are 2 of the most famous cosmetics manufacturers in the world. Being a crucial part of Estée Lauder Companies they have been offering a great selection of quality products to their customers since the last century and have been up-to-date with the trends the whole time. Today these companies hold a net worth of more than a billion dollars and undoubtedly one of the main factors behind their huge success is their marketing strategies. As you already guessed, in this blog post I’m going to speak about the target markets of Estée Lauder and MAC Cosmetics and try to understand the individuals who play a huge role in the sales volumes of these 2 giants. 

Our first stop is going to be Estée Lauder, the flagship brand of Estée Lauder Companies.

The company was founded in 1946 in New York by Estée Lauder, who was one of the first female entrepreneurs in history. Since then, the brand has been flourishing by creating innovative and high-performance make-up products that have been loved by millions of consumers all around the world. Today, the company’s products are sold in more than 150 countries.  

For such a huge company like Estée Lauder, surely there are a big number of target markets.

In this section, we’re going to specify a segment that the company has identified as one of its main ones and we’ll try to get some insights about it. For that reason, I’m going to start by discussing a holiday commercial of Estée Lauder, starring popular supermodels. 

The commercial is filmed in a Casino and displays 4 divas dancing and playing casino surrounded by men with suits. All the girls are dressed in red and have a kind of unconstrained behavior which is expressed by laying on the game table or by throwing away the casino coins.

Their facial expressions reveal their high level of self-confidence and from their movements you can notice their “do whatever you want” lifestyle attitude. From these behavior traits we can state that the target segment we’ve been looking for is Peacocks.

Who are Peacocks?

Lifestyle and Values of target audience, Peacocks.

Peacocks are self-focused young people. They like to be in the center of the attention and this trait can be easily noticed also from the places they visit, the clothes they wear, or the topics they like to talk about. Male Peacocks have certain macho values, and in the case of female Peacocks, diva behavior is easy to notice.

They aim to get to the top of their careers and have a “no give up” attitude. They think that if one fails, he/she should keep trying and not give up. A key motivation for their desire of being at the top is the benefit of getting all the status and recognition of a successful person. 

Most of them have mid to high-level education. For them, it is important to always learn new things and be up-to-date which is a key factor in their desire of standing out in the crowd.  Peacocks have a huge number of friends, but most of them are not perceived as true or deep friends buy them, as the role of these friends is more of reinforcing their insecurity.

Even though they may have other Peacock friends, sometimes they don’t tolerate them because of their desire to be the only dominant in their groups. 

Sometimes they are in a serious relationship, but most of the time they try to not go deeper in these romances. They feel uncomfortable and consider themselves weak when they become too personal and emotional and not going too deep is perceived as a safe level by them. 

Shopping behaviors of Peacock segment.

Due to their desire for attention, shopping has a huge role in their lives. They aim to get flashy clothes with eye-catchy designs and colors. Most of them think that well-known brands are better, therefore they generally go after those brands. 

They prefer quality over quantity, as they state they shop for only good quality. However, most of them do not have a high income, therefore they often try to find a good deal when they can get their desired product at a lower and affordable price. 

When they find a brand that satisfies their needs they stick to it. They follow fashion and their choices are often affected by trends. There may be some specific brands that they follow loyally over a period of time, but generally they are not considered very loyal customers. 

Interesting tips about Peacocks.

• Peacocks have an active social life. Clubbing and going to the cinema are the activities that they do the most during the weekends. They also like going to bars and restaurants and are considered above average attenders. 
• A big attraction for them is getting a VIP membership for the places they like to go to. This way their need for being noticeable and visible is filled.
• While they have an active social life, they still make it to family gatherings. They try to maintain traditional values, especially when it’s related to the family. They always try to not miss the family gathering as they may party during the whole Saturday night but will make it to Sunday family lunch on time.
• Peacocks use TV more often compared to the other segments. It’s considered one of the main sources for their information. On the other hand, the Internet is more of a source for them to keep up with friends and stay up-to-date about things going on around them.

