Translating Trends to Customers

It is my favorite time of the year! Not only are new fashion and beauty products available in stores, but getting a first-hand peek at 2014 trends sparks my creativity and kicks off my strategic planning process for translating trends for the next year. Every season we remind ourselves of who our customers are and plan for presenting trends to them, while never forgetting what their core values are.

We’re infiltrated by technology in our daily lives; trends move quickly and product-launch news flashes across the screens of our tablets and smartphones—this is the new norm. As merchants and marketers, we must always keep the customers’ needs top of mind. Trends impact our daily lives and how we translate them to our customers will determine our success. It is important when analyzing trends that we look beyond our category trends and reference global consumer trends, and how they affect our lives. By gaining insight into your customers’ shopping and purchasing habits, you gain knowledge on what she wants or does not want, what she loves about your brand and why she is a follower. In return, she expects you to understand her needs and deliver what she asks for. Gaining insight through sales data and consumer metrics is fine. However, having direct interaction with your customer through product reviews or posts on Facebook allows you to take a deeper dive into her more personal side. Here, she can tell you about her shopping experiences with other brands and different shopping destinations. She will talk about your product, and ultimately she will tell you what she is looking for. If your customer is fashion conscious, she may ask you what shade of lipstick is going to be hot or what would be the best shade to wear with her new burgundy dress. By gathering this information, you can access her personal preferences, what she needs and what she will purchase from you.

Translating trends is much easier than it was even a few years ago. Anybody can read about trends. Bloggers, as well as reporters, are at every fashion show working behind the scenes to bring the big trends to you as soon as they spot them. With the use of a smartphone, tablet, smart TV or computer, the blogger can feed the information to you on the social network. The customer is an expert with access to an insider at their fingertips. Once you spot the new technology, the new color or new hairstyle, you can translate it into a package, an eye shadow or nail color. Once you have decided, leverage the most appropriate marketing avenues that can be used to assist the customer in understanding and adopting a trend. It is critical to be able to sell the trend through the digital age without any complications. Create an easy how-to instructional video to post on your web page as well as social media sites. Let your customer experience your seasonal collection by posting beautiful lifestyle product photos on your Instagram or Pinterest page, or send alerts to her phone so she knows the minute you launch your new product. Most important, encourage the customer to share her experience with your product through reviews and testimonials.

The key is to always keep your customer informed so that she truly feels like she is part of the club, and demonstrate that you listen to her needs by encouraging a two-way flow of communication between her and the brand.

It is fair to state that most companies start with a set of core values. The global marketplace may evolve and change, but the backbone of the company stays the same, which is also true for your customers; they have core values and beliefs in place that you can tap into. First, they have a sense of trust that your guidance will positively assist them with their buying decision. The customer has an emotional connection as well. When she ditches her old face cream for the newsworthy, supercharged-change-your-life cream, she wants to feel good about the purchase. Perhaps the cream will solve a beauty dilemma, and make her feel new again.

Trends influence our lives every day. As we grow our beauty businesses it is important to be relevant, but keep it simple and do not forget your customers’ core values and how your success came to be with them. The core values are simple—she trusts you to solve her beauty dilemma and to make her feel beautiful on the inside and out. •

About the Author

With over 20 years of experience in the television shopping industry, Donna Tarantino is currently vice president of beauty and style for Risdall Consumer Direct. She was previously ShopNBC’s director of beauty, health and fitness, and has helped conceive, develop and transform numerous beauty brands into household names, including Bare Escentuals, Smashbox Cosmetics, Philosophy, Too Faced Cosmetics, Peter Coppola Haircare, Skinn Cosmetics, Nick Chavez Haircare and more.