16 Personalities (Which one is for your business?)

Estée Lauder targets Peacocks in their marketing campaigns. Before any marketing activity, companies build a persona that identifies their perfect customer and develop marketing campaigns based on that. This strategy helps in the accurate structuring of a campaign so that it touches sensitive points of customers and brings to connection with the brand. 

Peacocks demonstrate some key characteristics which make them easily recognizable.

• Are self-focused and have a tendency of standing out in a crowd – perfect for a typical client of Estée Lauder. 
• Money is of important value and a symbol of success.
• Pay a lot of attention to their looks, as it adds to building their personality in the eyes of others.

Peacocks are the main target for Estée Lauder, and the spectrum of customer segments includes other personalities suited to different brands. You can find more on this in our book 16 Personalities, which includes much more on types of clients than you can imagine. The book describes in detail different target segments with different behavior, preferences, values, and attitudes, which can help in shaping an on-point marketing strategy.

To conclude this topic I would like to share some interesting facts about Estée Lauder.

1. The first-ever serum is created by Estée Lauder. In 1982, Estée Lauder released their Night Repair, which made a huge revolution in the cosmetics industry. A key factor behind the success of this product is that she was one of the first people to understand the ability of the skin to repair during the night when with the help of the serum, the skin would look fresh in the morning. 
2. She used to meet all the prospective job applicants face to face. Yes, she even managed to find time for that! Estée Lauder wanted to know every employee and the best way for it was to see and communicate with all of them face to face. 
3. She was against selling customers too many products. Surprised? Yes, she believed that it’s wrong to sell customers things that they don’t need. By giving huge importance to the volumes of sales, she at the same time thought that to be ideally beautiful one needs only a few products and less than 3 minutes of usage of them during mornings and evenings. 

Our next stop is M-A-C Cosmetics and their targetting tactics. 

Found in 1984, the company offers the MAC makeup line that customers just fall in love with. One of the many reasons that make this company’s products unique is that MAC Cosmetics was one of the first brands that had a variety of skin tones. These skin tones had 30-40 shades per range of foundations. 

Since 1998, the company is part of EstéeLauder Companies and has over 1000 brands all around the world. The products of this brand are designed for people of all races, sexes, and ages. Their products are popular especially among the actors and actresses because it helps them look more charming on the screen.

The company has some good experience with celebrity endorsement. Some even state that it was one of the main reasons behind the company’s success. The commercials involved famous celebrities such as Rihanna, Ariana Grande, Lady Gaga, etc. 

Of course, collaborating with such popular artists would have a vast impact on the sales volumes of the company, especially when the biggest part of MAC target segments include Millennials and Generation X ranging from college students to working people. 

So among this big variety of target markets of MAC, there is this one segment that the company puts the most emphasis on.

To identify the segment, I’ll start by discussing one of their most famous commercials starring Ariana Grande. 

This commercial represents the lipstick called VIVA GLAM. While watching it, I assume that the first thing that caught your eye is the dominance of pink color in this commercial. The walls, the dress and hairs of hers and even some little details are all in pink which is a color that represents love, harmony, affection, and friendship.

Of course, a celebrity that would suit the most to this kind of commercial is Ariana Grande, a charming and cute girl, enjoying time in her own way. These are some characteristics that mostly attract the female sex of a segment called Chardonnays.

Who are Chardonnays?

Lifestyle and Values of target audience of Chardonnays.

Chardonnays are young people, aged between 18 and 30.  Generally easy-going and “yes oriented” people who are very lively, optimistic, and positive. A key driver in their lives is sharing moments with friends and relatives and making special memories. Most of their positivity comes from their naïve optimism, while their outlook on life is not as practical as they believe it is.

They like to look attractive to the opposite sex, thus they pay a lot of attention to their looks and are into fashion. These kinds of people may spend like an hour getting ready in front of the mirror but in the end it will make everyone think that they spent a couple of minutes for their look.

Very sociable and outgoing people who have large groups of friends and love hanging out with them very often. Meeting new people and doing new stuff fills up their social needs even more. This is one of the reasons that their social circle includes people from different backgrounds and lifestyles.

Traveling and exploring other cultures is something they adore. While traveling, they exchange cultures, make new foreign friends explore new places, go to big clubs and festivals. These are kinds of things that add a lot of colors to their lives and fulfill their social needs.

Attitude to Shopping and Advertising:

Due to their desire of looking good, shopping is a crucial element in their lifestyles. Most of them are up to date with new trends in fashion. They are open to paying a huge amount of money to a good and sometimes may even save some money their favorite products.

Chardonnays are kind of people that prefer quality over quantity. Mostly they may pay to get one cloth they like a lot with the same money, instead of 2 same types of clothes that they like in a moderate amount. Even though they like being trendy and stylish, big and flashy logos don’t attract them much and sometimes even considered low class or low taste by them.

Advertisements that are engaging, entertaining, and have some aspirational characters are the ones that most likely would attract them. Yes, you are thinking what I’m thinking right now, in our case the aspirational character is Ariana Grande.

Some interesting facts about Chardonnays.

• Chardonnays love to hang out and chill in nature. They like sunny weather and doing a picnic under the sun accompanied by a friendly environment. However, their love for nature is limited only by pleasure as they are not much interested in environmental issues. 
• Their hobbies are a reflection of their energetic personality. Going to nightclubs and social events decorate their evenings in the best possible way. They spend a lot of time preparing these evenings, as they like being noticed in public places for their elegance and unique style. 
• They do not spend much time with family, but always try to not miss the family gatherings. Family for them is a place where they can rest form their active social life. They appreciate family values and always try to be there for their family and sometimes make up for not spending sufficient time with them. 
• The Internet is a huge part of their lives. Of course, for social people like them, there was no way for the smaller role of the Internet. They are active users of Facebook and Instagram and love to post stories about their unique lifestyle. Meeting new people, is another incentive for them to use the internet, and Tinder is one of the many ways that help them to do so. 

For the end of this topic again I would love to share some facts that probably you haven’t heard before.

1. The first spokesperson of Viva Glam was American drag queen RuPaul: Yes, a pretty distinctive approach by MAC cosmetics when every other similar company chose supermodels to represent their products. The tagline of the campaign was “We won’t look down on you, and we won’t intimidate you, because we know what it was like to be picked on by the cool kids. And guess what? Now we’re the cool kids.” A pretty awesome tagline, isn’t it?
2. Madonna was the reason behind one of MAC’s big breaks. Surely, most of the staff of M.A.C. were thankful to the pop queen for bringing popularity to their company during the ’80s. In the late 80’s Madonna wore one of their lipsticks in a photoshoot, and the latter is history.
3. Most of Natalie Portman’s make-up in Academy Award winner Back Swan was MAC. Well, maybe using MAC’s products also brings good luck to the celebrities. This 2010 released movie’s make-up artist Judy Chin mostly used MAC’s products to do charming Natalie Portman’s make-up, which as you know resulted in a huge success. 
4. MAC offers a special program for makeup artists: Professional makeup artists sign up for M.A.C.’s membership programs where they get a 40% discount for M.A.C.’s products. The annual cost of this program is $35. Besides discounts, they get the opportunity to visit masterclasses and events organized by M.A.C.

There are a lot of companies who fail in their strategies of targeting the right markets, but as you see neither Estée Lauder nor M.A.C. Cosmetics are one of them. Among many factors behind their success, identification of the right target segments had a huge part. Surely, in the future these companies will continue their path with their unique ways and will make their consumer’s lives even more satisfying. Thank you for reading our blog post. For more similar stuff check out our main page!